Chapter6 Designing Blended Reality Spaces Abstract This chapter explores how the human-experiential design approach can make it possible to smoothly blend perception and action, and apply it to the nature of designing embodied interaction. The approach attempts to make progress towardsanidealinwhichouractivitiesarecharacterizedbyanaturalflowofaction, without significant intrusion from technology, across the physical-virtual divide. Theresultingtangiblesenseofpresenceinblendedrealityspacescanbeappliedina varietyofeverydaysettings.Hereweexploresomeofthem,includingahome-based system for the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of elderly people. In essence, human-experiential design combines practical aspects, related to human-computer interaction (HCI), with more experiential aspects relating to factors affecting the sense of presence in a location, to capitalize on implicit skills by utilizing real world objects that people are familiar with. Introduction Human-experiential design of physical-digital blends has the potential to impact on our everyday lives in several different but interrelated ways. In this chapter we present three examples to bring out different aspects of this impact (while also stressing their essential interrelatedness) in terms of our minds, our bodies, our social life and the world in which we live. The way in which we perceive and function with our bodies – our sense of our own embodiment in relation to the world around us (including physical and digital aspects) – is changed when we perceive ourselves acting from the alteredperspectivesprovidedbytechnology.Dependingonhowalteredembodiment (Waterworth and Waterworth 2014) is designed, this can impede or assist us in dealingwithmixedreality.Westartwiththesimplestcaseofablendedrealityspace, a sensor-basedphysical-virtualgame.Anexperimentinvolvingalteredembodiment as an avatar in games is presented, focusing on how design aspects (viewpoint, avatar characteristics) affect user self-perceptions and behavioural reactions. A further example related to child physiotherapy illustrates the value of the approach for specific applications. ©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 75 J. Waterworth, K. Hoshi, Human-Experiential Design of Presence in Everyday Blended Reality, Human–Computer Interaction Series, DOI10.1007/978-3-319-30334-5_6