Let's not kid ourselves. All this talk of microtasking and local data analysis makes it sound like every iPhone-wielding citizen is a paragon of productivity. The iPhone is swell at getting stuff done, but your glossy gadget is even better at wasting time. For every productivity enhancer in the App Store, there are at least three productivity killers, and that's a good thing. The world shouldn't always rush rush rush, and well-crafted iPhone apps can help us unwind, relax, and find shelter for mindful moments. The iPhone is great for staving off boredom for the same reason it's great for microtasking: it's always with you, at the ready to fill downtime with easy distraction, giddy gaming, or even high-minded escape into the world of literature. What could be more tapworthy than helping you survive a dull-as-paste moment?
Even a quick peek at the App Store's numbers reveals that Apple's online emporium is more arcade than office. Games dominate, accounting for three quarters of the most popular paid downloads since the store opened. And it's no wonder: the iPhone is a fun, quirky, and genuinely delightful gaming device. Its limited but intuitive controls—the touchscreen and motion-detecting accelerometer—make iPhone games accessible to everyone, but fresh enough to grab seasoned gamers. With a huge library of games, most available for less than a pack of Slim Jims, there's no shortage of casual games to enjoy in bites of a few minutes at a time. We're hooked.
Figure 2-15. Casual games are ideal boredom busters. As shown here, games let you escape into worlds where cartoon birds fling themselves at an occupying army of pigs (Angry Birds, left) and where lawn plants defend against a horde of invading undead (Plants vs Zombies, right).
The boredom battle doesn't fall only to guns-a-blazin' video games. The antidote for boredom is simple enough: something that's better than what I'm stuck with right now. When we're bored, we want something to occupy us beyond the bleak reality of the Post Office line, the tedious meeting, the eternal wait at the bus stop. We want something to do. And, often, we want something to make us laugh—a fact that has, on mobile devices, shifted the whole nature of consumer software. It turns out that millions of people think that novelty apps for making fart sounds are a gas. The commercial appeal of toilet humor isn't anything new (just ask Chaucer), but it's the first time that it's become a full-fledged software genre. Until now, most folks bought computer software to do work, period. Now, on the iPhone, users want entertainment, too, even if it's occasionally vacuous or flatulent. On this device, people see software as content, not merely a set of tools.
This doesn't mean your app has to rumble with intestinal distress. But it does mean that you should consider how your app might give your audience some moments of delight and distraction, or even encourage them to slow down and lose themselves for a while. All but the most simple utility apps (like the built-in Weather and Clock apps, for example), can give users something to explore or play with to pleasantly pass the time.
The common thread to boredom-busting apps is exploration. A great app gives you someplace to go, a world to creatively travel or distractedly get lost. That's why video games are such effective crusaders in the war on boredom, and why ebooks, news apps, YouTube, and Twitter clients are so popular on the iPhone, too. They all provide a story, an escape. But what might not be so obvious at first blush is that relatively mundane, workaday apps can provide a similar experience of exploration, too. Even get-it-done-quick apps can afford opportunities to slow down for thoughtful contemplation.
That's especially true for apps that collect personal information. Calorie trackers, fitness logs, and to-do lists, for example, are essentially catalogs of the user's past or future achievement. When presented in the right way, these apps transform themselves into personal-history video games. While these apps are (and should be) focused on micro-tasks for collecting and tracking info, an important use case is to allow users to massage that meticulously gathered data to see their progress and sort out where they're headed.
Figure 2-16. Health and fitness apps, like all apps that collect user info, gives users boredom-busting opportunities to explore their personal histories. Lose It! (left) lets you browse your calorie intake on weekly, daily, and meal-by-meal basis to review your weight-loss progress; here, a chart lets you explore your daily calories. RunKeeper (right) stores your running stats, letting you revel in minute-by-minute reviews of all of your runs. Here, a bar chart shows your pace for every minute of the run; tap a bar to see its details.
As important as it is to plan your app to accommodate frequent, rapid microtasking, don't forget the more occasional but equally important leisurely crawl through the app. Whether it's the user's own content, usage history, fresh news, community, or recommended content, consider what you can give users to explore. That's your boredom buster.