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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.