94 7 ActingandInteracting in the Here and Now in physical space. Our mentallives have been split between two intertwined, but not as yet integrated,realities: the physical and the digital. Social interactionis similarly split, we struggle to manage our encounters with distant others brought to us via technology while trying to simultaneously fulfill the social expectations of those in our current physical vicinity. We have suggested that a key aspect of our experience of the world, of both the physical and technology-mediatedenvironments, is our sense of presence –the feeling of being in the here and now. The here and now is always where we are present. We can only act, and interact, with intention when we are present, and so we seek to be psychologically and socially present both in the physical and the digital worldofnetworkedcommunications.Andwecanonlyfeelourownpresence in an external environment when we have the potential to act – or interact – even if we intentionally choose not too. Since presence is an attention-demanding state, and because these worlds are mixed but not yet integrated, this is a troublesome and sometimes dangerous task. Our sense of presence has been split between the physical and digital worlds we inhabit. Moment by moment we must decide which reality to prioritize, and how and when to switch between the two becomes a major concernthroughoutour everydaylives. Designing for Humans Westressed two points in addressing the problem identified in the last paragraph. The first point concerned the importance of taking account of universal primitives underlying the way people understand things, events, relationships – and informa- tiongenerally.Bythisview,becauseweareallembodiedbiologicalbeings,meaning ultimately resides in bodily experiences. Our bodies and minds have evolved to act in the physical world, and how we are able to understand any informationis derived from that. If we design for this embodiment, understandability should follow. And since we all share the same evolutionary history and hence, bodily structures and potential for experiences, we share the same primitives for understanding information. This is what makes social interaction possible. If we design for embodiment in the right way, the potential for shared understanding should also follow, even between people who exist in different contexts. The second point concerns taking account of the importance of an integrated sense of presence, which would makes it possible for us to carry out our intentions and act in any world in which we find ourselves in the here and now. These points, which can be seen as different aspects of the problems of humans acting in current mixed realities, are also key part of the design solution. Together, they form the basis for what we call in the book human-experientialdesign, which we claim make possible the design of effective mixed realities – blended reality spaces. Blended reality spaces have the potential to bridge the contextual and perceptual gaps between the digital and the physical, and the proximal and the distant, and provide an integrated sense of presence underlying intentional action and interaction.