Ask HN: Best Video Call Solution for Elderly
Hi HN, I’m looking for a device that I can give to my grandmother that she can use to video call me and other family members from her care home. It needs to either be completely remotely manageable by me, or it needs to not have any real settings that can be changed accidentally (and can be pre-provisioned). Ideally it would be able to connect to the internet over 4g, so it wouldn’t be at the mercy of whether her nursing home has WiFi. Basically what I want is an office phone with a video screen that can connect to a 4g network. Does any such thing exist? If not, does anyone have any suggestions?
65 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 132 ms ] threadIt's a breeze to set up with NixOS as long as you're not afraid of the command line, and easy to remotely manage with SSH and fully reproducible configuration. Hit me up for a free sample VM :)
There was a recent forum thread with users claiming the Pinebook Pro is somewhat usable with Jitsi Meet; and the Pinebook Pro has a more powerful CPU in it than the Pinebook which has the same chip as the Pinetab.
Maybe going with a refurbished Surface or similar would be a better option; talking to an elderly relative is an use case that hardly calls for open hardware.
Even worse - you can't lock the iPad to only show FaceTime/Duo/whatever. It stops receiving calls if you put it into single app mode with a communication app.
You can limit the people who can “drop in” on the device, so I guess you could let most friends and family use the call feature and save the drop in feature for certain trusted family members to use in an emergency.
I've been looking at Skype desk phones but those were discontinued as well. Google Home smart devices are nice for video calls, but you can't disable Assistant functionality. Happy to hear any other recommendations.
https://portal.facebook.com/
Side note - camera quality is good. I've had multiple friends comment about how my video is much better than the other folks in the call.
also, how are you calling, is it always on, is the speaker loud enough and microphone good and lastly is her privacy not compromised?
a solution to easily start a video chat without user registration is whereby.com , but thats mostly good if you already have a remote device, but no control over it.
elderly people are not stupid, they have different experiences and interests. if they want to learn how to use a device, they are likely able to do so.
Sometimes your user is someone who can't text, longs for the days when a telephone rang and the UX was to simply grip the receiver and put it to their ear.
Even a traditional tablet can be a pain because the user has to spend time finding the wake button when it's sometimes styled identically to the volume buttons. And they can't rely on location for memory as the tablet can be oriented different ways.
"Ohh that's not a real problem" you think.
Well, maybe not to you, but what if your eyesight is fading and you have arthritis in your hands? Then, even a touchscreen is a pain, I've watched folks use them where every tap happens three times to get it to "register"
I think an appropriate video device for OP's gran needs to have physical buttons (and not many of them aside from up/down answer(ring)/hangup, and have only one screen orientation.
Even when someone makes such devices they can't help but throw in the kitchen sink by letting it make phone calls as well. Great, now your UX is modal depending on whether you're making an audio or video call.
It's the whole mental model of mapping down all the various functionality that makes this impossible for her.
Just some of the issues that we encountered:
- Holding this small thin device means touching at least part of the glass front. This registers as a touch, and/or activates some kind of other unintended functionality when shifting grips.
- Inconsistent UI - things appear and disappear depending on context. 'Pull down from the top/bottom/etc' just makes no sense.
- Inconsistent response times - a variety of applications require polling some server on the internet, which means waiting for dodgy wifi on crummy DSL to then connect to a server that's the best part of 16,000KM away (Sydney to US-East coast). Too many app developers test only against a server that's either on their machine, or on some close-by staging environment and never bother to see how their app responds (or doesn't) on anything less than an ideal connection.
- Single tap vs long tap vs double tap... They all do different things, and because not every application responds at a consistent rate, she gets frustrated and presses it again, harder (not knowing if it just failed to register the previous touch). Worse, because some apps now 'play' the second tap once the new screen has finished rendering ... well we've now clicked in some other random part of the application.
- Often things are delivered as webpages (or partly so) - and again, with content being loaded asynchronously, the page jumps around, often for quite a while.
- Two fingers pressing against the screen / palm rejection... she'll be tapping with the pointer finger, but the knuckles of another finger, or the palm or wrist will touch the screen... causing all sorts of bizzare behavior. Leads to frustration, leads to tapping repeatedly, see above.
Then there's the issue that every 12-18 months, the UI changes, functionality moves, changes, etc.
At least with some devices, you have a home button that's easily locatable, but then that seems to be dying in favour of soft buttons everywhere too, which means that it's yet another thing that you just have to know it's there, and when it's not.
All these smart devices that only have a touch-screen are a major usability problem.
My parents (late 70s; mother has severe arthritis) have an iPad that they use for video calling and they have been able to pick it up without issues. The only other thing they use it for is looking at photos we share to them on Google Photos.
They were actually fairly tech illiterate (if anything weird happened to the TV or VCR they would phone me), but maybe 5 years ago I setup a Linux PC for my father to send emails to relatives. I should note that this was the first time he ever used a computer or anything remotely technical (his career was as a carpenter). I expected him to get frustrated and never use it again after the first few times, but he has learnt and managed to pick it up fairly well.
I agree some things did take a while (e.g. explaining right clicking), but he persisted which was the main thing. The first few video calls usually resulted in me not seeing anything as they held their fingers over the camera, but they learnt how to do it. He has even started an online shop buying and selling Lego pieces (much to the detriment of my mother, as she barely sees him now).
I'm glad that your folks have taken to it quite well, but I'm just speaking from my own experience.
The thing is, if I can come up with design constraints for folks that struggle in my own experience, chances are, it's probably an easier interface for everyone.
A solution for physical buttons was less of a comment on OP's grandmother's situation, and more as plus point for the fact that physical interfaces trump touchscreens when the amount of total actions you wish to take are limited. It's the same reason I prefer physical knobs and switches when I'm driving as opposed to touchscreens.
I'm pretty tech literate, I work in the industry, and if this screen gives me pause to work out what the heck I want to press on it:
https://imgur.com/hTnnOmB
then it's a no go as a general solution for everyone.
as for Skype, well they missed that completely I think, yet I use it almost every time I make an international call....
oh yes, one more important thing, as my parents aged, we tried to get them to use a handphone (mobile phone), again, a huge problem, as they would never leave it turned on, and again, never knowing when the batteries had drained, so my father would take it cycling, if he needed help, turn it on (or try to) then try to use it, as far as i am aware, it sat its entire life beside a few similar hand me downs on the living room window sill, next to the coiled up charger, waiting for that time when it may be useful (if only it were charged), I am certain that none were ever used. I suggested an Ipad some years ago when they first appeared, my sibling simply cried that they were too complex, it seems even for them, never mind the parents!
For the past 7 years they used and iPad (one of the early models 2nd or 3rd generations) and it served them well. I've introduced the the family contacts, put FaceTime and Photo library on the first screen and it seems ok for them. I've also annotated what volume button do and teach them that if they have a problem with it to press the big button (home button).
The only problem with the iPad is that recently there are some connectivity issues (it seems it doesn't always stay connected to Wi-Fi and they don't receive my FaceTime calls). I think this may be due to the old iOS it's using (v10 or v9). So, considering to buy them a newer version.
My mum, who's got dementia, can just about work her portal to make and receive calls.
I've heard giving them an android tablet with Skype app set to auto-answer may be the most foolproof x-platform way.
Heared some good stories about them in a podcast I recently listened. Not cheap, but the UI/UX should be very good.
The whole idea was that it would be simple enough that her son with Down Syndrome could use it to keep in touch with friends. He's smart, he can use gmail, but he can't use this thing.
Honestly my perspective on them has been that it's a cheap thing, UX is a real mixed bag, customer service not great, & I deeply regret losing the time we've spent trying to work with it vs exploring other solutions. Ugh. I even don't want to go pick it up to try and deal with it from my side.
Glad you have had a better experience, but let's just say it's not universal!