Posts by Konnekt

'Grey technology' should be the new black

Re: Android vs age

occipitalis: I love this idea! I'm going to institute it here in our company.

I want to add two more items to your list:

1. Three shots of gin to simulate fading short-term memories.

2. Mandatory morning phone calls to the Support line of an ISP or global bank, to nurture a growing impatience with unhelpful young 'help' staff, some called "Billy" or "Bob" or "Candy", some with thick accents, all of whom talk too quickly, over a long-distance connection with huge voice delays.

(Tongue in cheek)

John

Konnekt.

Re: Android vs age

Dan: Capacitive screens. You're absolutely right! ALL Apple devices and 99% of Android / Windows touchscreen devices use capacitive screens.

You can't use them with a gloved hand, with a prosthetic limb, with a mouth-operated pointer, with any old object, or with a bandaged hand. They are extremely sensitive... which is great for gamers but not for those with shaky hands or poor eyesight.

Before we released our product, we looked high and low for a big, resistive touchscreen.

One of our users, June, has to wear gloves on her tender 80+ year-old hands. There was a lump in my throat when I watched her successfully call her interstate son with a "handful of gloved fingers". Smiles all round! These are the moments we live for.

Everything is perfect for June except for one thing: Her aged care home IT department insists on logging off every single resident, once a month, to help prevent fraud and reduce their workload. Gosh. Gosh. Gosh! Try telling a 90-year-old's 60-year-old son that he has to ring the Home's nursing staff every 30 days, BEG them to go plug a keyboard into his Mum's video phone, and go through an antiquated, browser-based login procedure that I haven't seen since I last stayed in a cheap hotel.

So... we now provide Internet for our customers, as an option. The benefits have been huge: When the videophone doesn't work, there's just one number to call.

Oh, and I like the word "gold" better than "grey".

John

Konnekt.

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.