THEBLENDING

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it's unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope"

Noam Chomsky

A perspective on how Mixed Reality technologies (when reaching the same level of ubiquity as the smart phone) will affect our lives…

As designers, what responsibilities should we consider when we finally get to take our creations out of the phone and place them back into the world again.

I have had a career exploring the relationship between ourselves, the world around us and the transformative way that digital technology enhances (or disrupts) everything it touches… I am a tech optimist but with a realistic cynicism.

I have an innate belief that we can maintain and even recharge our humanity, while still embracing all that technology throws at us.

The more time I spend working and thinking about applications for our tantalising augmented world, I am realising how much we may have unknowingly relinquished to our digital master (the smart phone).

If we can acknowledge and identify what we have lost and approach this next era of blended reality, through the lenses of equity and empathy… we may have the means to produce the next generation of products and spaces, that allow us to finally lift our heads back up and be fully present again, while still benefiting from the powerful advantages that digital technology brings to our lives.

We have an opportunity to plan for what we may gain...

but we should also take this opportunity to asses what we may lose.

With every product, device and service, we now have a digital companion. These oracles of knowledge and control have become omnipresent to our daily interactions and occupy the majority of our attention.

Our personal possessions were once tuned to fulfil our brains innate desire for sensory stimulus:

Subtle analogue noises, various texture, rich colours and even the smell, where all incorporated to deliver, not an inanimate consumable, but a way of relating and sharing our need to be part of a cultural identity.

The objects of desire that we once proudly displayed and used in our lives, have now been reduced to utilities… existing as gateways for their digital masters to enter our physical world… designed to deliver consumption, rather than experience. We seem to have forgotten the physical qualities that once represented part of our identities, enabling us to reflect how we want to feel and interact with each other and our environments.

Like our own lives, we have become the dominated, rather than the commander of technology… our possessions have also become the poor slaves of the apps within our pockets.

Digital technology has become an essential part of our lives, my hope is that Extended Reality will finally release us from the shackles of our phones, giving us the potential to let technology enrich our experiences rather than dominate them… providing us with the ability to express ourselves in meaningful ways and create a cultural identity that is both modern and authentic.

A 'BLEND FIRST' approach to design

This gradual colonisation of our creative culture and services by our digital providers, has without question, bought a tantalising abundance of access, coupled with the seductive lure of convenience.

We are inevitably moving towards the next era, where the power of our digital tools can break free from the confines of the glass in our hands and set forth to colonise our physical worlds.

but… a rare hiatus has occurred while we wait for technology to catchup and complete the merger of our physical and digital worlds.

We have an opportunity to plan what we will gain...

but we can also take this opportunity to asses what we may lose.

Eventually 'the blending' will take place.

If we truly want to create a harmonious blended environment and design through the lenses of equity and empathy, we need to acknowledge that digital designers are not equipped to do this on their own.

We have grown to accept that the generic, homogenous designs of our digital products & services, are necessary to deliver convenience and accessibility on our screen based platforms.

But when these impersonal experiences break free from the glass shield and appear in our homes, in our cars and streets, will we be as forgiving to let our personal spaces be full of the same generic clutter as our phones?

Mixed Reality technologies will give us our personal interface to any reality, it will not be how much content is available, but rather the ubiquity and applicability to the user. It will be so easy to bombard our spaces with distraction, but I am guessing that this cognitive overload will only cause confusion and rejection or pull us even further away from the real world.

The phone is a victim of its form, it is designed to grab and focus our attention, confining our awareness to the dimensions of its screen.

When this confinement has gone and we are able to utilise so many other facets of our world.

When we can take advantage of all of our senses, playing with the full 3 Dimensional environment around us, we can then stop the distraction and employ a more sensitive approach to our relationship with technology.

CALM TECHNOLOGY

Inspired by 
Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown Xerox PARC

Google’s Little signals has dabbled with this thinking, by drawing from Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown approach to using our peripheral attention as a means to release us from our current digital distractions.

Calm technology enhances our peripheral reach by bringing more details into the periphery. This can be calming when it increases our knowledge and ability to act without causing information overload.

Our peripheral attention is attuned by the large portion of our brain devoted to sensory processing and it informs us without overburdening us.

Designing technology to be attuned to the periphery, allows us to be aware of what is happening around us and what is likely to happen, so that we can command it without being dominated by it.

Designing to engage both the centre and periphery of our attention, moving back and forth between the two.

If we stay limited to a single device for all our interaction it will be impossible for us to take back this control.

A ‘BLEND FIRST’ approach is to harness the strengths from SPATIAL, MATERIAL & DIGITAL properties, without diluting or losing their unique value.

DIGITAL - INDUSTRIAL - ARCHITECTUAL

Blending knowledge

Blending disciplines

Blending layers

Blending spaces

Blending worlds

Immersive experience
(a greater sense of presence and a deeper connection with the activity)

Environmental Awareness
(utilising our brains mental models of ourselves and the space around us)

Natural Interaction
(engagement in a more natural and intuitive form)

Responsiveness
(adapting to changing user needs and preferences)

The inevitability of a blended world is at our door step and a ‘blend first approach’ will help push our diverse, creative communities even closer together….

we can’t underestimate the many complexities that this new era will bring, we need to start challenging our current approaches, and begin working across a much more diverse range of disciplines, drawing from past knowledge as well as the latest developments.