I've been trying to improve the computer experience of an over 80 year old relative suffering from age related macular degeneration. To make a long story short, 2 factors ruined my attempts so far: strong habits and poor technology.
This person's needs are simple: email and text editing. But going away from her Windows XP / Outlook Express failed: she felt lost. And within this technology hole, not much can be done because it's amazingly un-hackable. Everything is designed for people who see things: popups of all kinds, menus, convoluted placements. I gave her a magnifier and voice synthesis. Better than nothing but very inadequate to her needs. Even closing a window is still a pain for her.
Dream: And yet I know her computer could manage her phone book and compose numbers for her, for instance. And so many other things that could lighten her daily life can be envisioned. Even play scrabble or other games she enjoys would be better on a speaking computer, and more enjoyable with online opponents.
Much could be done, even from a startup point of view. But for now I'm running out of hope especially because it's so hard to engage old people to new things.
When my mother goes on retirement next year she wan't to learn how to use a computer properly. She know how to use mail but besides that she is completely lost and even that is problematic for her.
My plan is the following:
Buy a touch tablet with a one button design (not necessarily an iPad although that would probably be a good bet)
This is to minimize abstraction (touch the item instead of using the mouse)
And to minimize choice (if anything goes wrong you can always click on the big button in the bottom) It's the panic button.
Throw pictures of her grandson and family on it and show her how she can always have those with her. That way she will get an infinity towards the machine because it now consist of familiar faces and she loves to look at her grandson.
Preload a bunch of sites that I know she is going to use a lot. One of them is going to be a picture site that will have regularly updated pictures.
Send her an email every-time it's updated. Send her an SMS to tell her they are there.
Don't know if it's going to work, but I am looking forward to the experiment :)
I'm in a similar position with a computer illiterate mom going on retirement.
Showing her high resolution pictures and videos of my first newborn little girl via email got her attention and a load of incitament to learn at least how to email/surf.
Her internet provider also sends her an SMS automatically when she get's an email, and then she rush to the computer to fire it up and read the mail to check out the pictures.
On a downside I now recieve nagging emails like "It was long ago I got pictures of my grandchild!" ;)
Incitement is everything. 10 year ago my mother was very reluctant to do anything other than type and print on the computer. Then, when I was going on high school exchange one and a half continent over, and said I wasn't going to plan my life around being close to a phone for the few hours a day when timezones lined up, but I'd be sure to check my mail, she learned in a weekend and haven't let go for a second since.
No doubt the one-button design is very simple. But if she can operate her mail today, she understands enough abstraction that "touch the item instead of using the mouse" isn't going to be a problem.
Just because our parents didn't grow up with computers it doesn't mean that they aren't able to grasp computing as a concept and need to be treated like children. I'm sorry, that's how I read your approach: She needs pictures on the tablet to create emotional attachment? Having pictures on there will somehow make her forget that it's just a machine?
Of course there's a lot we can do to limit the avalanche of buttons and options that has come to dominate computing, and we should (and we are, and that's not just targeting the elderly). But these people has navigated life for decades, and just because it's on a computer, and they might need some hand-holding to get started, it isn't rocket science..
Some years ago I needed a file from my parents computer sent to me. I called my mother (father wasn't home) and asked her to send the file. I would guide her through the process.
The conversations went a little bit like this.
Me: Ok so you go to the desktop and open the mail client.
Mom: I am at the desk
Me: Not the desk, the desktop on the computer
Mom: Where is that?
Me: If you click on the little button in the bottom of the screen next to where it says start.
Mom: Internet explorer?
Me: No the next one.
Mom: Which button do I push?
Me: The left one
Mom: Nothing happens
Me: What do you mean nothing?
Mom: Well a small window pops up, is that the desktop?
Me: No, you are right clicking, you should click the left button.
Mom: But I am!
We go back an forth a little with me trying to convince her that she is pushing the right button. Then suddenly:
Mom: Ups everything disappeared and now there are only small icons, what did I do wrong?
Me: No that's it. You did it right, that's the desktop.
Mom: Ok, but that was the right button.
Me: Hmm weird, well anyway open your mail client, that's that icon I showed you, double click the left button.
Mom: ok, nothing happens that little box pops up again.
Me: Mom, I am telling you, you are clicking the right button. You need to click the left one.*
Mom: But I am, it's just really difficult.
Me: What do you mean difficult? You just double click on the left button.
Mom: I know, but this is not behaving like it used to
Me: What do you mean?
Mom: When I go up it goes down and it's really difficult to double click with my thumbs.
Me: Ahh
Of course I now realized what was going on. She had the mouse upside down. After that I could guide her the rest of the way.
I talked to my dad later that night and found out the problem.
Instead of the mouse cord going behind the desk and into the computer it went in front of the desk to the USB plug on the front of the computer.
So the mouse had ben pulled around but she didn't get that. She thought that was how things should be.
Mind you she had used it before.
My mom is not a complete moron, yet she didn't manage to realize the problem.
We take understanding how this stuff works for granted because we grew up with it and got a more holistic understanding of things related to computers. Our parents didn't.
I have often compared it with dropping a geek into the wilderness at the African savanna with a map that isn't correct. That is if you want to understand how it might feel for people that aren't doing this everyday.
As non natives in the wilderness we are forced to follow the map, but if the map is wrong what do we do (besides taking out the GPS obviously)
And the point is not really to treat her as a child, but to take her trough small natural steps in order to give her a more foundational understanding, while still enjoying the experience.
This article definitely made me stop and think; my grandfather passed a couple months ago, and suffered from AMD for the last couple years of his life.
He had always been a fan of crosswords, and for a while my mother had been bringing over hand-copied crossword puzzles that she had enlarged to a point where he could see them. He also was having a hard time being able to see his watch anymore, but his hearing was too hard for him to make out what came out of those "talking" watches.
We had gotten him a 47" HDTV a year ago, and for a long time he was overjoyed by how much more of it he could see. I never would've thought to connect a Flip camcorder to his TV and see if it helped him read much, put his arm under it to see the watch, or work a crossword puzzle.
This person's needs are simple: email and text editing. But going away from her Windows XP / Outlook Express failed: she felt lost. And within this technology hole, not much can be done because it's amazingly un-hackable. Everything is designed for people who see things: popups of all kinds, menus, convoluted placements. I gave her a magnifier and voice synthesis. Better than nothing but very inadequate to her needs. Even closing a window is still a pain for her.
Dream: And yet I know her computer could manage her phone book and compose numbers for her, for instance. And so many other things that could lighten her daily life can be envisioned. Even play scrabble or other games she enjoys would be better on a speaking computer, and more enjoyable with online opponents.
Much could be done, even from a startup point of view. But for now I'm running out of hope especially because it's so hard to engage old people to new things.