Imagining the physical web

transcript

physical web

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffwilcox/7151463717

imagining the

https://www.flickr.com/photos/64503243@N06/19020417214/

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

- Douglas Adams

https://www.flickr.com/photos/64503243@N06/19020417214/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ducdigital/2892313560

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the web is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

- Douglas Adams

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ducdigital/2892313560

I believe one of the reasons we keep debating whether the web is maybe or maybe not dying, is that we aren’t yet certain how to use it to its full potential.

Humans are actually pretty rubbish at predicting the potential of a technology. or how it may fit into their lives.

Another example…

If this were the 1910s, we’d all be talking about what an amazing life we’d have if each of us could own one of these…

…which kind of reminds me of the way we still often think of the web—as a thing you bolt on (to products, businesses or processes) rather than a thing that has the potential to drive, enhance or disrupt them.

This presentation will explore the possibilities and opportunities of the physical web…

…an initiative* to create an open standard that extends the web we know today into the physical world.

*started by Google, but open to everyone

I’m also hoping we can briefly consider what the web, the browser and the ecosystems we’ve built around them are really for.

And not just what they’re for today—because what if—the web is still at that “a motor for every home” stage?

What if the uses and behaviours that will truly define it are just around the corner?

Image source: Wired

The number of smart devices is going to explode, and the assumption that each new device will require its own application just isn't realistic.

We need a system that lets anyone interact with any device at any time…[this] isn’t about replacing native apps, it’s about enabling interaction when native apps just aren't practical.

— Scott Jenson, Physical Web Lead, Google

How does the physical web work?

A thing that wirelessly broadcasts a URL: https://something.com

Software on a device that detects and displays the URL when a user requests it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanito/5447525972

the technology is pretty simple, and has just two main parts…

most often involves a small, low-power

Broadcasts data in the clear (i.e. anyone can see it) using BLE: the low-power version of Bluetooth

these days, broadcasting the URL

device called a beacon

Image source: Estimote

Coin battery operated and lasts up to several years

Many sizes and form factors

to broadcast URLs could soon be attached or embedded into all sorts of

smart and dumb things around us

Change my colour!

Understand how I work and where to recycle me

Check what materials i’m made of when Craigslisting me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/naan/2398024748

…but if all goes well, the ability

Permanently broadcasts “I love you”

Turn me off from a distance

The software that detects and displays URLs currently pushes discovery to the lock screen (or Today Widget on iOS).

This is fine right now, as there’s only a few beacons around, but the intent is to build a URL “discovery” interface right into the browser*.

*…or in the case of Firefox OS, possibly the OS itself.

So…how might browser-based discovery work?

Disclaimer: These concepts *feel* plausible from a product perspective, but were conceived without the help of Search engineers—some bits may therefore be implausible* :-) *…if you’re an engineer, we’d love to know which ones!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tamaleaver/6801803312

Haro Sushi and Izakayaharo-sushi.com - Yummy Japanese food

McDonaldsmcdonalds.ca - Robson - Open 24 hours

West End Neighbourhood Mapyvr-westend.ca - Map - What’s here, What’s On

Search or type URL

BEACONSRECENT

More nearby beacons

BEACONS BOOKMARKTOP SITES

Search or enter address

Haro Sushi and Izakayaharo-sushi.com

Hons on Robsonhons-noodles.com

Beacons are small devices that broadcast links to web sites. Tap here to learn more

Politely sneak physical web results into the browser by automatically displaying nearby beacons on the search home screen.

(This would work particularly well in UIs such as Firefox on Android as users don’t have to enter a keyword for content to populate each tab.)

low hanging fruit :-)

Beacons? Nearby?Something else?

Guu with Garlic - Guu Izakayaharo-sushi.com - Yummy Japanese food

Haro Sushi and Izakayaharo-sushi.com - Enjoy fresh suchi and grilled me...

Hons on Robsonhons-noodles.com - Extensive menu featuring Can...

BEACONSWEB IMAGES MAPS VIDEOS

Izakaya

Alternatively, users could type a keyword and view results by context.

(A potential challenge here is that the Beacon tab might often be empty—something that was common in the early days of the web, but is now almost unheard of.

A robust search engine could however use this opportunity to suggest alternate results e.g. no Izakaya, but maybe sushi or Thai street food.)

keyword-based search

Guu with Garlic - Guu Izakaya

guu-izakaya.com > robson

Mobile-friendly - Also called “Guu Robson”, this is

the second Guu to open. Discover delicious...

Rating: 9.2/10 = 96 votes - Price range: $$

McDonalds

mcdonalds.ca > robson

Popular times: Mondays

600 900 1200 1500 1800 2100 2400

West End Neighbourhood Map

yvrwest-end.com

Search engines already hold an index of content and associated metadata for URLs. If a beacon’s domain/URL is known, why not augment results with that indexed data?

•Known/indexed + knowledge graph: Site IA shortcuts, reviews, opening hours, related images (basically anything you currently see on a results “card”)

•Social graph: Further contextualised based on social relationships.

•Temporal/Proximal: Data that is particularly useful when nearby at given day/time.

augmentation

Guu with Garlic - Guu Izakayaharo-sushi.com - Yummy Japanese food

Haro Sushi and Izakayaharo-sushi.com - Enjoy fresh suchi and grilled me...

Hons on Robsonhons-noodles.com - Extensive menu featuring Can...

Always on top

Report

Izakaya

Results are initially ordered by (approx.) distance/popularity/relevance. Users can then further personalise the output to improve productivity.

•Favourite: Always on top of the list even if farther away. e.g. favourite brands, frequently accessed objects at home/work.

•Mute: Not necessarily negative e.g. staff in a shop might mute objects they rarely use to further promote more common ones.

•Filter/Sort: Farthest, Newest/Oldest, Secure.Filter/Sort or more generic “search tools”

productivity/personalisation

If this degree of personalisation feels too high-maintenance, it’s maybe because search has (so far) mostly been a way to discover other people’s stuff.

Drat! Filius seems to have gone wandering again. Must send the

drone to check the river.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/7584239230

BEACONS BOOKMARKTOP SITES

Search or enter address

HarryMale - 2km walked

HermioneFemale - 1.3km walked

VoldemortMale - 2.2km walked

DumbledoreMale - 0.5km walked

DracoMale - 2.1km walked

BartemiusMale - 0.7km walked

(PS - the Netherlands have “Beaconized alpacas”!)

…instead of a dashboard for things you care about…a tool whose job is to assist you in

assembling highly-personalised yet meaningful results.

(so meaningful in fact that they may preclude leaving the query environment at all)

…but what if we’re still thinking too conservatively about what a browser or discovery service could be?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/boedker/2857091534

“…the watches glow and vibrate when you walk somewhere in the real world

that corresponds with somewhere inPokémon Go's virtual world”

Source: The Verge - Pokemon Go Plus hands on photos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25958224@N02/8122856863

…an antenna implanted in his skull allows him to ‘hear’ the racks upon racks of brightly coloured packaging in the aisles as a sensor converts colour frequencies into sound.

- Vice: The Creator’s Project

“artist Neil Harbisson

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" painted by Neil Harbisson.

which means Neil can listen to paintings…

TED: I listen to color

and also paint everything he hears.

Each colour is assigned an audible frequency,

So you’ve successfully located some beacons.

What happens once you click a URL?(…and why would you even bother to do so?)

Three potential scenarios…

Scenario 1: Pure discovery (“A much smarter QR code”)

Scenario 2: Interact with moderately “smart” things

Scenario 3: Directly control an object

tadaslab on Instagram “Call a taxi” button attached to a tree #iot

“…the significance of technologies such as RFID and 2D barcoding is that they offer a low impact way to import physical objects into the datasphere—to endow them with an informational shadow.

- Adam Greenfield

Seriously? Is that it? That’s only marginally

more useful than typing a URL yourself, or just

googling it…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/neilghamilton/10389735244

url/greatKurdishFoodNearby

…unless you’re waaaaay at the backtop range for beacons is currently ~100m (300ft) and while a wider

smart poster

range will drain more power, this poster is powered, so that’s ok

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alsaarom/8258444009

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfj/288526372

knowing a user is nearby is alsoan opportunity to augment content

Yikes, as you can see, we’re *really* busy!

There’s about a 20 minute wait, but our sister location Oishii still has three tables.

JOIN WAITLIST

SHOW ME OISHII

BOOK ANOTHER DAY

to suit their location

A few thoughts… • Remember the old debate about all the things “mobile users

won’t want to do”? (Hint: that list is super tiny)

• Once a user discovers a URL in the real world* there’s no reason they can’t bookmark it for later use.

• So…what (if anything) will users “NOT want to do” with that URL when they are no longer nearby?

*URLs that control physical things could make this question even more interesting (or, in some contexts—disturbing).

The fact that you maybe could provide identical functionality from anywhere brings up another question:

Should the URLs that you broadcast be new, or significantly different from the ones that users might encounter “on the web”?

there’s certainly benefit to mirroringa virtual architecture to its physical equivalent

https://www.flickr.com/photos/morebyless/14246207164

url/grandGallery

url/artDesign

url/naturalWorldurl/naturalWorld

url/naturalWorld

(you’re maybe doing this already, this just providesa new way to expose those relationships)

…then again, you could create local groupingsto reduce noise and information density

https://www.flickr.com/photos/crondeau/14314596362/

url/specialExhibitDouglasCoupland

url/thisDonutThingHereThatDougWantsHelpIdentifying

(while potentially retaining that density online)

Douglas Coupland, “The Brick Wall”, 2005/2014 assemblage with pieces from the following toys and various untraceable construction sets.

you could also attach URLs to “things”that only exist at a certain time, or

https://www.flickr.com/photos/morebyless/14246207164

Hi, i’m Narelle! Ask me anything about vikings, or join my class on Thursdays and Sundays at 14:00.

REGISTER

in a certain place

…which kinda’ brings us back to discovery.

Once exploring the web gains a more tangible form, will we begin to seek out far more exploratory experiences?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/boedker/2857091534

Once upon a time…web discovery provided a form of curation that reflected its creator’s personality.

Maybe it’s time we bring an element of curation back…?

Search engines could contain a collection of “helpers”, each with different moods, tastes, and proclivities to help us discover things in entirely different ways.

Animism as a metaphor for interaction design, by Phillip van Allen

Seeks attention, provokes and interrupts.

Extremely structured and organized, geeky

and persistent

Proud of finding new information, fast, short

attention span

Dwells on existing information, methodical,

focused, sometimes dreamy.

Mediator/wrangler/translator for the other

AniThings

THE PASSIVE WALLShy, displays it’s

own findings, but is often taken over by other AniThings.

Scenario 1: Pure discovery (“A much smarter QR code”)

A brief “smart” device primer… Many “smart” devices we use these days* can be controlled using an app, but very rarely does the app “speak” directly to the thing.

*This will eventually change but for now we’re at the mercy of issues such as high power-consuming wi-fi radios, a lack of widespread iPV6 support and poor interoperability of low-power communication protocols.

1 you use the (native) app on your phone to issue a command—”make it blue!”

3 …and transmits (P2P) to the bulb

4…who then uses a mesh network to tell other bulbs that may be too far from the bridge

Instead…your app often communicates with the cloud, or a local hub (or bridge), which then relays the command to the smart device.

(This is just one example…with *many* variations on this theme)

…which the bridge in your house receives via wifi…

…extending this pattern to the physical web will enable us to create all sorts of rich and yet

casual scenarios that completely bypass the friction

of downloading an apphttps://www.flickr.com/photos/charlottemorrall/3778508426

GUMBOT Bet you don’t have a quarter? Am I right or am I right?

GUMBOT No sweat. How about one of these? That’ll be $0.25 please.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/neo_ii/7483010074

Now playing

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I Didn’t see it comingBelle and Sebastian

Monthly special for Spotify members.Log in to redeem your complementary virtual jukebox credit and choose a song we will play in the next 18 minutes.

simple, anonymous, low commitment interaction

higher commitment, but also higher reward

“smart” a thing must be, you may alsoalso want to reconsider the term “device”

(is the device the music system…or the café itself?)

…once you reconsider how

Interesting factoid: It costs about 3 million dollars to outfit a 767 with a seat-back entertainment system.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlottemorrall/3778508426

PS - Android users can even download the native app directly from the plane :-)

Air Canada Rouge recently replaced their seat-back system with a web app whose content is streamed from within the plane to a passenger’s personal device (or a rented iPad). Anyone with a browser can access the service—but passengers are incentivised to download the app to access premium content.

A few thoughts… • Many of the “apps” these URLs point to have barely anything to

do with the stuff that’s currently on that brand’s web site.

• They are single-purpose, designed for just-in-time-interaction and can therefore often be smaller and more lightweight.

• And if we assume* they will only/mostly be accessed on mobile, some could even be mobile-only.

*Assumptions are dangerous…but in many markets, this one stands a pretty decent chance of being correct.

Does my interaction with this flower pot require much more than a disembodied record-set?

[yes] [no] [maybe]

Source: Estimote Nearables

…instead of delivering a giant, multi-purpose container full of stuff you hope a user will want…

…you can focus on crafting small, carefully-curated bundles of experience that combine to tell a great story.

Source: The Verge

(or if you will…*much* better ads?)

Source: The Verge

https://www.flickr.com/photos/curious_e/10473440064

which is what’s starting to happen in Chinawith something called “light apps”

…small, fun, and beautifully designed single-purpose “sites” that are so intricately tied to just-in-time mobile discovery that brands rarely bother to even support larger screens*.

*which I don’t totally recommend, but there’s a big difference between “supporting” a context and fully optimising for it.

The main reason the desktop barely matters is that an increasing number of B2C (and C2C) interactions and transactions take place within a chat window that you deep-link into or out of from the web.

Source: Why Southeast Asia is Leading the world’s most disruptive business models

A few more thoughts… •How long before optimising* for the desktop becomes a liability?

•How long before just-in-time, context-based interactions are the only reliable way to attract and engage?

*as opposed to merely supporting

Source: Why Southeast Asia is Leading the world’s most disruptive business models

https://www.flickr.com/photos/crondeau/14314596362/

Douglas Coupland, “The Brick Wall”, 2005/2014 assemblage with pieces from the following toys and various untraceable construction sets.

What is this object? Where is it from? Share your ideas at #dougsDonutThing

Doug Coupland @douglascoupland

@douglascoupland

511 votes

A toilet float

url/thisDonutThingHereThatDougWantsHelpIdentifying

bundles of just-in-time, long-tailcontent and micro-interactions

as we exchange smaller and smaller

…it’s not clear we’ll alwaysneed to open an app* at all*native or otherwise—remember, notifications nowexist in the browser as well

url/starbucksBranch_0123

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130000572@N03/16285653016/

Receipt AvailableTipping available until 12:09

$0.50 $1.50 $2.00

11:20 AM

computer or your phone”

of a time before there were better ways“…websites are unnecessary vestiges

to find things to look at on your

- The Awl, The next internet is TV

https://www.flickr.com/photos/garryknight/6436100219

PS - Messaging may be eating websites…but i’m not certain it has to eat the web

https://www.flickr.com/photos/garryknight/6436100219

Scenario 1: “A much smarter QR code”

While still early days…a standardized open web JavaScript Bluetooth API is currently in the works.

This API will allow webpages to create direct connections to nearby Bluetooth devices.

The toy broadcasts a URL to a web page that, through JavaScript, directly connects to the toy via Bluetooth.

The interface enables you to personalise and configure the toy.

This will enable devices to offer advanced

interactions without the need for an internet

connection.

JS bluetooth enabled toyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwK3ccOJ6EY

A few final thoughts…

Each of these examples, taken by itself, is modestly useful. Taken as a whole, however, they imply a vast "long tail" where anything can offer information and utility.

— Scott Jenson, Google“

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsome1/1243493095

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/16527031431

Affordances: the actionable properties between the world and an actor…[they] are a part of nature: they do not have to be visible, known, or desirable. Some affordances are yet to be discovered…”

— Don Norman

Photo of Sniff by Timo Arnall on Flickr, used with permission

Sniff - the RFID enabled toy dog

The future promises to be full of wonderful and mysterious things whose physical form may not always hint at the opportunity-space they present.

As designers, it will be our job to mediate and enable the discovery of these hidden capabilities. To render the virtual tangible, and expose the hidden meanings and opportunities within physical things.

Photo of Sniff by Timo Arnall on Flickr, used with permission

speaker

RFID reader

vibration motor

battery

vibration motor

This is what I believe the web was truly meant for…

(…even if it maybe took a while for it to reveal itself)

Immaterials: Light Painting Wi-fi explored the invisible terrain of WiFi networks in urban spaces by light painting signal strength in long-exposure photographs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/michale/147584173/

The web isn’t a page, a platform, a destination, or an activity—its a universal tool for us to explore, hack and shape our world.

What if you could bump into data? Hold it in your hand as easily as

holding a cup? Brendan Dawes, Data as an object

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinou/453593446

thank you

many thanks to the amazing photographers on

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5

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Imagining the physical web

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