User experience in the pervasive computing age

The pervasive computing age will provide easier and more satisfying ways for people to interact with their world. As a result, the ways we interact with people, information, organizations, processes, devices, appliances, places, and everyday things will change. We describe four aspects of living in the pervasive computing age from a user experience perspective: life networks will make it easy to capture, store, access, and process everything as information that flows to where authorized users need it; in attentive environments, inanimate things will seemingly become attentive and gain virtual affordances, providing users with responsive digital servants that respect privacy; with WorldBoard-like services, information will appear to exist in real places, providing users with enhanced information perception services; and intermediaries will enhance the flow of information, allowing users to get information the way they want it and securely provide personal information only when appropriate. These changes will affect the nature of information itself and provide us with many new ways to access it. We set the stage by providing an overview of some technology drivers such as improved communication, storage, processing, identification tags, sensors, displays, interaction technologies, and software technologies.