What the design of apps are trying to tell us

These are some interesting observations I made in the bottom bar of different iPhone apps and my personal interpretations of them. This is supposed to be a fun post so do not treat it too seriously!

For this post, I am assuming that the function displayed at the centre of the bar would be the most important. It may be totally opposite than that. As people find it easier to reach the edges of the screen, it is perfectly sensible for the more important functions to be concentrated near the sides of the screen. Still, it is interesting to analyse what goes into the centre of attention.

 

This is the clock app for iPhone. At the bottom is a display of its functions. Right at the centre of it is "Bedtime". Could it be that tracking your sleep is considered the most important feature of this app? Nevertheless, sleep is very important,  so get lots of it!

This is the call app. "Contacts" are displayed right at the centre. It is interestingly ironic that this app was supposed to make calls but the keypad was not in the centre! Instead, the most important thing you would want for this app was to find someone from your contacts to call to. 

For Safari, what is right at the centre is the "Share" icon. Though this is a browser, it seemed like it wanted us to do some social networking by emphasising that we share the sites we found interesting/useful to others!

I have removed the screenshot of my Instagram app because it contains some sensitive information.

Anyway, the "Add" icon (or whatever you call the icon with the addition sign and a box around it) is situated at the centre of the bar at the bottom of the screen. Instagram is a social platform known for being supported by its user-generated content. Could this placement of functions be a reiteration of its philosophy?

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Hmm... WhatsApp's one is even more interesting. The Camera is situated right in the centre. So the focus might be on the content we generate! What does it want from us? o_O

Well, Instagram and WhatsApp had similar things in the centre, but these were all bought by Facebook. So, let us look at Facebook now. At the bottom, right in the centre, was an icon that leads us to our personal profiles. It could mean that Facebook was focusing on making everyone's user experience unique, personalised and identifiable. It was all about me, me and me. This could mean so many things that I might not be able to write them out here in simple words. But, I have read that some employers and schools search up one's Facebook profile before considering whether to take in the person. Looks like it is important for us to maintain our profiles so that we do not give a wrong or bad impression to others!

The above may look like simple observations and imaginative thought, but for us to understand more about how we interact with these devices, it is important for us to wrap our heads around how they are designed. In an age where everyone is competing for attention, many apps are designed with psychological tactics in mind to keep us hooked on them. Yuck! These sound like drugs now. All the more we should pay attention to these details and be careful online.

Movie Review: The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu)

It was one of the most thoughtful and beautiful works of art I have ever seen with my own eyes. I feel ashamed for myself after watching this film.

This movie is a tribute to Jiro Horikoshi who designed the A6M World War II fighter plane. At word of this, people may think: What is so beautiful about a weapon of mass destruction, for does not it bring out the most evil of humanity? But that, and all other great planes engineered, would have been merely a product, destined for failure, destined to be overtaken and destined to meet its end. It sounds like a sisyphean ordeal - to work so hard for something to be of success, only to have it destroyed and restart again. But the real beauty should lie in the satisfaction gained from inching one step closer to a faraway dream. Plus, if certain things are never to be removed, how can there be more progress and innovation?

I personally feel the most important takeaway of this movie is not about the technology that makes the country which owns it proud, but about the power of dreams and how far they take us into our long, winding lives. A lot has been packed into this two hour film, every detail in it holds a certain significance to this message contained within itself. I did not even understand what its meaning at the first look, but when thinking more deeply into it, I felt that without myself having the privilege to be able to chase my dreams, I would never relate to this movie nor appreciate how important dreams are to my life.

The transversal between reality and fiction in the movie jogged my memory of another work called "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". Even though I merely studied a passage about it in Secondary School, it left quite an impression in my mind. At that time, when I was in Secondary School, having worked my way up with my good academic results, I did not know of what dream I wanted to chase. I was hiding myself away from it. I was even scared of people asking me what was my dream or what I would want to do in the future. Studies, school, work, survival was all that I could think of and I had no interest in what the future holds, not until later in life did I discover how fascinated I was with the future world. I realised that my soul had been a cold dry wind blown over the empty shell of my body, unnourished, uninspired, undefined. Alas, how much I have grown!

The film also gave some perspective to Japan's pre-World War II history. Life was hard. There was the Great Kanto Earthquake, economic depression and a lot of trouble. But it was also a time of excitement, when things were progressing faster and engineers like Jiro were continuously innovating on the next big thing. There was also a bit of insight about Germany and their attitudes toward the Japanese. A lot of these were quite new to me because I did not study much of history, but the amount of thought put into the production of movie inspired me to research further into it to understand the context of the plot, as well as its historical backgrounds.

What was especially important too was the essence of innovation - inspiration. Inspiration always comes first before technology plays catch-up, as what the movie claims. As shown when Jiro was in pursuit of the design of the fighter planes when he found that a mackerel fish bone was in line with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) standards. I also know of many influential people like Martin Luther King and Neil Armstrong who made immense contributions to mankind because of their grand dreams.

I hope more people will be able to appreciate the beauty of this movie, and be able to find it of some use in life.

A Sprouting Idea

I want to create something.

I have been exploring what my imagination can do, coming up with random, meaningless yet beautiful things. I have come up with some random stories about myself, and it can be remotely related to my life.

So one day in the shower, some interesting scenes appeared in my mind. I feel like writing some kind of a novel, or something that I can publish myself periodically on an online space like social media. I have very interesting perceptions about what the Internet can be used for. Just thinking about it makes me excited. But I am sure that although the process will be troublesome and often be frustrating, I believe it will be quite fulfilling.

At the end of the day, I am creating something that hopefully can be of value to others, or inspire more people to explore and exploit what the Internet can possibly do for us. I hope to contribute my ideas and I am looking forward to honing my writing skills.

Maybe I'll start on that during the year end holidays. By then, I hope I'll have a good time writing away! 😄