Phones are not the answer
I totally agree, ecofeco.
We started designing our Konnekt face-to-face calling product for 69-99 year-olds based on a tablet (which is already bigger than a phone). Our trialists said exactly what you said, and more:
1. Eyesight. We need a bigger screen with HUGE text.
2. Hearing. You want us to use Skype? Give us something we can hear ringing from 3 rooms away. Real speakers.
3. Shaky hands. Gloves. Prosthetics. We struggle with capacitive touch-screens. BIG buttons please.
4. We don't want a computer. Or anything that smells like one. No keyboard. No mouse. No icons. No menus. Why can't it work like our toaster, or our old telephone?
5. Pop-ups are scary. OS update requests. Call quality surveys. Notifications. Ads. The unexpected is unwanted.
6. Connectors. We don't want them. Even your shiny ones that go in two ways. Just leave it plugged in, where we like to sit. Or we'll leave it on the couch, where there's poor Wi-Fi, where it'll go flat.
7. Support. We hate bothering our kids. We're embarrassed to call help lines. We want to see the nice man who installed it, who doesn't makes us feel silly.
8. INDEPENDENCE. Simplicity is good. If it simply works all the time, we feel like the masters of our own destiny.
John.
konnekt.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
