This one is easy. Deemr is a tool in the form of a mobile app, designed for simple, yet sometimes complex to solve, purposes: help you make decisions on the fly, weigh opinions, test ideas.
Being a fairly common problem for people, it was no surprise there were products out there trying to do the same thing, but all of them seem to have had little to no success, so after our research on the existing tools, it became important to find out why they were failing.
Our conclusion led us to make the decision early on that we wouldn’t create yet another social network nor a messaging app, but something new.
To explain this decision, it is necessary to explain what we have identified as the drive for social network activity for a vast majority of people.
The currency in the internet today seems to be likes, views, clicks… attention. This applies of course to companies and complex schemes of advertisement and revenue, but it is how individuals interact with social media that interested us.
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter are all tools that have no defined purpose, and contrary to what is commonly perceived, they are not driven by the users’ need to share their opinions, thoughts, party pictures, culinary choices or exercise preferences, but by the desire and expectation for the attention feedback that would come from what is shared.
Count those likes, get more followers, get more views. There is no financial gain, but an addictive feeling of satisfaction.
In the pursue of this feeling, consciously or unconsciously, every interaction we have on these networks slowly shifts towards finding it. And to some people, it becomes the sole purpose.
This is not a critique of the state of the internet today, but the phenomenon described above gave us a clue that we needed to steer our users away from the “social network” mental frame. We want usage of our product to be guided by it’s actual purpose. Share an opinion to get it challenged or reassured. Ask questions to find honest answers. Make your interactions real and give them meaning.
Deemr’s mission is to set you, our user, in a path towards better decisions, and as a natural consequence, a better you.
In subsequent posts, we will tell you “why” and “how” we are approaching this big challenge.
