Experience Timeline by Technology Era
To understand what constitutes experience and what has constituted experience throughout different eras of technology, I offer this timeline of what characterized and will characterize experiences throughout the major eras of recent and forthcoming technology. We are somewhere around the social-enabled and “smart” era, with elements of the “intelligent” era beginning to show up and legacy remnants of the previous eras still left behind.
To understand what constitutes experience and what has constituted experience throughout different eras of technology, I offer this timeline of what characterized and will characterize experiences throughout the major eras of recent and forthcoming technology. We are somewhere around the social-enabled and “smart” era, with elements of the “intelligent” era beginning to show up and legacy remnants of the previous eras still left behind.
Experience Timeline by Technology Era
|
platform? context? (not eras, because many overlap) |
analog (industrial/pre-industrial?) |
digital |
web-enabled |
social-enabled |
“smart”/connected data sources |
“intelligent”/AI |
fully virtual / ambient virtual |
|
characterized by |
solid state, tangible |
electronic, power-operated |
interlinked, global knowledge, global village |
social sharing, FOMO, FONS, selfie culture |
data tracking, anticipatory based on past behavior, algorithmic |
anticipatory based on externalities, secondary behaviors, cognitive cues, emotional indicators |
|
|
dominant eras |
??-?? (ongoing) |
19th century – ?? (ongoing) |
1990s – ?? (ongoing) |
2000s – ?? (ongoing) |
2010s – ?? (ongoing) |
2010/20s – ?? (ongoing) |
|
|
automation |
mechanical |
electronic |
interlinked |
social triggers |
algorithmic |
anticipatory |
|
|
dominant interface |
tactile |
tactile, impulse?, text |
desktop screen, text, images |
mobile screen, text, videos |
voice |
voice, gesture, ambient |
|
|
sensory interactions |
buttons, dials, levers, etc |
typing, mouse, visual cues |
typing, mouse, visual cues |
typing, touch, visual interactions |
buttons, keypads, visual displays, voice |
||
|
visual |
y |
y |
y |
y |
y |
y |
|
|
tactile |
y |
y |
y |
||||
|
audio |
indicators |
indicators |
content |
content |
interactions |
Interactions, triggers |
ambient cues |
|
kinesthetic |
motion-powered |
gestures to trigger sensors |
gestures to interact |
||||
|
olfactory |
detect gas leaks, detect coffee smell |
simulate aromas? |
|||||
|
taste |
simulate taste? |
What does placemaking look like in each context?
What does business need to do to innovate in each?
What do meaningful human experiences look like in each context?
What is the future of meaningful human experience?
The future of meaningful human experience is multi-sensory, contextual, dimensional, integrated, intelligent, responsive, anticipatory, adaptive, and inclusive.
