Today’s ‘smart devices’ are a product of the technology and mental models of our past. From a connected lightbulb to a robot vacuum, using most of these devices requires a native app. This in turn greatly limits their contexts of use. Can we really expect users to download an app to interact with a random ’thing’ they encounter at the mall, a space they explore for an hour at the museum, or a city they will only visit for a day? What devices could we build, what ‘smart’ environments could we enable if users could simply discover, “walk up and use”(and then if needed, abandon) these objects and environments as they do a web site?

Go through the above slide to explore some of the exciting possibilities of the Physical Web by Stephanie Rieger