In England it'd be a Gramgram
April 26, 2021 12:43 AM Subscribe
How do you better communicate with your Yaya? It's easy - you build a Yayagram.
It uses the Telegram message service already. Telegram a telegram?
This is really cool, thanks for sharing!
posted by Braeburn at 3:24 AM on April 26, 2021
This is really cool, thanks for sharing!
posted by Braeburn at 3:24 AM on April 26, 2021
This is super awesome, I love the old school telephone exchange style connections.
posted by freethefeet at 3:34 AM on April 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by freethefeet at 3:34 AM on April 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
I love this,. and would definitely use it if I had any still-extant grandparents.
Mind you, it would be a grannygram...
posted by Fuchsoid at 3:55 AM on April 26, 2021
Mind you, it would be a grannygram...
posted by Fuchsoid at 3:55 AM on April 26, 2021
This is wonderful! I assume that the font is large.
It sounds like the message is automatically sent without the ability to edit, which makes for lots of laughs. For my parents this would include lots of bickering coming through along with a short and sweet missive.
posted by waving at 5:09 AM on April 26, 2021
It sounds like the message is automatically sent without the ability to edit, which makes for lots of laughs. For my parents this would include lots of bickering coming through along with a short and sweet missive.
posted by waving at 5:09 AM on April 26, 2021
Oh my gosh this is the coolest thing ever—love the little details that you wouldn’t necessarily think of, like “todos” being both present, and wayyy off to the side so as not to be selected accidentally. Only thing I could think to improve would be wider paper/larger font for Yayas with vision issues.
posted by AirExplosive at 6:20 AM on April 26, 2021
posted by AirExplosive at 6:20 AM on April 26, 2021
I love the telephone operator patch cable interface. I really wish people gave this much thought to UX design paradigms when considering the elderly.
My grandmother really enjoyed popping down to the local video rental store to get movies on VHS but she had to give that up when it transitioned to DVDs because playing a DVD was never quite as straightforward as putting the tape in the player and hitting "PLAY" was. As intelligent and resourceful as she was, she could never "get" the concept of navigating menus on the screen or the fact that the machine would sometimes disable fast-forward during pre-movie trailers and advertisements. Ditto the new kitchen stove which had a digital temperature display that you set like a digital clock by holding down a button instead of just turning a knob.
It was pretty heartbreaking to see someone lose some small bit of independence for want of a damn knob or a simple "PLAY" button.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:49 AM on April 26, 2021 [8 favorites]
My grandmother really enjoyed popping down to the local video rental store to get movies on VHS but she had to give that up when it transitioned to DVDs because playing a DVD was never quite as straightforward as putting the tape in the player and hitting "PLAY" was. As intelligent and resourceful as she was, she could never "get" the concept of navigating menus on the screen or the fact that the machine would sometimes disable fast-forward during pre-movie trailers and advertisements. Ditto the new kitchen stove which had a digital temperature display that you set like a digital clock by holding down a button instead of just turning a knob.
It was pretty heartbreaking to see someone lose some small bit of independence for want of a damn knob or a simple "PLAY" button.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:49 AM on April 26, 2021 [8 favorites]
My grandmother would have loved a Nanagram.
posted by thivaia at 7:00 AM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by thivaia at 7:00 AM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I love the telephone operator patch cable interface. I really wish people gave this much thought to UX design paradigms when considering the elderly.
There is a lot of important UX to think about when designing for older people; Acatel, for example, has a terrific flip phone with nice big buttons.
That said, when I saw the 1940s-50s aesthetic (and realized that this adult made it for his 96 year old grandmother), I was thinking about how many (most?) grandparents today are Boomers and came of age in the 1960s and 70s, not the 1950s. I'm the same age as most of the media influencers (e.g. two months younger than John Oliver and John Cena), and we've ossified elderly/grandparents as "people who fought in WWII" because that's when our grandparents lived. BUT someone who was 20 in 1941 would be 100 today - and the people who are now the bulk of senior citizens (~ 65-85) are our parents' ages.
TLDR: Maybe it should be a rotary dial instead of patch cable?
posted by jb at 8:07 AM on April 26, 2021 [3 favorites]
There is a lot of important UX to think about when designing for older people; Acatel, for example, has a terrific flip phone with nice big buttons.
That said, when I saw the 1940s-50s aesthetic (and realized that this adult made it for his 96 year old grandmother), I was thinking about how many (most?) grandparents today are Boomers and came of age in the 1960s and 70s, not the 1950s. I'm the same age as most of the media influencers (e.g. two months younger than John Oliver and John Cena), and we've ossified elderly/grandparents as "people who fought in WWII" because that's when our grandparents lived. BUT someone who was 20 in 1941 would be 100 today - and the people who are now the bulk of senior citizens (~ 65-85) are our parents' ages.
TLDR: Maybe it should be a rotary dial instead of patch cable?
posted by jb at 8:07 AM on April 26, 2021 [3 favorites]
This is a nifty device! I think my grandmother would not be particularly into it, honestly, but I’m pro- all attempts to make cool technologies for the elderly.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:09 AM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 8:09 AM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
TLDR: Maybe it should be a rotary dial instead of patch cable?
A patch cable requires some degree of strength to remove and reinsert, which is itself a problem. A dial would be good, or some big toggle buttons.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:12 AM on April 26, 2021
A patch cable requires some degree of strength to remove and reinsert, which is itself a problem. A dial would be good, or some big toggle buttons.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:12 AM on April 26, 2021
In England it'd be a Gramgram
Telegran, surely
Nanagram.
Or (if she's really small):
Nanogran.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:13 AM on April 26, 2021
Telegran, surely
Nanagram.
Or (if she's really small):
Nanogran.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:13 AM on April 26, 2021
I feel like this is a bit insulting to assume this would be helpful or good for many grandparents? I dunno, maybe it’s me but my kid’s grandparents text and video chat just fine?
Is it really a good idea to assume that anyone over 60 is somehow ossified out of using technology?
posted by FritoKAL at 9:04 AM on April 26, 2021
Is it really a good idea to assume that anyone over 60 is somehow ossified out of using technology?
posted by FritoKAL at 9:04 AM on April 26, 2021
This is really cool. Not for all grandparents - there are enough 80-year-olds in my workplace who are more modern UI savvy than me to make that quite clear - but, in this case it seems to be built for one specific grandmother who presumably finds it useful.
Having watched store clerks and hospital staff struggle to change out thermal paper rolls, I'm guessing it may take some regular assistance to maintain it. But, that's okay.
posted by eotvos at 10:03 AM on April 26, 2021
Having watched store clerks and hospital staff struggle to change out thermal paper rolls, I'm guessing it may take some regular assistance to maintain it. But, that's okay.
posted by eotvos at 10:03 AM on April 26, 2021
I've lived ~7500 miles from my parents for a little over 15 years and, since my father passed a few years back, I've looked at a lot solutions to enable better communication with my super non-technical mum (dedicated physical video-phones, drop in devices like Alexa, photo frames I can send photos to etc.). Where I landed up is I have her computer setup so I can securely remote in after she turns it on (which is only when I call her and say "hey turn your computer on so we can video call"), and then I'll login and facetime myself from it, full-size the screen for her, print out documents straight to her printer if needed from it, invariably have to handle patch updates while I'm there etc.....but honestly the most reliable and easiest method is ummm... just picking up the phone and calling....even if that means I have to wait until after 9pm at night.
This is a a neat little toy, though my mum would just end up connecting the cable between myself and my sister because she wants us to talk more....and then wonder why it is not working.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 12:51 PM on April 26, 2021
This is a a neat little toy, though my mum would just end up connecting the cable between myself and my sister because she wants us to talk more....and then wonder why it is not working.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 12:51 PM on April 26, 2021
This would be EXCELLENT for my mother (who is a grandmother and great-grandmother). And particularly great because she actually was a telephone operator just out of high school and used the patch cables!
It would not have been great for my dad, because he could easily text and video chat any of us, and he did.
Mom is 76, dad was 82 when he died in December.
posted by cooker girl at 1:04 PM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
It would not have been great for my dad, because he could easily text and video chat any of us, and he did.
Mom is 76, dad was 82 when he died in December.
posted by cooker girl at 1:04 PM on April 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
Maybe it should be a rotary dial instead of patch cable?
Big advantage of a patch cable rather than a rotary dial is that you can see who a patch cable is connected to, rather than having to remember who you dialled.
I'd have fixed the Yaya end of the cable in place rather than having it pluggable; no need to invite unnecessary UI failure modes.
posted by flabdablet at 3:55 PM on April 26, 2021
Big advantage of a patch cable rather than a rotary dial is that you can see who a patch cable is connected to, rather than having to remember who you dialled.
I'd have fixed the Yaya end of the cable in place rather than having it pluggable; no need to invite unnecessary UI failure modes.
posted by flabdablet at 3:55 PM on April 26, 2021
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Telegran, surely
posted by flabdablet at 2:00 AM on April 26, 2021 [14 favorites]