Designing With the Unknown: A Speculative Co-creation Workshop on Future Human-Robot Interaction in Space Station

As public engagement becomes essential in shaping technological futures, supporting non- experts to envision complex, distant scenarios poses a critical challenge for participatory design. This study explores this issue through a co-creation workshop focused on how designers without domain knowledge conceptualize Human-Robot Interaction for a future space station. Our analysis reveals that participants relied on "experience anchoring" and narrative construction to navigate uncertainty, exhibiting a strong "affective turn" that prioritizes socio-emotional connectionwhile"black-boxing"keytechnologiesandsimplifying systemic complexity. This research contributes a rich empirical diagnosis of this process, revealing a critical gap between non-expert visions and technical realities. It calls for a new agenda in design research focused on developing speculative tools and collaborative interfaces tobridge this divide and empower public participation in shaping more humanistic technological futures.