How I Prototyped an Alternative Future Climate with Design Fiction & GenAI
Using Everyday Interfaces to Make Climate Change Tangible
Climate change discussions are trapped in abstract data. While graphs and forecasts might inform policy, they rarely connect with everyday choices: what we wear, how we move through cities, how we feel. As an Experimental Practitioner at Heated Studio, I wanted to find a different path.
I wondered: What if people could interact with climate adaptation through an already-understood format? What if it looked like the product pages we scroll through daily? Desert Athleisure grew from this question, not as a concept project, but as something touchable and familiar.
Research and First Prototypes
My research focused on how clothing adapts to heat. Using Perplexity.AI, I explored everything from technical fabrics to traditional desert garments, trying to understand survival, comfort, and expression in hot environments.
Key insights emerged quickly: breathable fabrics are essential; cooling technologies already exist in performance wear; loose, ventilated silhouettes borrowed from traditional hot-climate clothing work best; color choice and UV protection matter deeply; and people want to maintain their identity while adapting.
Instead of creating abstract concept boards, I tested a different approach. I designed a speculative product and label, then placed it in a photo of an actual Decathlon store in Madrid, a “diegetic prototype” in a familiar world. This tested whether future scenarios could blend into reality rather than appear as fiction.
DESIGN TIP: Place fictional elements in real contexts rather than separate futures. When fiction doesn’t announce itself but quietly enters reality, people engage with it differently, through recognition, not disbelief.
Creating a Complete Experience
The successful store image led me to develop a full landing page with a distinct visual personality:
I used sun-faded colors, relaxed layouts, and bilingual content that reflected Madrid’s context. Products appeared in familiar urban scenes: morning commutes, evening walks, neighborhood gatherings, rather than isolated studio shots.
Working with AI-generated imagery taught me essential lessons worth sharing: First drafts rarely make the final cut. I generate multiple variations as “inspiration material” rather than finished assets. The technology struggles with corrections. Asking for changes to an existing image often produces wildly different results. I generated many options for this project and carefully selected those that supported the narrative.
The experience design went beyond visuals. The copy was crafted and refined using ChatGPT and Claude, iterating until I found that sweet spot between familiar product language and subtle strangeness. I recorded a voiceover with ElevenLabs to guide viewers through the page, then synchronized it with a simulated scroll using CapCut.
My field notebook shows how I planned this experience: timing each section, noting voice inflections, and mapping interactions. These analog sketches helped me structure the digital experience.
I designed sections that ground the products in authentic daily rhythms of urban life.
Products were presented in context rather than isolation, highlighting familiar textures alongside speculative features.
DESIGN TIP: Never settle for just the visual layer. The writing tone, interactive pacing, and sound design make future scenarios tangible and lived-in.
Cultural Grounding and Translation
As the project evolved, I became increasingly interested in place-based storytelling. Generic climate futures feel alienating, while specific ones feel possible.
The page naturally mixed Spanish and English, highlighting Mediterranean urban elements like ceramic tiles, shared plazas, and afternoon light. Phrases like “Field-Tested in the Hottest Urban Neighborhoods” suggested something already happening rather than speculative.
I designed the adaptation to feel like evolution, not transformation. The clothing kept recognizable silhouettes with subtle technical enhancements. People weren’t adopting new identities. They were maintaining their current lives with minor adjustments.
This approach works like a translation tool:
- It fits comfortably within interfaces that people already understand
- It transforms abstract climate concepts into tangible experiences
- It creates common ground for conversations across different disciplines
- It offers organizations a low-risk way to test adaptation concepts
DESIGN TIP: Anchor your climate fiction in specific places and cultures. The most effective futures aren’t generic but rooted in local reality: the streets, buildings, languages, and rhythms people already know.
From One Image to Tangible Futures
What started as a single composited photo became a complete digital experience, a scrollable climate future grounded in visual, cultural, and material reality.
The process taught me that speculative design isn’t about predicting what’s coming. It’s about framing possibilities in ways people can touch, explore, and feel. It’s about building situations that don’t require mental leaps but simply ask: What if this already existed? Would you notice? Would you care?
For the complete Desert Athleisure experience, visit heated.studio where you can watch the video walkthrough and download the full PDF.
