Functional and Empathetic Applications

Functional vs Empathetic Applications

This is a discussion of what I call Functional applications and Empathetic applications.

Applications come in all shapes and sizes now. They do various things. They help us increase and decrease our productivity in several different ways. They help us keep in touch with people, and help us keep to ourselves. But most applications out there are purely functional at the moment.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, some of them are really good at what they do.

In my opinion, applications should now aim to be more empathetic. They should look beyond the task at hand, at the motivation and goals of the performer (of the task).
They should aim to play the roles of facilitators. Whether it's an app designed for entertainment, or a Map application that is used on the fly, there is plenty of room for reaching beyond functionality.

Now I'm not going to pretend like I know how it is done, but I can tell you that I'm trying to learn how. And in the same manner as all my learning processes, it starts with a note on Google keep about an interesting thread of thought that I wish to pursue. So what I'm going to do instead, is talk about some examples of what I believe functional and empathetic apps are.

Let's dive right into the deep end, and start with Google's offerings. Google Maps. I think it falls squarely in the functional category. It's one of those apps that perform their function so well that they could almost appear empathetic.
But there is still a difference.
Google Maps gives several options about how to get from point A to point B. The results are sorted by time. Yes, I agree that time is the main deciding factor in most cases and by choosing that as the sorting technique, Google has catered to the general use case. But that's still a function. What I would like to explore is why people choose one mode of transport over the other. In fact, what are the deciding factors of how and when to get to point B? Could it be cost? Health concerns? Environmental concerns?

Google Now on the other hand, is empathetic. It uses the resources it has to guide you through your day. It uses the functions of Google Maps, to cater to the users needs.

In order for applications to be more meaningful and add value to a users life, they need to be facilitators. They must not take away from people the feeling of accomplishment they feel when they complete the task. They must strive to guide the user, and this guidance should come from a point that is one level more personal than the act of performing the actual task.