There's Not an App for That

Chapter 12

Opportunity 3.2

Inspired by Uncertainty

Abstract

Many mobile apps seem to be aimed at solving people’s problems by giving them certain, explicit guidance and answers to smooth out everyday frictions. But, perhaps life’s joy is in the ambiguities, the gaps and the uncertainties. In this Opportunity chapter, we survey uncertainty as a design resource, with special emphasis on navigation.

Keywords

ambiguity; uncertainty; exploration; pedestrian navigation

What’s the Opportunity?

In the previous chapter we argued for recruiting notions of messiness into our designs as ways to move away from always creating apps that stifle a user’s own creativity, self-expression, and choice.

In this chapter, we look at how not providing the perfect answer to a ...