Chapter1 Introduction: Divided Presence in Mixed Reality Abstract This chapter introduces the problems we all face in functioning within mixed realities, where our attention and other cognitive resources are often split between dealing with the physical world in which we are located and interacting with the digital which is ever more pervasively a part of almost everything we do. Wediscuss the nature of the sense of presence in the physical world and the digital world,andhowtheycurrentlyinterferewitheachother,stressingthediscontinuities in communicationalcontext between the two. We then briefly introduce the idea of blended reality spaces, which we propose as an answer to some of the problems of functioning in our current unevenly mixed reality, and in which we can experience a sense of presence integrated across the physical/digital divide. Introduction Technology is constantly changing, but people remain the same. This is the funda- mental problem in designing human-computer interfaces and modes of interaction (HCI)fortheever-changingdevicesandsystemswithwhichandthroughwhichwe work,playandlive.Butthisalsoprovidestheopportunitytodevelopanapproachto design that addresses the unchanging characteristics of the people interacting with the technology,and that is what we describe in this book. In it, we focus on two key aspects of people: how they make sense (of things, of situations, of language) and howtheyknowwhattomakesenseof(howtheyidentifyandactonwhatisintheir here and now). The first characteristic that we consider is the universal primitives underlying the waypeopleunderstandthings,events,relationships–andinformationgenerally. Becauseweareallembodiedbiologicalbeings,meaningultimatelyresidesinbodily experiences. Our bodies and minds have evolved to act in the physical world, and howweareabletounderstandanyinformationisderivedfromthat.Ifwedesignfor 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 ©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 3 J. Waterworth, K. Hoshi, Human-Experiential Design of Presence in Everyday Blended Reality, Human–Computer Interaction Series, DOI10.1007/978-3-319-30334-5_1