What Dreams Do Youth Have for 2050?
Imagine an ideal future of: Social Media, Play, or Education in 2050, and dream and make something that represents it!​
Team: Collaborated with a team of four design researchers under the guidance of Prof. Liz Sanders
My Role:
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Created and designed the Priority Map and Future Map
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Produced the story, visuals, and graphics for the video
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Analyzed findings from both workshops
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Collaborated across all phases of the project
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Course: Co-design Studio
Semester: SP 2025
Tools & Methods: Co-design, Surveys, Qualitative Analysis, Illustrator, Miro (Collaboration & Ideation), Generative AI
We designed two co-design workshops to engage youth in envisioning the future, specifically the year 2050, through a collaborative and creative co-design process. To make this process accessible and engaging for the young participants, we selected three thematic areas to guide ideation and discussion: Play, Social Media, and Education. These themes were chosen deliberately to resonate with the interests and experiences of the students, encouraging them to generate innovative ideas and dream boldly about the future.
Workshop 1: Choose a theme and get in the mindset of the future
​Workshop 2: To imagine the future of 2050 by creating​
Workshop 1: Following the icebreaker, we presented a PowerPoint to outline the workshop's agenda and goals. This provided participants with a clear understanding of the co-design process and the objectives of envisioning the future through the lenses of Play, Social Media, and Education.
1. Time Capsule
A 15-minute “Time Capsule” journaling activity captured students' initial thoughts about the themes. Their responses were shared for discussion and revisited at the end of the second workshop to reflect on how their ideas evolved.
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What they said:
2. Priority Circle Map
The “Priority Circle Map” was an interactive activity where students used stickers to show their interest in different themes, helping the group collectively select a theme for the co-design workshop. By the end of the activity, participants chose Education as the theme they wanted to envision for the future.
3. Future Map
Students first discussed their current experiences for Education, identifying benefits and challenges to build a shared understanding of the present. They then took part in the “Future Map” activity, using question cards to imagine how Education might evolve over 1, 5, and 25 years.
Question Card Design:
We designed two sets of question cards for the selected theme: Future Things and Future Experiences, prompting students to imagine the theme's development across three time horizons, next year, five years from now, and 2050. The questions for the Education theme are provided below.
Guided by questions about future things and experiences, participants explored both tangible innovations and changes in learning practices. The session concluded with reflections on their visions and aspirations, which were documented to inform the next stage of the design process.
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Key Observations
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Students selected "Education" as a topic because they:
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Thought ”Play" was too broad ​
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”Education" was the most important topic that they did not have agency in, compared to the other topics​
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Students had many negative thoughts and complaints about education in the current time. ​
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​Had to really push the dreaming of the participants to be more imaginative.
Workshop 2: After participants responses by the end of the first workshop, we decided to design two parts for the second workshop; 1st part: Superpower activity​, and 2nd part: Creation​. Following on the results of the first workshop which were around schools, we found that participants might need the materials to mock up the overlooking of the schools in the future, so we provided different sort of material for co-designing.
1. Superpower Activity
More imaginative future thinking by ideating a superpower to change Education​. This activity includes three questions on the back:
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If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
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What parts of Education will you want to change?
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How will you use your superpower to change these parts of education I 2050? Write or draw. (Guidance: Think what, when, where and why.)
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2. Artifact Creation
Superhero Teams: Using and mixing their superpowers, make something for an ideal future​.
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AI Interpretation of concepts
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Rockets boosters
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Teleportation engines
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Comfortable seating and environment
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AI Interpretation of concepts
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A flying classroom moves through various learning experiences in space.
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Students can leave the classroom and use vehicles to travel easily through the experience.
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The learning space includes land, sea, and space explorations.
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Teleportation features make it possible to move between these spaces.
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AI Interpretation of concepts
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Open walls and large windows
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Lots of natural light in class
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Colorful and interesting seating system
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AI Interpretation of concepts
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Race truck school space.
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Students travel in their race cars to class.
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Classes are big screens on the track.
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Students learn and have fun at the same time.
Key Observations
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Promoting Engagement ​
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Superpowers were individualized at the first session, but we grouped them to use ​
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superpowers together as a group for second session​
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The difference between boys and girls (gender) affected the group dynamics for creation​​
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Girls preferred puppets for presentation​​
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Teammates should be comfortable with each other​
Final Video