The production of fictions within the design field are not disinterested speculations about distant futures, but intentional political actions in the present time. Fictions can entertain as much as cause social friction. This article discusses three sources of design fictions: a global information technology company; an art school in the UK; and a design institute in Brazil. By contrasting the three cases in light of the philosophical work of Á lvaro Vieira Pinto, this article deconstructs the ideology of the future-futurology-and proposes acting in the present-handiness-to sketch an ideology of liberation. Instead of supporting the status quo, such ideology could inspire collective action for change. The practices from the three aforementioned sources are discussed to lay the foundations for such ideology of liberation in design fictions.

PurposeThis research theorizes the condition of human beings reduced to being users (and only users) in human-computer interaction (HCI), a condition that favors them becoming objects or targets of commercial dark patterns, racialized profiling algorithms, generalized surveillance, gendered interfaces and heteromation.Design/methodology/approachThe reconceptualization of the users’ condition is done by confronting HCI theories on users with a dialectical-existential perspective over human ontology. The research is presented as a conceptual paper that includes analyzing and revising those theories to develop a conceptual framework for the user oppression in HCI.FindingsMost HCI theories contribute to the user oppression with explicit or implicit ontological statements that denies their becoming-more or the possibility of users developing their handiness to the full human potential. Put together, these statements constitute an ideology called userism.Social implicationsHCI needs to acknowledge its role in structuring oppression not just in sexism, racism, classism and ableism, but also the specific relation that pertains to HCI: userism. Similar to other fields, acknowledging oppression is the first step toward liberating from oppression.Originality/valueThe user is an existential condition for HCI theories, yet few theories can explain in depth how this condition affects human development. From the dialectical-existential perspective, the user condition can be dehumanizing. Computers may intensify existing oppressions through esthetic interactions but these interactions can be subverted for liberation.

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