The City, The Highway and the Spatial Level

I argue that mobile navigation apps, like Google Maps, alienate us from our lived environments. I phenomenologically contrast the experience of moving through an unfamiliar city on foot with driving through one with the aid of a mobile navigation app. This comparison reveals that movement possesses a developmental character: to move through space is to learn how to respond to the environments we encounter, simultaneously developing our sense of ourselves and of the spaces we inhabit. Because the design of our navigation apps neglects this insight, using them conceals and hinders possibilities for the development of self and space in movement. I close by considering how software designers might take this insight into account by creating alternative forms of navigation apps.