New app designed to ‘hook’ together users’ digital lives

SFU adjunct professor Dr. Luc Beaudoin has created strategies for better sleep and improving memory function. His latest venture tackles another cognitive efficiency of sorts—connecting everything we do online. He has launched a new app—aptly called Hook—designed to give users the ability to more rapidly store, link and access information. 

Based on cognitive science, Beaudoin says he designed Hook to replicate the features of experts’ long-term working memory. Its productivity window maintains a list of links from a current item to other items, and continues to build, store and access as needed. The app is currently in beta stage for public use (https://hookproductivity.com).

“If you look ‘under the hood’ you’ll see that whether you’re in Safari, Mail, Preview or any other minimally scriptable macOS app, Hook will link up your digital life by simply creating and managing links – so you can instantly navigate between linked items,” says Beaudoin, an SFU adjunct professor in education and cognitive science. 

“It’s simple but the goal here is to efficiently support learning, creating and problem solving.” Beaudoin earlier floated the idea for Hook past Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. As co-founder of CogSci Apps Corp., and author of two books on cognitive productivity (2013 and 2018), Beaudoin can elaborate on his quest to develop Hook and the role of cognitive science-based solutions in improving everyday life.