"Apper" Artist's Statement

For a digital writing course, we were required to create an original app or hack that highlights Marshall McLuhan's famous utterance, "the medium is the message." Therefore, something about its creation had to be evil. My creation, Apper, is an app that reviews and recommends other apps. Its selling point is that the reviews are professional and unbiased, and the user is essentially scrolling through endless advertisements that are masked as reviews. Below is the artist's statement defining the app as well as a few potential visuals for how it might function.

The smartphone in our modern age would not be what it is without the multitude of applications that can be downloaded onto it, including tools, photo/video editing, entertainment hubs, social media, and many more. In fact, the number of these apps is so extensive that, according to one source, in 2020 there is a massive 2.2 million apps in the Apple App Store alone (Blair). At this point in time, there is practically an app for everything, which makes it hard to find the ones we actually “need,” and hard to find the perfect app since there are multiples of each option in each category. That is why I have created Apper, the app that recommends apps. In this paper, I will analyze the app and its technology, evaluate the seriality and virality, disseminate any revisions and problems to be solved, and assess the challenges found in the creation of the leading technology in app recommendation.

In order to fully appraise the components of Apper, we must fully examine the inherent need for this technology. There are two main needs this app fulfills: when listed on Apper, an app will no longer need to implement pesky advertisements on other platforms; it offers an organized review system to a world of disorganized apps, housing it all in one medium. Firstly, this eliminates the need for an app to advertise elsewhere. A large benefit of this app is that it is centered on the idea of advertising, as outside apps will pay to be listed and reviewed on Apper—but the user does not see this, they see the sleek organization and professional reviews of recommended apps. Generally speaking, people do not mind looking at ads if they are not consciously recognizing they’re doing it, and/or if the action benefits them in some way. The current method of app advertisements many companies will opt for consists of sidebars, top bars, bottom bars, or pop-ups. These are such a nuisance for users that if it detracts too much from the content of the app that contains these ads, the user either will pay for an ad-free version or they will delete the app altogether. This phenomenon creates a need for immersion, in which companies somehow find a way to advertise in a method so seamless that it does not take away from the rest of the content. In response to this, Apper is a program that people will willingly download, and the interface will be clean and inviting for users.

This app not only rids the need of the forms of advertisements cell-phone users loathe, but it also creates a platform that takes every app listed and organizes them into separate categories, professionally describes and reviews them, and personalizes results to suit the needs of each individual user. Once logged in, the app introduces itself as if it were a person. The reasoning behind this will be further explored later on. The character asks the user to select apps the person already has downloaded on their phone, giving them the option to select as many or as few apps as they want—stating that when more data is collected from the user the results will better match them. Once the user finishes this process, Apper immediately begins recommending apps to them in a list, showing the app icon and the numerical rating. The user can delete any recommendations they don’t want to see, which Apper encourages to better tailor results for each user. Any listing can be clicked on which takes the user to the apps page on Apper, showing information about the app and a full description and professional review of the app. There will be a button that can link the app’s listing on the App Store or Google Play Store so they can download if they choose to do so. Additionally, there is an option to compare it to similar applications, showing the reviews, features, price so the user feels they can make the most informed decision when choosing what to download.

This app will function similarly to a search engine, and only include apps that have paid to be listed and have reviews available, increasing Apper’s credibility. Apps need reviews done by customers so the user feels like they can relate to another human and not a corporation, and they need that trust before downloading any app. The reviews in Apper are professionally crafted, unbiased reviews of the app. The apps who desire to be listed on Apper must pay a fee, just as if they were paying to be advertised on other platforms. This is where the app obtains most of its revenue, as it will become an indispensable source of advertising and a must-have app for all smartphone users. It will also encourage users to “Join Our Team,” where they too can become a reviewer for Apper, constantly recruiting new apps and new employees.

The app is serial in nature, as it creates listings for companies completely independent of each other yet assembled through the same technology which creates interactions between them and a seamless interface (Maeder and Wentz 136). When apps are advertised on other apps, there is most often a clear disconnect between the content of the app and the content of the ad, which takes away from the immediacy they both strive for. Apper takes apps that are autonomous from each other in every way and presents them under an umbrella that makes them approachable and puts the user in control of what they are being advertised to. As McLuhan argues, advertisements have become a reflection of the audiences themselves, and Apper embraces this concept in its invention while subtly covering it up in its presentation. The search engine and the listings of all recommendations are paradigmatic, but as Maeder and Wentz state, “…rarely—if ever—do we encounter ‘pure’ paradigms” (132). The syntagmatic functions of the app (such as the comparison feature and the formulaic presentation of each app under the same formatting) are what personalize the app for the user and make it suit their unique desires—this is the function that is emphasized in the app. The narrative of Apper also emphasizes this, as Apper presents themselves as a character rather than a computer. It is interactive in character making the app inviting and enticing (Maeder et. al 131).

Apper functions as a digital text in that it is mirroring the technology it advertises. The reviews and descriptions done by Apper are not something that could be done in a magazine article. The goal for Apper is that it must be so perfectly immaterial that the use of the app seems like a physical reading in itself, and therefore replaces any other databases or recommendations. Tosca writes on digital writers:

Dreams have thus always fueled the research and design of new technologies, but I would like to argue that the case discussed here is different, as our interviewees are not designers developing a technology. They are users adopting a technology developed by others and, in order to make it more palatable, resorting to what they perceive as an improved version of the same technology. (86)

The concept here carries, as this is not a new technology—it relies on artificial intelligence, search engines, and the same review and rating systems done in Zagat guides or professional food critiques. It is the inevitable translation of these technologies to a digital platform that makes this app capable of all that it does, while improving upon and modernizing it. One great benefit of it being digitally created is that users are more easily forgiving of a professional digital review done by an anonymous creator than say a known professional writer writing the same view. What this means is that there will be kinks in the technology, but it is not a reflection of the user, and they will be of the mindset that believes the technology will eventually be perfect, unlike what a human is capable of.

Efficiency is an objective of the creators of most apps in the app store because it bridges the gap for what the user needs to continue their digital life productively and proficiently. Efficiency has become the priority of those living in the digital age, as seen in the study of Blackberry users as something that can “connect employees to their organizations,” because humans are never far from their devices (Middleton 7). Yet the sheer number of tools can become overwhelming, and it becomes difficult to decide between hundreds of very similar apps, turning immediacy to hypermediacy (Bolter and Grusin 19). This app can organize the chaos in a way that each user can relax about what they are downloading and if it is the best option, allowing them to return to the immersion and efficiency they so desire. In the app, not only would advertisements be present, but they would practically be the entirety of the app without the user recognizing it because rather than looking at an advertisement, they are looking through each listing, creating a fuller experience (Bridgman, Fleckenstein, and Gage 1). This also contributes to the immersive and immediate nature of Apper, which is lacking with the current offerings in this category of technology.

As any invention faces at startup, there were a series of challenges that arose when planning and designing this app. Once released, the app would just sit in the Appstore waiting for someone to download it, and the number of listings in-app would be limited. That is why we introduced app companies with the greatest number of downloads to Apper and its plethora of offerings, that way we had a foundation before the app was even released. Additionally, we hired some of the world’s greatest digital reviewers and technical writers to begin describing and reviewing the apps listed, offering them incentives and greater pay once the company grows. It is logical that as Apper grows with a greater influx of apps wanting to be listed, the reviews would become less sincere and lower in quality, as we try and meet the demands of the quantity. Preemptively, we decided that this can be fixed quickly because there can be in-app banners asking users to “join our team,” and offer lucrative benefits to employees that they would not receive as users.

Apper is not just a tool that people will download onto their smartphones like every other app—it will become a staple for all smartphone users. It does not just advertise; it creates jobs and boosts the economy. It changes our roles as users, allowing us to be producers and not just consumers because it gives the user agency over what they see by matching what they desire. It contributes to participation culture as there is a change in levels of power, dependent upon innate desires vested in all humans. The circular nature of this top-of-the-line technology is what makes it stand out among the rest. The ability to simultaneously meet the desires of corporations and users alike by covertly advertising through smooth, polished formatting makes Apper one of the wickedest, evilest pieces of technology that so perfectly describes our current relationship with digital media.

Sources:

Blair, Ian. “Mobile App Download and Usage Statistics (2020).” BuildFire, 3 June 2020, buildfire.com/app-statistics/.

Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. MIT Press, 2003.

Bridgman, Katherine, et al. “Reanimating the Answerable Body: Rhetorical Looking and the Digital Interface.” Computers and Composition, vol. 53, 2019, pp. 86–95., doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2019.05.007.

Maeder, Dominik, and Daniela Wentz. “Digital Seriality as Structure and Process.” Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, vol. 8, no. 1, 2014, pp. 129–149., doi:10.5860/choice.47-6067.

Middleton, Catherine A. “Illusions of Balance and Control in an Always-on Environment: a Case Study of BlackBerry Users.” Continuum, vol. 21, no. 2, 2007, pp. 165–178., doi:10.1080/10304310701268695.

Tosca, Susan. “Dreaming of e-Reading Futures.” Digital Creativity, vol. 26, no. 2, 2015, pp. 83–91., doi:10.1080/14626268.2015.1046082.