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I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

kopiascsaba.hu

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Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#11

Post by kcsaba2 »

quasse wrote: post #4

Did you test your course on any elderly people as you were developing it? What did you learn from that, if so? Did it require changes that were surprising?

I wanted to:) And you know what the funny thing is, if i give the course for free, no-one watches it.

I did reach out to several people in my friendship, gave them free the course just to get feedback. None of them watched it, so thats very, very surprising for me. Maybe i should go up to random strangers and PAY THEM in order to give them something that would benefit them - and maybe get some feedback:))

But on the other hand, I've got very lovely reviews on udemy, so apparently those who find it love it and thats very encouraging.

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#12

Post by kcsaba2 »

RankingMember wrote: post #3

I love how exhaustive your approach to documentation is here, because (like you said) it really does need to be to be truly useful. If the user doesn't know how to get to "Contacts", saying "Start by opening Contacts" does them no good and just discourages them.

Thank you for your kind words!

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#13

Post by kcsaba2 »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #8

To clarify: this is how to use the phone, the Android OS. Not develop for Android.

Yes, yes, yes! I even talk about how hard it is to distinguish between these two things. Even as a user who just want to learn how to use it, kind of hopeless to find something amongst the dev articles/tutorials.

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#14

Post by kcsaba2 »

simlan wrote: post #5

Awesome. I recently had similar thoughts and then I was considering all the variations in the android eco system. Lots of times when I am helping I have to just rely ony intuition because I am not familiar with the specific flavour of android used by Samsung or whatever else sonone might have. I will have a look at your material. Maybe I can localize it to my needs.

Thank you so much, I would really appreciate any feedback about that!

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#15

Post by lucb1e »

kcsaba2 wrote: post #10
evanjrowley wrote: post #7

This is fantastic. I can think of a handful of people who I'd recommend this course for. I have a question about something I noticed in "Preview of 03.07. Finding & launching apps" - In this lesson, what you refer to as the "desktop" is something I typically refer to as "home screen" - Is "desktop" really the preferred way to describe that screen?

Thank you, it's an honor you think that! I don't know of any higher authority on what to call it actually. Technically that "app" (it is an android app just like any other) is called a launcher, i went with desktop, but I also like home screen, and I think I probably use these terms interchangeably in the course. (You actually can install a different launcher if you are not happy with yours.)

> i went with desktop, but I also like home screen, and I think I probably use these terms interchangeably

This might be best to have be configurable, so that I can pick what a family member already knows

Some people have previously used a computer professionally and know what a desktop is, so for them it's fine to use the word (my dad would be one of those). Others have more smartphone experience and I think I use the words home screen (my mom I think) and start screen (my grandma). It's like you mention a word and see how they react to it: do they get what concept you're referring to from the word's components? Do they repeat it back to you later, did it stick, or do they at least understand it the next time you say it? When you ask "what screen do you get when you turn the device on", what word do they use? I base my wording on things like that, so it's not just region- or family-specific but even person-specific, in my experience

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#16

Post by lucb1e »

kcsaba2 wrote: post #11
quasse wrote: post #4

Did you test your course on any elderly people as you were developing it? What did you learn from that, if so? Did it require changes that were surprising?

I wanted to:) And you know what the funny thing is, if i give the course for free, no-one watches it. I did reach out to several people in my friendship, gave them free the course just to get feedback. None of them watched it, so thats very, very surprising for me. Maybe i should go up to random strangers and PAY THEM in order to give them something that would benefit them - and maybe get some feedback:)) But on the…

> Maybe i should go up to random strangers and PAY THEM in order to give them something that would benefit them

It is pretty normal to compensate people for their time in my limited experience (both as subject and from what I hear about user testing). Usually it's a pretty small amount, not like a normal salary but a bit more than a cup of coffee for maybe 30-45 minutes of their time (assuming they don't have to travel to you in addition). They are helping you create a commercial product, it is not weird to do something in return, although I understand also what you're saying about how they might benefit from it themselves

Perhaps you could do a small amount, say (the equivalent cost of) a good cup of coffee, plus a free copy of the course so they can use it themselves and show some others? That spreads the word in addition to them feeling compensated

I'm not a marketing expert though, just going off of what I hear and experienced from other companies

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#18

Post by pinum »

This looks like it could be very valuable for quite a lot of people- thank you for making it!

Just a couple first impressions from your site... loading it on a phone, the first thing I see is this: https://imgur.com/4maP1vV

(1) The entire contents of the site is completely covered by a cookie warning. This is honestly quite annoying even for an SWE like me, never mind your target audience.

I know at least one older person who doesn't understand these cookie modals at all and refuses to touch them. They either continue using the site in the background without accepting/rejecting(!), or if that's not possible they just leave the site.

I'd suggest you carefully check whether you actually need this modal at all. If the only cookies you use are technically necessary, then (based on my layman understanding of the law) you don't need to show it. If you absolutely must use tracking cookies, then maybe consider a more subtle approach that allows the user to continue reading the page without deciding.

(2) "Join Now" makes it sound like I'm signing up to a subscription, rather than making a one-off payment.

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#19

Post by kulshan »

I manage a Digital Literacy Program for seniors. This is a great idea. But for example, most seniors I work with are total beginners. Simply getting to signing up for an udemy course and figuring out player controls on this course are pretty big obstacles.

The long running "Easy Tablet Help for Seniors" is much simpler and free.

Sorry! Don't want to discourage your work though!

Re: I spent a year building an Android course for the elderly

#20

Post by ericra »

I genuinely think this is a great thing to offer and very much needed. Great work. Your ffmpeg tutorial also looks really interesting, and I'll definitely be checking that out when I have time.

But please consider removing or changing that huge cookie banner on the main page. The amount of people that will simply choose to not interact with the site at all and X out immediately when seeing this might be higher than you think. That would be my first instinct.

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