*It needs to be said. Maybe design fictions really can be pernicious, in which case it would be good to know when they should be avoided.
*Most design fictions aren't created by "companies." There's a whole lot of imaginative stuff that companies are keen to avoid.
http://daringfireball.net/2011/11/companies_that_publish_concept_videos
(...)
" “Knowledge Navigator” encapsulates everything that was wrong with Apple in 1987. Their coolest products were imaginary futuristic bullshit. The mindset and priorities of Apple’s executive leadership in 1987 led the company to lose what was then an enormous usability and user experience lead over the rest of the industry, and eventually drove the company to the precipice of bankruptcy. That 1987 Apple was a broken company is so painfully obvious from today’s vantage point that I didn’t think it needed to be mentioned.
" “Knowledge Navigator” didn’t help Apple in any way. Apple never made such a product. It didn’t bring Siri to us any sooner than if that video had never been made. It only served to distract from and diminish Apple’s then-current actual products.
" “We’re like Apple in 1987” is not a badge of honor — it’s a flashing red warning light.
"Apple today, from a strategic and operational perspective, is nothing like Apple of 1987. Apple today would never release to the public a concept video speculating on what sort of products they might be making 10 or 20 years from now. The attention of the public and the media is a rare and precious commodity. Apple today uses what attention it gets to focus on actual new products, ones that you can go out and actually buy and use.
"Apple today is a company that, several times a year, every year, releases new products that millions of people literally line up to buy the first day they’re available. Apple in 1987 was a company that began work on the Newton, a product that nobody ever had to wait in line to buy. The Newton was a brilliant design and full of terrific industry-leading ideas. And it struck the market like a wet match. (...)
"Putting this “Future Visions” video in public squanders attention that Microsoft could otherwise have focused on its current and imminent new products — like Windows Phone. Take a new iPhone 4S and a Windows Phone 7.5 device back in time 20 years and they might seem equally impressive to a pair of 1991 eyes. But one of them sold more in a weekend than the other does in an entire financial quarter. Is not Windows Phone scarily similar to the Newton? Innovative design, much to praise — and but striking the market like a wet match?"
(...)
"Sun went out of business, and AT&T never accomplished anything in their concept video. Not a damn thing.
"I’m not arguing that making concept videos directly leads to a lack of traction in the current market. I’m arguing that making concept videos is a sign of a company that has a lack of institutional focus on the present and near-present. Can you imagine a sports team in the midst of a present-day losing season that makes a video imagining a future championship 10 years out?
"The designs in these concept videos are free from real-world constraints — technical, logical, fiscal. Dealing with constraints is what real design is all about. Institutional attention on the present day — on getting innovative industry-leading products out the door and creating consumer demand for them — requires relentless company-wide focus...."
