Mission from Mars

 Mission from Mars is used for requirements gathering by providing thoughts and ideas to “Martians” who do not understand a particular part of “Earth culture.”

Mission from Mars is a Fictional Inquiry technique. This is a specific example of a fictional shared narrative that might work in many situations for eliciting design requirements. The overall narrative is that aliens have come from Mars and are asking the co-designers to explain some part of human life to them.

• Supplies: Video cameras or another way to record and share videos in real time (such as a videoconferencing system like Zoom), screens, and at least two rooms.
• Preparation: Set up the two rooms so that the Martians are in one room and the rest of the design team are in another. Each room should have a set up so that communication is possible from one room to another. This could be accomplished through video cameras and screens, or a simple videoconferencing software such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

• Before sessions, adult co-designers will need to determine what questions the Martians might ask co-designers if they come to earth. These questions should seek to uncover requirements that co-designers might have in terms of the creation of a particular new technology. You may be looking to learn about context, attitudes, use of existing systems, social relations around technology, and similar questions. 
• Co-designers are contacted by Martians who they can only see through means such as video cameras and monitors or teleconferencing interfaces. The Martian(s) should establish a problem – something they want the co-designers to explain or solve for them. You can dramatize this by having the Martians speak a different language that needs to be translated or by including visuals of their spaceship (perhaps a Zoom background of space).
• The Martians should then give the prompt – for example, perhaps you will be creating a new technology to share stories and are interested in norms and mores around story sharing. The Martians could ask the groups to explain stories and how they are shared to them.
• Small groups of co-designers then prepare a presentation for the Martians. They can work together to come up with what they believe is important to share with the Martians about the topic at hand.
• Groups each then present to the Martians, with the Martians still in the other room. The benefit of a group such as Martians is that they may have no idea about Earth customs, and can ask very basic questions. These can help give designers additional insights into requirements.

Dindler, C. & Iversen, O. (2007). Fictional Inquiry: Design collaboration in a shared narrative space. CoDesign, 212 – 234.

Dindler, C., Eriksson, E., Iversen, O., Lykke-Ilesen, A., & Ludvigsen, M. (2005). Mission from Mars: A method for exploring user requirements for children in a narrative space. Interaction Design and Children 2005, 40 – 47.

Fails, J.A., Guha, M.L., & Druin, A. (2013). Methods and Techniques for Involving Children in the Design of New Technology for Children. Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction 6(2).