This article proposes a model of social design inquiry directed toward shaping shared societal goals. Drawing on Dewey and McKeon, the approach is based on means-end evaluation and communication in plurality. This presents a response to the double challenge of dealing with conflicting aspirations for the future and the current need to balance differences in perspectives. The social design inquiry model provides the basis for meliorism in design insofar as it offers a way of working through these challenges by making use of imagination and deliberation.