Augmented Places: Exploring Human Experience of Technology at the Boundary between Physical and Digital Worlds

"This chapter presents a reflection on how lived space, ‘place’ (according to its phenomenological definition), is defined experientially by the ever-increasing mix of physical and digital elements that characterize contemporary life, and suggests that a multidisciplinary approach is needed to inform the design of novel interactive technologies. Such an approach is necessary to study place experience and technology, in order to design appropriate and engaging interactive systems for everyday life. The perspective is that of Interaction Designers, the experts who seek to understand and support meaningful interactions between human users and digital technologies with an emphasis on human activities and needs, rather than on the technology per se. A multidisciplinary field, Interaction Design looks at human interaction with technology not only from a technical/engineering perspective, but also incorporates insights from disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, architecture and art – among others – in the process of designing novel interactions. The role of Interaction Design as a bridge between technical disciplines and the humanities and social sciences is increasingly important as technology is becoming more and more pervasive in everyday practices and experiences. Far from being confined to the domain of experts, advanced interactive technologies have become part of everyday objects and of familiar spaces and fora for cultivating social relationships. Place, by definition a user-oriented notion (place is made by people appropriating and living within a physical environment), is a crucial concept to take into account by Interaction Designers when talking about the connection between humans and machines and attempting to design for better user experiences. The perspective of Interaction Design should stay focused not on ways to replicate or simulate the experience of place through virtual representations of real spaces, but on how using technology is entwined with physically being in the world. The experience of technology is connected to the experience of being in a place, or rather, how technology is a component of the experience of place. So how does the digital merge with the physical environment? How does it become part of lived space? The following sections will discuss how the presence of digital technologies has affected the experience of place, and highlight the need for a multidisciplinary approach to design. Moreover, one example of work where an interactive installation was designed to augment the experience of an urban space in order to provoke visitors’ responses and reactions will also be presented.