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anyfactortoday at 2:40 AM3 repliesview on HN

I am really interested in the concept of elder/senior citizen technology. The basic design concept for them is answering "what am I looking at?"

I created this tool (https://anftr.com/) for some of my ex-colleagues in their early 50s who were trying to navigate the world of office software. They were struggling with Microsoft Word and Excel, and I have seen them yell at ChatGPT and bash their mouses constantly, hoping the computer will load files faster.

Essentially, you focus on text and video demos. The foundational design concept for elder tech is providing clear instructions and minimizing interactions.

If you want them to sign in, you should not require them to press a button more than two times.

To address things they tend to forget, consider a human custodian or "IT concierge" model, please. The reality is that after a certain age, people really struggle to learn new things and prefer talking to a person for help. Technology has its limitations.

If you are working with users aged 50 to 80, provide them with a phone number and charge a subscription for the service or a one-time payment. It might be borderline exploitative, but I have noticed that elderly individuals want a "solution" rather than a lesson.

You explain how to do something, and if they are eager to learn, they will. You offer them a solution either way. Please do not create a monetization model for this custodian service and keep the charge as low as possible.

The money you receive from this serves purposes: it is designed to help them second guess and try to help themselves. If you do not charge for something, they will just keep asking you questions. When you charge for something, they perceive it to have more value compared to it being free.

Do not prioritize ease of operation that compromises their security.


Replies

Baloogatoday at 4:27 AM

> It might be borderline exploitative, but I have noticed that elderly individuals want a "solution" rather than a lesson.

Or they may have just aged out of fucks[1]

[1] - https://www.blog.lifebranches.com/p/aging-out-of-fucks-the-n...

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tjmctoday at 3:58 AM

54yo here. We (GenX) grew up with computers. It’s the Boomers and Silent Generation that have trouble.

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acesley180604today at 2:48 AM

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