WeFeelFine.org: A visual state of human affairs

Today I thought I would break the stream of reviews of apps that are for pure functionality only and head down the "just-for-fun" road.

Data display is an absolute art form. There exists a multitude of dynamic data in a relatively standardized format spread across the wide network array that is the Internet. More importantly, this data is generated by people, who- with their innumerably complex emotional spectrum- let the world know the intimate details of their day-to-day lives via blog posts, Twitter updates, comments, and various other digital mediums.

And it is with great pleasure and awe that I bring you a visual walkthrough of WeFeelFine.org by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. If you haven't seen this site, you've been hiding under a digital rock for the last (insert however long this site has been live here) months.

WeFeelFine is a graphical display of the state of human affairs and emotions. It aggregates lines of text posted by people from all over the world that begin with "I feel..." and displays them in a way that's exploratory and yet incredibly easy to digest. It correlates these "data points" (lines of text) with geographic location, gender, age and weather at the time of the post. On top of this, it also pulls in photographs associated with each one-liner.

The result is astounding. Each and every click leads to customized works of art that are, in their own respects, incredibly moving.

Here's the walkthrough- but for the full effect, you have to spend at least 15 minutes on WeFeelFine.org, walkthrough set to the sounds of Joey Fehrenbach's "Behold".

I feel bad having to rate this app, but for coherence purposes, I will.

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	10
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	10
How re-usable is the app?	10
Overall	10

Though this application serves no objective purpose, it provides an incredibly humanitarian view of the world and what people are thinking, feeling, and doing. At times, the experience can be dauntingly depressing, invigoratingly uplifting, or dramatically odd and humorous. The purpose is a subjective one, and with all of the people in the world wanting their voices to be heard, WeFeelFine gives them that chance.