Dark design briefs: A court case of open designs on the dark web and the misuse of designs

This paper presents an experimental piece of design fiction in the form of an imagined future court case between the police and a young designer. The designer is in court after responding to a ‘dark brief’, a design brief found on the dark web. The designer’s design solutions were a series of drones to be used by protestors to organise and enhance the efficiency and experience of their protest/civil disobedience. Whilst the initial designs used passive and mischievous design features to respond to the brief, the design files were uploaded to an opensource site where they were subsequently altered by nefarious individuals and used in criminal activity. The hope behind the presentation of this fictitious situation is that the reader will agonise over whether the designer has conducted design for evil and, ultimately, if that person should go to prison.