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.
My dad is a pastor that runs Sunday mornings at a relatively large church. Roughly 600 people on a Sunday morning over a few services; not mega-church, but definitely bigger than the vast majority of Methodist churches. Over time he's become the "technology guy". He's not (or at least wasn't) particularly more competent than most, but wasn't afraid to learn and get his hands dirty, so to speak. Now I would call him plenty sav.
One of his passions is bringing the church to people who can't come to the building. A lot of personal visits to shut ins and hospitals, and recently this meant live streaming. We already had a two camera broadcasting set up, so it was pretty simple to plug it in to the internet (some sort of turn key "send audio and video to this box with an ethernet cable and we"ll stream to everywhere elsed" kinda deals) and off we go.
As an even more aside, I just want to shout out that since the epidemic started he basically started producing 3-4 hours of video each week to live stream.
Anywho, this lead to him asking me how eldery-proof we could make in-home streaming for folks who can't always leave the house, or maybe want to watch VODs if they miss a week or something. I mused that the turn key solution he was using made a few TV streaming options (apps on Fire TV, Roku, Android, etc.) and you could probably set one of those up to start automagically on boot or something.
About two weeks later he calls me up and, to my genuine amazement, has actually come up with a solution. He set up a Roku with a remote that custom app buttons, set up the streaming app (again, this is an app specifically for streaming our church) on one of those buttons, and set the app up in such a way that the first button hops onto the live stream. He even set up pretty good UX studies with a bunch of elderly folks to make sure his instructions were clear!
He ended up getting sponsored for about a hundred of them from a few generous folks around the church and personally set them up in folks homes.
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.
1) UI changes really bother them. A lot of that crew works on muscle memory -- an icon moves and they get lost. They don't easily re-parse a new UI for changes.
2) Click speed decreases, so double-clicks are much harder. A single deliberate click is fine, but the doubles seem to pose problems.
3) The iPad doesn't seem to work for some. When I found there was no easy cheat sheet available (the ones I found seemed either insufficient or were focused on trivia/new-hotness), I made a series of laminated sheets. One described the various screens, one pointed out the parts of an iPad (controls, mostly). The third showed the different "gestures" (the important ones, anyway). This just ... didn't take. She doesn't care for it. Possibly due to #1 -- I am considering getting a laptop and using Classic Shell to fake that it is XP just so she feels comfortable again.
4) Visual acuity varies widely but you're probably on top of that.
5) Plugging things in can be problematic, so some kind of easy docking station or wireless charging might be better if available.
I have been watching this post with interest.
Heared some good stories about them in a podcast I recently listened. Not cheap, but the UI/UX should be very good.
Things I tried:
- Initially, I tried Skype on a Windows laptop (around 2011). This was a nightmare for everyone. There were too many points of failure (wifi would disconnect and require a support phone call, Windows would update and require a phonecall to log back in, Skype would require an update and trigger a support call, etc).
- Around 2013, I tried an Android tablet with the Skype App over wifi. This was just as bad as a laptop (the app was also pretty unstable.
- I switched to Google Hangouts. The UI was an issue and was also unstable.
- In 2014/2015, I gifted an old Macbook Air. I set this up with Facetime and also Skype. My relatives preferred Skype initially (since they had experience with the app), but I showed them how to make and answer FaceTime calls over a Christmas weekend and they picked it up in less than an hour. The MacBook setup was great, but it died in 2016.
- In 2016, I gifted them an iPad with 4G. We continued communicating with FaceTime (and iMessage). This has been flawless for the past 4 years. I update the iPad each year over Christmas. I've only had one support call to install Snapchat (so my grandparents can keep in contact with a great-grandchild).
If the iPad dies anytime soon, I would consider Facebook Portal as an alternative.
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.
The UI takes over the normal android UI to make things very simple. It also provides an email/messaging system which blocks out communication from anyone but the approved contacts, so there's no need to worry about email scams etc.
I'm not sure if they ship to the UK but they have a 4G version. But if you can get a 4G device, you could still use their app.
The key thing is absolute simplicity of interface and use, and this service is great for that.
Sorry this sounds like an ad, but it's seriously provided so much value to me in being able to keep in touch with and see my grandfather from 1000s of kms away.
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.
I have a client who uses this as a quick and dirty reception system in 3-4 offices.
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.