I’ve never lost patience with my grandma like that. She’s old, a sweet person (most of the time) and perfectly intelligent if you let her be.
In fact when guiding her with tech, I hate the way she calls herself stupid and slow when she makes mistakes.
We just don’t make tech for old people the way we should. There are “accessible” phones but the ones I’ve had experience with are atrocious hackjobs with deal-breaking quirks, when the whole point is to be simple.
I’ve seen a tablet for old people. The whole interaction is limited to NFC cards. Instead of having to open an app to start a video call, you put the Call Flipper card in a tray. On the other side I can send pictures which are then displayed for her.
My 95 grandma would never have been able to use a smartphone/tablet otherwise.
But limiting. My grandma is still able to learn and think.
She currently uses a tablet and a phone. Android, set up by me, and locked down as much as possible.
One home screen, with the apps she wants on one half of the screen, and a widget that shows notifications on the other half. (Limited only to notifications from apps like whatsapp, etc., she doesn’t need see that the phone updated the OS during the night etc.)
This way, all I had to do, was tell her how the home button works, and how the back button works. No explaining quick settings or the notification shade.
From there, she’s slowly learned each app, always safe in knowing she can hit home/back if confused, and take it from the beginning.
The notification widget has been especially good, as it is always there showing her her messages, and she can tap them to go straight to replying.
It’s infuriating to me that all modern devices require extra steps, just to see messages you’ve received. The way a message would be shown on the lock screen and then be “gone” upon unlocking the screen was infinitely confusing to her.
I’ve never lost patience with my grandma like that. She’s old, a sweet person (most of the time) and perfectly intelligent if you let her be.
In fact when guiding her with tech, I hate the way she calls herself stupid and slow when she makes mistakes.
We just don’t make tech for old people the way we should. There are “accessible” phones but the ones I’ve had experience with are atrocious hackjobs with deal-breaking quirks, when the whole point is to be simple.
I’ve seen a tablet for old people. The whole interaction is limited to NFC cards. Instead of having to open an app to start a video call, you put the Call Flipper card in a tray. On the other side I can send pictures which are then displayed for her.
My 95 grandma would never have been able to use a smartphone/tablet otherwise.
Sounds ok.
But limiting. My grandma is still able to learn and think.
She currently uses a tablet and a phone. Android, set up by me, and locked down as much as possible.
One home screen, with the apps she wants on one half of the screen, and a widget that shows notifications on the other half. (Limited only to notifications from apps like whatsapp, etc., she doesn’t need see that the phone updated the OS during the night etc.)
This way, all I had to do, was tell her how the home button works, and how the back button works. No explaining quick settings or the notification shade.
From there, she’s slowly learned each app, always safe in knowing she can hit home/back if confused, and take it from the beginning.
The notification widget has been especially good, as it is always there showing her her messages, and she can tap them to go straight to replying.
It’s infuriating to me that all modern devices require extra steps, just to see messages you’ve received. The way a message would be shown on the lock screen and then be “gone” upon unlocking the screen was infinitely confusing to her.