The Core77 Design Awards Speculative Design category features future-oriented projects, whether physically or digitally produced, designed for the purpose of cultural commentary, intervention, or exploration, or created as speculative design for a client or educational institution. Examples include alternative structures, device prototypes for social needs, hypothetical wearable implants.Jury lead Wang and designer Huang's process for the 2024 DataWagashi Speculative Category winner.Tiange Wang is a dreamer grounded in reality. The Senior Software Designer with IDEO calls herself a "designer-developer hybrid who enjoys designing novel experiential futures as much as bringing them to life." She is motivated by building creative and playful solutions to life's inconveniences that also "push the boundaries" of how humans connect with technology and nature. Her work integrates interaction design, software prototyping, storytelling, and system thinking into a cohesive design process that has addressed topics ranging from emerging technologies to climate change and holistic wellbeing.At IDEO, Tiange and her teams guide clients across the technology, health, climate, media, and consumer products industries, striving to create product experiences that are "human-centered, planet-conscious, data-informed, and GenAI-enabled" across web, mobile, and spatial computing platforms. The award-winning designer's work has been featured at SXSW, SIGGRAPH, CHI, and the MIT Museum, in addition to several prominent universities and in Fast Company, Dezeen, and more. Tiange holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with High Honors from the University of California, Berkeley.In the world of design, Tiange cautions against "the tendency to invent problems that don't truly exist or to over-invest in use cases detached from reality." She pushes for design that is grounded in real problems, user needs, or societal value. "In other words, [not] designing for the sake of design." She also encourages designers to focus on creating "timeless" work that resonates today but will also remain "relevant and impactful as the world evolves." 2024 Speculative Category winner, DataWagashi from VLab.The 2024 winner in the Core77 Design Awards Speculative Design category was VLab (Tiange Wang and I-yang Huang) for DataWagashi. This creation aimed to make climate data tangible, accessible, and entertaining by using a medium inspired by the traditional Japanese confectionary art of Wagashi. DataWagashi enhanced the vocabulary of data communication by employing the senses of taste, smell, touch, texture, and physical interaction. If you've been dreaming of experiential futures, the Core77 Design Awards might be in your future share your Speculative Design visions with our jurors and explore the possibilities.Enter your work in the Core77 Design Awards today.