Fordlandia 2.0
Reimagining Ford’s innovation legacy through virtual experimentation.
When Ford asked, “What could the Metaverse mean for our drivers?” we decided to look beyond the hype. Rather than seeing the Metaverse as a trend, we saw it as an opportunity, a controlled world for limitless experimentation. Inspired by Henry Ford’s failed utopian city in the Amazon, Fordlandia 2.0 reframes that vision for the digital age: a safe place to test, learn, and create the future, today.
Client: Ford (concept project)
Role: Strategic Designer & Research Lead
Skills: Future visioning, speculative design, service strategy, stakeholder mapping, concept development, storytelling
Impact Proof Point:
I combined user motivations, trend foresight, and behavioural insights to create a speculative innovation platform that helps Ford experiment with future mobility in a safe, gamified virtual world.
Overview
Fordlandia 2.0 is a conceptual innovation platform that bridges physical and virtual worlds. It invites users to participate in gamified challenges that generate behavioural data for Ford’s research and design teams. In return, users experience a sense of play, progress, and contribution, turning everyday mobility into a form of co-creation.
This project explored how immersive technologies, gamification, and behavioural insights can fuel foresight and purposeful innovation within the automotive industry.
Fordlandia 2.0 app screens, where users take on mobility challenges, track progress, and connect their vehicles to the virtual world.
A detailed roadmap outlining Fordlandia 2.0’s evolution, connecting design, technology, and business strategy across time.
Mapping the Fordlandia 2.0 ecosystem: a circular value exchange between users, partners, and Ford.
Challenge
The brief asked: What could Metaverse and NFTs mean for Ford as enablers of valuable experiences for vehicle users?
We saw a deeper question: how might Ford experiment with future mobility scenarios without real-world risk?
The challenge was to transform speculative technology into a strategic innovation tool that creates user engagement and research value simultaneously.
“I downloaded the Fordlandia 2.0 app and connected it to my car, let the first challenge begin!”
– Geis, first user of Fordlandia 2.0
Approach
Through strategic foresight, trend research, and user interviews with gamers and mobility enthusiasts, we identified key motivational drivers: entertainment, escapism, and competition.
We then built a conceptual framework for a game ecosystem where these motivations align with Ford’s goals of learning, testing, and evolving mobility experiences.
Our design process was guided by speculative design methods and service blueprinting, creating a roadmap for Fordlandia 2.0 across three horizons: App, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality.
A simplified roadmap showing Fordlandia 2.0’s step-by-step evolution from early adoption to full integration.
Concept: Fordlandia 2.0
A multi-stage experience that evolves as technology and user readiness progress:
Horizon 1 – The App: The gateway to Fordlandia 2.0, where users complete challenges, collect data, and build digital driver avatars.
Horizon 2 – Virtual Reality: Immersive environments to test future mobility scenarios and behavioural responses to complex challenges.
Horizon 3 – Augmented Reality: Integration into real life, where virtual achievements and behaviours merge with the physical driving experience.
Each stage contributes to Ford’s research on sustainability, safety, and user engagement, while offering users personalized, purpose-driven play.
Example Challenges
Sustainability Challenge: Drivers test eco-driving behaviors such as maintaining steady speed or sharing rides.
City Pac-Man: Players navigate shared mobility scenarios, learning inclusive and cooperative transport behaviors.
No Entry!: A simulation of car-free city centers, exploring how urban life and transportation could evolve.
Fordlandia 2.0 – Create the Future, Today
A speculative vision film that brings Fordlandia 2.0 to life, a metaverse where play, purpose, and innovation meet. Through immersive challenges, Ford and its users explore new mobility behaviors and co-design sustainable futures together.
Fordlandia 2.0 evolves across three horizons, from mobile app to immersive VR and AR integration.
Outcome
Fordlandia 2.0 became a vision for data-driven, participatory innovation. It enables Ford to:
Experiment with emerging technologies safely and ethically.
Collect behavioural insights from gamified experiences.
Strengthen its brand purpose by turning users into contributors to a better mobility future.
The concept demonstrates how strategic design, speculative thinking, and gamification can transform the automotive industry’s approach to innovation.
Comparing traditional, simulated, and metaverse-based experimentation to reveal new possibilities for learning and innovation.
A connected ecosystem where Fordlandia 2.0 lives across devices, from smartphones to AR windshields and VR headsets.
Impact
By blending the real and virtual worlds, Fordlandia 2.0 reframes mobility as a shared experience between the company and its users. It challenges the boundaries of what design strategy can achieve, transforming drivers into active participants in shaping sustainable, human-centred futures.