Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Yayagram

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 183 posts

Re: Yayagram

#31

Post by mattowen_uk »

nanna wrote: post #26
nanna wrote: post #16

This is cute but bearing in mind most of today's grandparents (at least in the West) have had decades of using computers professionally and at least a good few years using tablets and smartphones, I really think the pitch should be directed elsewhere. I especially don't think they would appreciate a 'telegram' feature! Also, I know it's not meant literally, but its genderisation as 'granny' is a really problematic cl…

Look, let me put this another way, since I'm being downvoted. I think my 70 year old mum, who is a grandma, would find it patronising and sexist to have a device pitched to her as an easier to use version of the iPad she is a bloody master of in every way. She's far more adapt than my dad, bless him, but even he can use WhatsApp and the like fine after being shown.

I was about to say the same thing, but it seems you got flak for it. Here in the UK, a large percentage of 70+ year olds (my Father is 75) are totally au fait with mobile phones, computers and tablets. In fact a lot of older folk have moved to large tablets as it's easier to zoom the text and scroll around for people their age.

Maybe it's a country-by-country thing?

Re: Yayagram

#32

Post by flobosg »

nanna wrote: post #26
nanna wrote: post #16

This is cute but bearing in mind most of today's grandparents (at least in the West) have had decades of using computers professionally and at least a good few years using tablets and smartphones, I really think the pitch should be directed elsewhere. I especially don't think they would appreciate a 'telegram' feature! Also, I know it's not meant literally, but its genderisation as 'granny' is a really problematic cl…

Look, let me put this another way, since I'm being downvoted. I think my 70 year old mum, who is a grandma, would find it patronising and sexist to have a device pitched to her as an easier to use version of the iPad she is a bloody master of in every way. She's far more adapt than my dad, bless him, but even he can use WhatsApp and the like fine after being shown.

FWIW, the author’s grandmother is twenty-six years older than your mother:

https://twitter.com/mrcatacroquer/status/1386318879572570112

> My Yaya is Felisa Romano Martin, from Segovia, 96 years old, and she is the best Yaya in the world.

Re: Yayagram

#33

Post by andrewzah »

nanna wrote: post #26
nanna wrote: post #16

This is cute but bearing in mind most of today's grandparents (at least in the West) have had decades of using computers professionally and at least a good few years using tablets and smartphones, I really think the pitch should be directed elsewhere. I especially don't think they would appreciate a 'telegram' feature! Also, I know it's not meant literally, but its genderisation as 'granny' is a really problematic cl…

Look, let me put this another way, since I'm being downvoted. I think my 70 year old mum, who is a grandma, would find it patronising and sexist to have a device pitched to her as an easier to use version of the iPad she is a bloody master of in every way. She's far more adapt than my dad, bless him, but even he can use WhatsApp and the like fine after being shown.

It's called that because they made it specifically for their grandmother. Do we really need to state that it's going to depend on the particular person and their needs?

Also, that grandmother is _96_. That is not even remotely close to someone in their ~70s. It is also dependent on the person: one of my grandmothers (around 70) doesn't like ipads, and can operate phones a little bit. My other grandma, similar age, loves her ipad.

You're being downvoted because you're treating this like a generalized business pitch, when it's a specialized hardware project someone did for their own grandmother, and gave it a cute name based on their language. If I made something specifically for my grandmother, I might include "bunica" in the name. Seeing as that's what my whole family calls her, and its a way to say grandmother in Romanian, which is a gendered language.

Also, I fail to see how the gender of the word for grandmother here is relevant for the discussion. Grammatical genders (also called noun classes) are not necessarily related to human sexes, but I digress.

Re: Yayagram

#34

Post by mtrovo »

ISL wrote: post #22
sdflhasjd wrote: post #11

When I'm asked to find some phone or other technology for an elderly relative, I'm always concerned about the usability of devices. A lot of companies and people don't realy appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones. I've not really seen any solutions other than making buttons bigger and reducing menu options, I'm sure these are great for those with deteriorating eyes…

The biggest problem we have faced, unfortunately, is the proliferation of modern security features. Chromebooks are awesome in many ways for the elderly, but the fact that you can't disable password entry at startup has been a dealbreaker for my aging father. He can't type easily and is beginning to struggle with passwords. Paradoxically, this means that he's still running his Ubuntu laptop (he has been using UNIX sy…

I don't know which brand you looked at but I'm pretty sure Chromebooks support fingerprint login for some time now (check this HP support page for ChromeOS for instance [0]).

But I agree with the overall tone of what you're saying and I have the same kind of problem with my parents. I think the movement away from common protocols just made it worse, before you could have a simplified client just for the elderly or any other "niche" group and it would work, now if you do something like this for Whatsapp or Instagram you would probably receive a cease and desist letter.

[0] https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06917763

Re: Yayagram

#35

Post by grok22 »

Something like this needs to be made commercial at a reasonable price-point :-(. It will help bridge the technology gap between aged grand-parents who aren't comfortable with modern tech and up-to-date grand-kids who live in far-flung places and are more comfortable with the newer methods of communication. Also connecting to a network must be made transparent somehow in these devices like Kindle's WhisperNet.

Re: Yayagram

#36

Post by kall »

thirdlamp wrote: post #12

On top of the points others in this thread have made, I think this is also a lesson for UX designers. It's really obvious how the Yayagram works and how to use it and this is how our UX should be.

I absolutely love it but is it really obvious how the jack connection thing works? I would imagine only to former switchboard operators and modular synthesizer players.

Re: Yayagram

#37

Post by grok22 »

lacker wrote: post #30
sdflhasjd wrote: post #11

When I'm asked to find some phone or other technology for an elderly relative, I'm always concerned about the usability of devices. A lot of companies and people don't realy appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones. I've not really seen any solutions other than making buttons bigger and reducing menu options, I'm sure these are great for those with deteriorating eyes…

A lot of companies and people don't really appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones. I completely agree, but at the same time it's funny that you can take a two-year-old without any formal technology training at all, accidentally leave an iPad where they can get it, and before long they're showing you gesture commands you didn't even know about.

Yeah, this is something I too struggle to understand. A kid new to it quickly gets the basics of an iPad. But a grandma struggles with it. Maybe all their preconceived notions cause a mental barrier for some older folks in adopting new technology? Maybe it's just that people are variable in their adaptability and there probably will be kids too who find using an iPad really hard.

Re: Yayagram

#38

Post by JadeNB »

lacker wrote: post #30
sdflhasjd wrote: post #11

When I'm asked to find some phone or other technology for an elderly relative, I'm always concerned about the usability of devices. A lot of companies and people don't realy appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones. I've not really seen any solutions other than making buttons bigger and reducing menu options, I'm sure these are great for those with deteriorating eyes…

A lot of companies and people don't really appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones. I completely agree, but at the same time it's funny that you can take a two-year-old without any formal technology training at all, accidentally leave an iPad where they can get it, and before long they're showing you gesture commands you didn't even know about.

Two-year olds have a lot less experience with how the world works, and so both have less to unlearn, and more patience to try lots of things that don't work until they find the one thing that works.

Re: Yayagram

#39

Post by JadeNB »

grok22 wrote: post #37
lacker wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of companies and people don't really appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones. I completely agree, but at the same time it's funny that you can take a two-year-old without any formal technology training at all, accidentally leave an iPad where they can get it, and before long they're showing you gesture commands you didn't even know about.

Yeah, this is something I too struggle to understand. A kid new to it quickly gets the basics of an iPad. But a grandma struggles with it. Maybe all their preconceived notions cause a mental barrier for some older folks in adopting new technology? Maybe it's just that people are variable in their adaptability and there probably will be kids too who find using an iPad really hard.

I made a sister comment slightly after yours (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26983932), but I think it's also worth noting that the two-year-old probably comes to the iPad with the idea of playing with it and seeing what happens. It's easy to make something happen on an iPad, and the two-year-old is delighted by most of the responses.

By contrast, someone older but less experienced to technology comes to the iPad with a specific goal in mind. Unlike toddlers, whose whole mission in life is to form an image of what to them is a uniformly mysterious world, these are smart people who don't want to have to learn a whole new paradigm to do one thing. Not only can they not do the thing they want; worse, the motion and lights that accompany their attempts are not delighting to them as to the two-year-old, but somewhere between distracting and unpleasant.

Re: Yayagram

#40

Post by zackbloom »

grok22 wrote: post #35

Something like this needs to be made commercial at a reasonable price-point :-(. It will help bridge the technology gap between aged grand-parents who aren't comfortable with modern tech and up-to-date grand-kids who live in far-flung places and are more comfortable with the newer methods of communication. Also connecting to a network must be made transparent somehow in these devices like Kindle's WhisperNet.

I would say the single biggest issue right now is the cost of an LTE modem and service. Cursory research shows a fully integrated modem is on the order of $44 at small quantities. Obviously cell phone manufactures get that number way down but they also manufacture at very high quantities.

It looks like service is on the order of $0.50 per month per device, plus $0.33 per MB. That's not prohibitive, but it would mean the device would likely have to have a subscription of at least $19 a month.

Post reply on HN