Technology to Design -> Phone for over 60's

It has been agreed in a meeting that the useful technology we will design is a mobile phone for over 60's.

This won't necessarily include any of the latest technology, as the focus of the design will be centered around "ease of use". We will carefully consider current mobile phone interfaces and interactions and the problems elderly people have with them.

The aim of the mobile phone will be to provide a means of communication for elderly people as simply as possible.

We will need to consider the problems elderly people have with current mobile phones in our design, generally these are:

• The reluctancy of elderly people to use new technology
• Poor memory (illustrated perfectly in a previous post by Matt) meaning they can forget which button does what
• Poor memory to remember to actually charge, or take the phone with them.
  

Ronald Burgendy Personna

Description


Ron is a well loved 75 old man that enjoys life to its full, he lives with his wife Shelia in the first garden city of Letchworth , they live in a detached house with a very long garden in a quiet street. They have a well decorated house which is often done up by Family members over the holiday periods. Ron is very family orientated man, along with his wife Shelia they have always kept in contact with their family. It is very important to them. Easter might not be very religious holiday any more, but to him it very important. The whole family comes to visit on Easter and he loves looking after them. They own a family computer that Shelia and Ron, however when things go wrong it is often their son in law that they look to for help, the computer is important to him as lets them keep in contact with the ever expanding family. Despite enjoying life Ron has a bad back which he picked up in the war and some days he cant do his usual chores, and as Shelia has not drove in a long time it is he that does the driving for the both them. Ron loves to sing and has been in the Choir for over 40 years now. This where he socialises most with his best friend Bob. Ron has known Bob for over 50 years and to him, there isn't a closer friend. He loves to walk but he will be the first to admit that he cant keep up with the younger generation like he used to. Ron is also a very keen gardener and he loves growing his own strawberries, unlucky for him so do the squirrels.


Interests:

Ron is a very keen gardener and with the help of his wife they have a top class garden full with a working water feature in their pond, he believes that is it better than the Chelsea flower show! Ron loves watching sport shown on the TV is very patriotic and he wants the English to do well, despite following all sports its his tennis interests that are most important and it saddens him that a Englishman has not won the Wimbledon trophy for such along time. Ron is a huge fan of toast and to him its the most underrated food ever next to porridge that is; and toast is made better when using home made jam! Ron uses the plums and blackcurrants from the garden to make a fine selection of jam, to which his family is most pleased. According to Ron one of the most beautiful places in this country is the Lake District, and every May he likes to take his wife and family for a walking holiday in the lake district of course they don't all follow his idea of hikes and walks, his crazy family like going up waterfalls and rock faces, he though is happier with just hiking. Ron is a regular subscriber to the Daily Mail newspaper and often spends his time arguing with the contents of said paper through letters to the editor and His loving wife. Though the one great thing that is in the paper for him is the crosswords, he sees it as his daily challenge to complete one.

Day in the life of Ron

Ron gets up at 7am, and has his shower then makes his and Shelia's couple of tea, he cant start the day without one. Then he gets on with his other ritual; Porridge. When ever the grandchildren come over they will all be given some the finest Scot's Oats porridge for breakfast. Its tradition, he will always make it in the pan, the microwave is cheating as far as he is concerned. Once he has done is daily chores, he likes to spend time in the garden, Ron is no usual gardener. In his garden are potatoes, sweetcorn, beetroot, rhubarb, carrots, plums, apples, blackcurrants, mint, tomatoes. His loving care of these plants has saved him £000s over the years. In the afternoon he and his wife Shelia go out for a walk round the countryside, before back in time for afternoon tea. Whilst drinking his tea, he likes to read the Daily Mail. Doing the crossword, and then help Shelia make the dinner before sitting down in front of the TV to chill until late. Then its off to bed

Goals/Fears and Aspirations

Ronald's main aim in life is to enjoy it whilst it lasts and be with his dearest Shelia as much as possible. Tea consumption must be at a high level each day, and is greatest fear is the losing of his beloved strawberries to those pesky squirrels or losing his potatoes to frost. Another major fear of this is the loss of a tight family unit, he fully believes that the family should support each other in times of crisis and he keeps touch with them all.

Computer Skills, Technological Knowledge and abilities

Ronald has his own computer that was given to him by his son in law, Andy, and is maintained by his grandson and Andy whenever they pop over. He uses the computer to do his accounts and to track of all the photos of the family on holiday, it is also very important to him for email reasons he helps him keep in touch with some of the family in Australia and Canada as well as the closer family members. It loves to log on it each day to see if he has received any news via email. Ron however finds that the computer can be very frustrating at times, he doesn't like the slow speed when he asks to do simple things like surf the web, he also hates the constant junk mail that is sent to him. Ron does have a mobile phone however he finds it very difficult to use, it takes him along time to send a text message and he often just stabs at the phone to press the buttons. This he finds most frustrating, but he knows he must have it on him as his daughters get very angry. He dos have a habit of turning the phone off when he doesn't want to use it, this does not go down well with his siblings.

Personnel Quotes

"More Tea dear?"

"Look at the little blighter, you wait to I get my hands on you!" (when seeing a squirrel)

"Bloody useless thing!"

"Keep in touch"

"You shouldn't work too hard dear, you are not doing your body any favours!"

"Its good to see you, we don't get see you enough these days"

Persona's incl. Catherine Turner Persona

What is A Persona?

To aid us with our user centred HCI project design we have used the Microsoft web page to help us understand personas meaning and its beneficial usage within the project.

Persona – A fictional character that can be used as a tool in the design process by cresting task analysis and characteristics to allow the development of ideas in solution creation and also aid in evaluating design features by applying the user centred design techniques on them.

The Microsoft website defines four main problem areas that are encountered when using personas they are:

1. The characters were not believable; either they were obviously designed by committee (not based on data) or the relationship to data was not clear.

2. The characters were not communicated well. Often the main communication method was a resume-like document blown up to poster size and posted around the hallways.

3. There was no real understanding about how to use the characters. In particular, there was typically nothing that spoke to all disciplines or all stages of the development cycle.

4. The projects were often grass-roots efforts with little or no high- level support (such as people resources for creating and promoting Personas, budget for posters or other materials to make the Personas visible, or encouragement from team leaders: .thou shalt use these characters.).

taken from: http://research.microsoft.com/research/coet/Grudin/Personas/Pruitt-Grudin.pdf

To overcome these problems they must be considered when designing our personas. These are the ways in which each of the above problems where tackled in the creation of our personas.

1. They are based on grandparents of the team and our experiences with them and their everyday lives including the design probes used in two houses highlighting areas of importance with that age group.

2. Extensive detail produced into each persona including likes activities ambitions and a day in the life of. Also photos make the personas appear more life like and believable.

3. The product is based on the usability issues and requirements arisen from the age group that the personas are members of.

4. By using a diverse range of ages and lifestyles, we managed to address the fact that the personas don’t limit the observed users to a specific niche market.

These points allow us to understand the theoretical implications when creating personas and therefore develop the best personas for our project.


Catherine Turner Persona

Description

Catherine is a active 70 year old that enjoys the countryside and being with her friends. She lives the countryside town of Bedford. Her husband died in his sleep twenty years ago and she lives on her own. She lives in a semi-detached house with a large garden. As she has been in the house for a long time she hasnt decorated it in years and she prefers it this way. She has all the modern appliances with the exception of a computer. She can drive and has been known to have cheap cars that last her 2 years at the most. She finds good fun in helping out at her local church for all of the typical services and to help raise money to keep the church from running. With her help the church built a museum in tribute to John Bunyan, a Christian preacher that was put in prison for his preaching. She loves dogs and watching the tennis at Wimbledon, she also spends large amounts of time looking after her much older friend Elsie. She still has very good help for her age and is very independent, she wont let anyone touch the washing up when they are over and loves to spoil her grandchildren when ever possible by taking them to the sweet shop!

Interests

Cath enjoys playing Badminton with her grandchildren when she looks after them in the summer and plays for fun at the local sports hall despite not having great movement she still gets to most shots and smash is not something to be messed with. She is proud of her garden and spends large amounts of time in her garden making presentable to all the local squirrels and birds that feed on the nuts and bread that leaves out for them. She loves flower decorations and makes them often for her church for events like Easter and Christmas. She is often seen walking one of the many family dogs around the local river where she is often seen picking flowers for her displays. Being a woman shopping is favorite past time with her best friend Pat this is often great for catching up. Whilst watching her Soap opreas she is often does some sewing to help past the time. And when she is in the mood for a challenge she finishes her current jigsaw project.

Daily Life, an average day

Mrs Turner gets up at 6am everyday, has a her morning shower before she makes her usual breakfast of weetabix and hot milk with a cup of tea. She then takes her pills and does the daily chores. Around 10am she will leave the house for town, despite being able to drive and owning a car she prefers to walk to the local shop and then onto her church. She has buy her newspaper here as the shopkeeper has run out of paper boys. Whilst at church she helps to make the tea and coffees for the visitors whilst catching up with her friends.
Cath then walks to Marks and Spencers, where she had worked for years and now has ex staff discount to pick up a much needed jumper. Cath likes to take the scenic route home via the local river Ouse, when she has some spare bread she likes to feed the ducks. Once at home she makes herself a good sandwhich and listens to the 'Wireless', After the Archers has finished she spends her time doing a jigsaw puzzle, if the weather is good she does this in her garden. Around late-afternoon one of her grand daughters, 'Nicky' pops over to say hello and brings the family dog Sam. Sam knows exactly where the biscuits are kept and waits patiently at the cupboard.
After the teas have been finished Nicky heads home with a begrudged Sam, who enjoys the extra attention Cath likes to give. She then makes Dinner for herself and watches her favorite soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street whilst completing her sewing project. Around 9ish she often gets a phone call from her sister in London Winnie whos tells all about the goes on in the busy capital. Around 10.30pm its time for bed.


Other Activities

Cath looks after her grandchildren every Friday and picks them up from school to take them to the sweet shop, she will then look after them until her son comes home from work. She loves to play games like I spy with them and they give her energy to keep going. She has also been known to love holidays in Malta, despite having been there so many times she still feels that she hasn't explored it all yet.

Goals, Fears and Aspirations

Cath's daily goal is too get everything done before early afternoon so that she can spend time chilling out, doing one of her favourite activities. Her greatest fear is that something bad will happen to one her of immediate family, she cares greatly for them.

Computer Skills/Technology Knowledge and Abilities/Attitude

Cath has never owned a computer and her house phone is 40 years old. However she constantly points out that is still works and has never failed her. She does own a DVD player and flat screen TV though, it was brought for her by her family as her last tv's were hand me downs and lost colour. She does struggle to use these as the tv instructions change for each tv and it annoys her as all she wants to do is record her favourite soaps. Cath does own a mobile phone and she finds it a bit confusing, she cant text, but she can call people and find names in a phone book. She doesn't like the fact she does not know what all the symbols on the screen.

Caths Quotes

"Would you like a sweet, i have plenty."

"now rap up warm and make sure you ring me when you get home"

"God Bless"

"Look at those lovely flowers!"

Slide show of Grand Parents Visit Additional Photos

Grand Parent Visit

At my grand parents I decided to take some pictures of the layout and areas of interest where they spend a lot of time.

1. Firstly is Grandmas Seat with her sweets, books, phone and all the little things that keep her comfortable. The organisation here is not very good and quite unsafe next to the fire on the left of picture.

2. Next is the zimmer-frame, this is the downstairs one that allows movement from lounge to kitchen and hall way through doors to.

3. This picture shows the upstairs zimmer-frame next to the stairs. On the stairs you can notice a sign that says 'bad leg' reminding my gran to put her bad leg first on the stairs due to new hip.

4. This shows the bottom of the stairs with 'Good leg' same reason as above.

5. Here is a picture of coming down the stairs where the council placed an additional inside rail so no prop is needed to assend the stairs.

If this creates any more ideas for the design then add a comment and let me know. To following post will be a slide show of some additional pictures taken from the house. Please return with annotations if you find someting interesting.

Discussion Continued...

I agree with Scott that the ideas put forward are all valid but I also feel that the mobile is the most appealing idea. I can relate to it most as my grandparents often struggle for some sort of simple communication technology that keeps them intouch with each other, keeps them safe and allows us to contact them. This device will be both practical for their use and beneficial for "Keeping tabs" from my families point of view.

I have a fiew more ideas that I have though of related to the over sixities pitch as spending time with my grandparents I have noticed some things that they do and the following ideas can tackle these problems.

• A tempurature monitor - This allows the core tempurature of the individual to be read and then compared with the surrounding tempurature. Then the device warns them if a drop in tempurature might affect their persons health. Neumonia is the biggest killer to old age pensioners with poor insulation in old houses and their neglect for their own health as they feel they can handle the harsher weathers in the winter. This is unlikely the case as their bodies metabolisms do not produce enough heat for their bodies to remain in a safe core tempurature for their organs to function properly. Loosing this will probably result in neumnoia and then a coma. It is very benificial product and implementing it will be fairly striaght forward in terms of hard ware and software. It will also be cheap to manufacture and therefore cost effective. A definate life saver that would be encourage by schemes such as the NHS and other council support groups.
• In ear DAB - Digital radio has recently been taken on in the home by my family and their relatives who are in the age range 50-90. It allows them to listen to good quality radio of their choice with ease and no interfearence from other radio frequencies e.g. power cables, and the ability to transmit other data forms (RDS Radio data service allows the transmit text, pictures etc.). The idea of having a personal digital radio recieveer built into the hearing aid will allow them to take their radio with them anywhere. RDS can also inform, them with the aid of a simple channel changer, when they have moved from one station to another.

A couple more ideas

Hi guys,

Just a couple more ideas which I think we should take into consideration.

• The first is a device which will aid the visually impaired when carrying out day-to-day tasks, such as going to the shops. Microchips can be installed at obstacles which may cause problems for the users, and these chips will transmit a spoken warning to an earpiece, to be worn by the user. This is something that can be realistically acheived and will help vast amounts of people.
  
• The second is a more novel idea in creating weather adjusting clothing. The material will be able to adjust to the current climate, ensuring that the owner is kept at the desired temperature all of the time. The material can be controlled by a chip which can make the material let in more/less air depending on the weather and user preference. I know that this one sounds a little crazy but i'm just trying to think 'outside of the box'!
  

P.S Check these slides out, thought it would be a shame to deprive everyone of my neat handwriting.