Grandroid and Nandroid

Custom android UIs and app bundles for older people

We all know someone (typically 50+) who’s looked at their phone and said in an exasperated tone: “All I want it to do is make calls”. So at the fundamental level this product is a large, easy to use UI with simple access to a small range of core functions.

Of course once someone is happy with the basics they then immediately want to do more - regardless of what was said before - so a set of pre-bundled apps for enhanced security (digital and personal) immediately then takes them to the next level.

Appropriate apps exist already for older phone-users and many more are only a matter of time. However the app markets, as with a great many online content channels, are becoming large and un-navigable. And if there was any user demographic that would be likely to embrace a curated service it’s this one.

Example core apps (all of these exist at various stages of maturity/sophistication and are free)

• Fall detector with sequential help escalation (from next of kin to emergency services)
• GPS location tracking for those inclined to wander off
• Medication reminder app
• Health, mental health, nutrition monitoring apps
• Family/social-network calendar with reminders (birthdays, anniversaries, etc)

Additional lifestyle apps (optional but targeted)

• Information resources
• Health and fitness
• Dating (it's true - they're out there in numbers)
• Etc, etc, etc

As a channel curator we could ask for a cut of any activated apps. Also handset manufacturers and network operators could target this under-penetrated market segment using a bundled UI and app offering.

This can be targeted at the children (adult) of the elderly. These key influencers on the elderly are more likely to adopt/use smartphones, need less convincing of the platform’s benefits – giving space to focus on user the specific value-add – and are willing to act.

It could also lead to similar concepts for the mentally disabled and those with mobility disabilities.

List item #1: make a list

Add things to your on-line shopping as they crop up

On-line grocery shopping is a fantastic service but we still create mental lists of the things we need as they occur to us while we go about our business. These items need to be recalled when we're ready to sit down and create an order  - even those who create written lists still need to transcribe them. Those of you who log-on repeatedly to add items a few at a time need not worry (but who has the time or inclination for that?).

So for those of us who only remember that we were meant to have bought something when we are faced with a bare spot in the pantry, a simple shopping list app for smartphones could save time and frustration.

You could configure the app to integrate with your online grocer(s) of choice by providing log-in details for you accounts once you've installed the app. You could then whip out your phone and identify anything you'd like added to your next order at any time and a message identifying the item and the required quantity would be sent with your account details to the grocer's site. The next time you log-on to place an order, hey presto the ad hoc items you've added are already waiting for you - of course you can still cancel or amend as usual.

Identifying items should be fairly simple by using fairly common methods. Firstly, manual entry on the key-pad/touchscreen, with a history for recalling previous and common items; this could be linked to the grocer via data services for an exact match (if not available, a matching facility for submitted items could be made available on the grocer's site). Secondly, barcode scanning using standard APIs; again this would give an exact match to the grocer's stock.

Thirdly, and perhaps the technology isn't quite perfect yet, voice recognition - you say what you want and it goes and looks for a match for you to confirm. Finally, and also a technology that's not quite ready yet, camera based recognition (as used by Google shopper) - this would use the camera to recognise brands, packaging or common food types (eggs, tomatoes etc).

I think with a combination of these technologies this app is perfectly feasible and could add another time saving multi-tasking tool for life in real-time. The app could also be used collaboratively, every member of a family would be able to add to the household shopping list or members of staff in an office could add requests to a periodic stationery order.

There is no "i" in drunk

The let me know you get home safe app

This one came to me last night after seeing my friend off at London Bridge. As he shuffled off into the darkness (distance to home 400 yards), i thought i should tell him to text me once he gets home. However, not everyone has either the mental capacity or the physical capacity once they navigate their threshold to do anything more than collapse in a heap.

So here's a simple app idea for the sobriety-challenged. The app would allow messages to be automatically sent to any concerned party once the phones location is identified to be in the vicinity of there lodgings (or any destination). Or to let them no that they didn't make it.

Setting up the app for a user would be a piece of cake. Users can set destinations by using either Google Maps or allowing the phone to determine its current location - by network or GPS - for repeatedly visited destinations. Links to the phone's contacts, GPS and network location services can be managed.

On starting the app for use, the user would be prompted to: first, select or set a destination; second, select which contacts or phone numbers to notify; and lastly, to set the estimated time for the journey (hours and minutes).

The app then keeps a tab on the phone's location and, in an ideal scenario, once the phone enters the vicinity of the destination within the estimated time it sends a confirmation message by text to each of the chosen contacts.

Should the estimated time elapse before the phone arrives at its destination, an app will record the current location and trigger a phone alert asking the user to select one of the following options: "Still on the way" (defers the initial alert for an hour); "I'm home safe & sound" (triggers confirmation messages); and "I think i need help" (triggers alarm messages). In the event that no option is selected, the app will then wait for anther 50% of the set estimated time to pass before re-triggering the alert every minute for five minutes and recording the current location.

Should the user not respond at all, alarm messages will be sent by text to all the selected contacts providing them with notification that the user has not reached their destination and is not responding to the alerts - as well as providing the times and locations recorded by the alert system.

This idea could also we used for all sorts of purposes (like making sure that regular truants actually turn-up at school or that husbands/wives/whatever don't spend too long at the pub - does this make me a gender traitor?).

So that's it in a nutshell really. It only occurred to me later that i was so busy working out the details of my idea, i'd completely left my friend to his fate.

ps. Yes, he lived.