Linkage – A rare survey of technology ownership among the oldest

When there’s nothing else to buy. Funny about technology ownership among the oldest – generally there is no way to know whether they own any or if would they buy it. Neither Pew (in 2018) nor AARP (2019 technology ownership) broke out upper age ranges. So Link·age Connect is an outlier that asks ownership questions and documents age breakdowns of responders, half of whom were age 75+. This 2019 Technology Survey of Older Adults Age 55-100, conducted online, notes that 80% of respondents (45% of whom live in senior-oriented communities/housing) have smartphones. At this point, if the mobile phone breaks, what’s the store rep going to promote, and it doesn’t matter which store? While they carry flip/feature phones, an iPhone or an Android phone can be used just like a flip phone. More than 50% of respondents have smart TVs (yes, that’s nearly all you can buy these days).  

When there’s plenty of positives to say...  With grandchildren encouragement and media hype, unlike the 2016 Link·age survey, the responders were quite aware of the newer technologies on the market. But if they did not already own them, and even if they did, they were not interested in learning more about what’s new. The Internet, Family, Google and Friends are their trusted sources, and online training is the preferred method for learning about communications tech.  The comments (pages of them) captured perspectives in a way other research doesn't. Said an 80+ year old woman:  "It’s a very exciting field for me and I love using it in limited ways."  "Keeping up with the changes in computers keeps my mind expanding (or trying to)!" – said a woman, age 85+. And another, age 80+: "I would be lost without it." From a male, age 85+: "Car tech also helps with safety, Bluetooth, and back-up camera." And from a woman age 90+: "Glad I lived this long to enjoy it."

…And not so positive. Another woman, age 80+: "The biggest factor is how it is always changing, out-of-date the minute you buy it." Said another, same age: “When hacking is no longer an issue, I’ll be more interested." "I think technology is great, but how much do we need?" (Woman, age 85+).  And it’s "For my wife only” (Male, Age 90-94). "I think the beginning of it is hard and easier for young people to adapt to." (Female, Age 95+).  From a man, age 85+: "I need to know more. I walk into Best Buy and feel like a dummy!"  And from a woman aged 90+: "It is a challenge to older retired people." And the biggest understatement: "Some devices are unnecessarily complicated with inadequate documentation." (From a male, age 80-84). 

Five factors characterize what this older demographic expects.  The report also covers safety and security technology, smart home, as well as health and wellness usage. It summed up factors that are most important when designing products for the oldest demographics: Trust, Personal Contact, Frugality (regardless of income), Simplicity, and Education. Who could disagree? They do not want to "fumble", according to the report author, Link·Age’s Suzanne Viox.  Yet "fumble" is exactly the out-of-the-box experience we all have with new technology, making us feel incompetent, or at the very least, insecure.  Perhaps not surprisingly, 22% of the responders already own smart speakers. Maybe the out-of-the-box experience -- where the device says “Hello!” and suggests topics to ask about -- may have been startling, to say the least.  

[NOTE: If you are going to be at CALA in Monterey next week, or the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit in Berkeley -- let's meet!]

category tags: 

Aging technology, Boomer-Senior Tech Business, smart home, cell phones, smartphones

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/linkage-rare-survey-technology-ownership-among-oldest

Technology non-adoption of the oldest – it’s a bug, not a feature

Lacking access to smartphones, Internet, in-home broadband/WiFi cuts oldest out of access to modern telehealth, communication and engagement, in-home sensors, outside-home GPS, fall detection, and device integration with smartphones. The issue of non-adoption, particularly as more health services move online, will become increasingly vexing for service providers of all types. Surveying of the oldest has fallen out of favor. But over the years much has been opined about the reasons – so here is some more opining. Rant on.

Why after so many years of sound and fury, why is adoption among the oldest so low?  Pew surveyed and noted that technology use drops off in the older age ranges.  This non-adoption, despite White House reports recommending products be made more appropriate to boost adoption, first in the PCAST report of 2016, and then again in 2019. So what are the barriers and problems that prevent older adults from using the technology that could increase access to telehealth, social engagement technology, online services, consumer health advice, and on and on? Is the coverage spotty? The price too high? The benefit still unclear? Or are the devices still too difficult to use? As my cousin, the retired rheumatologist says, he uses his iPhone as a telephone.  Everything else is too hard.  Of course, it isn’t just that phone. It is not only design that keeps non-adoption percentages so high, but it is one factor.  Consider:

• Thoughtless product design – see the smartphone.  As smart phone streamlining and cross-vendor imitation became a norm, out-of-the-box experiences for mainstream smartphones became a distant memory. You remember buttons, right? Ah, buttons.  They disappeared on devices because they could.  As with most innovations on smartphones, there is no poll of the user base that precedes a change. There are forums (not run by the vendor). The change is made, the people complain, some alternative that perhaps makes the vendor more money is provided, and life goes on. 

• Failure of well-meaning but hands-off services.  Over the years, community services including senior centers have toyed here and there with helping non-adopters use technology.  Volunteers take their own devices and show how they can be used. And long ago, huge training sessions were held at convention, run by an organization that at that time really wanted seniors, even older seniors, to learn how to use smartphones and tablets, benefit from access to the Internet and go online.  But the conventions were canceled, the training became regional, and organization began to recast itself as serving all ages.

• Failure of misdirected politics – reports published, but adoption barely budges. Task forces form every few years that are populated with well-meaning people.  Consider the White House 2016 and White House 2019 reports on use of technology by older adults.  Yet once the task force meetings were over, no entity was tasked (funded) with implementation of the recommendations, leaving it likely that in a few years, the same level of non-adoption, not-quite-there devices, and unsolved problems will remain. Within that continuum, in fact, his week a new Senate technology initiative was launched.

• Failure of prolific but inadequate training.  When the device is unboxed, and whether it is a thermostat, a smartphone, a tablet, a new TV, there are manuals of instructions and online forums that must be studied or the device becomes a paperweight. Training seniors about technology is well-meaning and ubiquitous. But is it disciplined and state of the art? T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon offer training for ‘free’ as bundled into their services. But 1-on-1 training is rare, and because so many of these devices make us feel stupid because they are not even close to intuitive, individuals sheepishly go back again and again to the store. Or they pay for 1-1 sessions.  Or they give up and return to their status of non-adopter. Rant off.

category tags: 

computers, internet and social networking, cell phones, smartphones

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/technology-non-adoption-oldest-it-s-bug-not-feature

Technology, Bad Design and the Kitchen Pliers

You have a pliers in your kitchen. Rant on. If you were lucky to read Don Norman’s rant in Fast Company, you must agree with his view of design and its mismatch with the needs of the elderly. You would agree with Don that today’s designs fail all people, not just the elderly.  Because you too have a pliers or wrench in your kitchen to twist tops off bottles and jars. You puzzle at how best to position a knife to release the suction on jars. You have a slippery front door handle that a person with hand arthritis could never open. You have a not-so-universal TV remote with 45 buttons on it, the smallest of which is ‘Mute’.  If you have another box, it has a remote, and perhaps another for stereo equipment and an stylishly confusing one for Apple TV. And that’s just one room. You frequently want to print from a device to a network printer, which requires a network, which requires a router, which needs an upgrade. Let’s not go there.

We want to love our smartphones, but they typify the design problem. With my skeptical and low expectations, the one I have now is speedy and reasonably priced one in a non-slip case. It is the latest in a lo-o-o-n-g lineage of Android and Blackberry phones -- and it mostly works for me. And no wonder. I worked tirelessly at making it so. I chose the apps, the screen layouts, the font size, and examined each of 14 categories of settings.  I use many features, including the camera; playing music from the phone and streaming music from the Internet. I have multiple browsers and search engines. In short, I’ve worked at this -- as with my previous phone, it took the equivalent of two days of my time, plus numerous searches of the Android forums. Those are still the go-to source for trouble shooting problems that are endless, especially after an upgrade of an app, browser, or the device. My fear of it breaking or becoming obsolete?  Starting over.

Like the twist-off cap, the interface can be impenetrable. Take the camera application home screen which has 12 symbols on the primary screen, one which is ‘More’ which leads to 14 more options (not kidding). Although I have enlarged fonts elsewhere, the 14 options have miniscule text below them.  Two of the options are “Manual.” Someone refused to add the word ‘Video’ to the second one, even though there is room on the screen. I have a smartphone app that mostly, but not always, syncs with my fitness watch, but accidental touch of the watch’s amazingly touchy screen undoes the style and requires the phone to put it back the way it was. 

We lost our dials and buttons – and so the people were lost.  Don observed that "Physical controls are by far the easiest to control–safer too, especially in safety-critical tasks such as driving a car, but they are disappearing."  TVs and radios, actual telephones, clocks, knobs on stoves – having a non-digital face is so yesterday. Maybe learning to tell time will also be yesterday, along with handwriting.  And you wonder why Voice First came into our lives at just the right moment, even with its hilarious misunderstandings and mistakes, it is (one) improvement in design that is compelling.  Perhaps because the rest of our experience, like Don’s, is so poor. Rant off.

[Note: If you read this in email, please go to ageinplacetech.com to see the full post and other related articles.]

 

category tags: 

Boomer-Senior Tech Business, cell phones, smartphones, TV remote control

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/technology-bad-design-and-kitchen-pliers

Five Virtual Reality technology offerings for older adults in 2019

In 2017, it was clear that virtual reality technology had evolved beyond the point of experiments and was having a number of limited introductions into the world of older adults, including senior living environments (Rendever) as well as pain mitigation (FirstHand). Virtual reality has made its way into the 'future of healthcare delivery' consulting, as firms like Care Innovations and Deloitte publish their how-to white papers.  For 2019, here are five VR offerings that specifically note benefits for older adults. The content is drawn from the firms’ websites and/or articles about them:

Embodied Labs. "Our innovative, research-based VR experiences allow caregivers, staff, and trainees to embody a person with a specific condition and learn what it’s like to walk in their shoes.We build authentic, meaningful virtual reality narratives powered by embodied and experiential learning theories. We use an innovative combination of filmmaking, software development, educational design, and interactive media to create engaging experiences your staff will look forward to using." Learn more at EmbodiedLabs.

Lumeum. "VR for those who need it the most. The utilization of VR to improve the lives of older adults has been the subject of many academic research papers. Lumeum was birthed from access to technology. The advent of virtual reality unlocked an explosion of innovation in the gaming and entertainment industries, but many overlook the populations that can benefit from virtual reality the most. Lumeum VR brings immersive sensory experiences of travel, exploration, and adventure to those with limited mobility." See links to research papers and learn more at Lumeum.

MyndVR.  "MyndVR is a national health and wellness company providing Virtual Reality solutions to Assisted Living, CCRCs, Veterans homes, 55+ living communities and home-health care providers.   The company is intelligently curating a vast library of VR content and creating original programming designed to create happy, calming and memorable experiences.  In addition, MyndVR is working with leading US universities and researchers to study the potential cognitive health benefits for our dynamic and aging population using VR." Learn more at MyndVR.

Oculus Go. "Completely wireless, you charge it up, put it on your face, and you’re off and running. Even the Gear VR needed you to have a specific model of smartphone and know how to plug it in correctly, using controls on the side of the headset itself for input. The Oculus Go lets your grandmother pop on a VR headset, use a remote-like controller that will feel instantly familiar, and dive straight into a VR video call with her grandkids." Learn more at DigitalTrends.

Wellness VR (Visual). "Reduce stress and promote well-being in seniors. The results of our pre/post evaluation of VR exposure show that virtual reality can help our elderly to maintain a high level of positive emotion and relaxation. Participants reported positive stimulation and therapeutic sensation and appraised VR as one of their preferred activities for even evading dementia." Learn more at Wellnessvr.io.

[NOTE: For those reading this post in email, please check out the source website, ageinplacetech.com.]

[NOTE: Will be speaking at 2019 Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit on June 6 in Berkeley.  Hope to see you there.]

category tags: 

VR/AR technology, Seniors, senior living, healthcare

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/five-virtual-reality-technology-offerings-older-adults-2019

Older adult finances and future senior housing options are out of sync

Rant on. A sad tale - reading the lament about the numbers of seniors who will not be able to afford assisted living in 10 years. The report is from NIC – the National Investment Center that provides research to the senior living industry. The upshot – 54% will be unable to pay the $60,000 average annual cost of assisted living (make that $93,000 in Washington DC), even if they sell their home. If one member of a couple is still living in the home, the number rises to 81%.  According to the study, 60% of the population aged 75+ will have mobility, cognitive impairment or chronic conditions that would characterize them as good candidates for assisted living services and settings – but will not have the savings to enable them to move in.

There are some problems with this study’s message to the industry.  First the affordability gap of assisted living and the population that could benefit. This has been a statistical fixture forever (move in age of 85 noted in 2012 and again in 2015). What has changed, if anything, is life expectancy. For those aged 65+, living into the late 80s or even the 90s is increasingly likely.  Looking at life expectancy lasting to mid-to-late 80s combined with average savings for those aged 75+ of $16,025 for a couple with no children, it is no wonder that the steady state penetration of assisted living remains stuck at 10% of the likely population, at least according to the industry. According to NCAL, seniros stay 22 months on average, before moving to skilled nursing. With assisted living occupancy at 85% being attributed to over-building, but one might also posit that price-plus-life expectancy keeps even the willing and interested at home.

Consider the operating margin of 34% and the real cost – can tech help?  This industry has been a real estate investment play from the very beginning. One executive interviewed for the NIC study observed, reluctantly, that margins could be compressed to create more affordable options, perhaps by building on less expensive land. Hopefully not from robbing the pay of CNAs who do the real hands-on labor – their average pay of $11-12/hour nationwide can’t be pushed down much further. Maybe high-end food choices could be trimmed, the lobby furniture more modest, or the long-shot on operational costs, noted in the Health Affairs the study: “Technology is already driving innovation. The implementation of an ever-expanding panoply of high-tech solutions such as artificial intelligence, voice technology, smart phone apps, smart sensors, and telehealth can help improve quality of life, and care, while reducing costs.” Right.

The margin question is about people -- how to need fewer or boost pay to recruit. The staff-to-resident ratios may, in some states, already be too thin to handle assisted living memory care residents. For families of a resident, that means supplementing the $60K annual cost with the hidden cost of needed private duty home care aides (same hourly rate). For many, that additional cost may drive families elsewhere, to nursing homes or back home. But the real problem will limit expansion of assisted living is a shortage of available workers -- for assisted living, skilled nursing and home care. Where to recruit this low-paid workforce in a high employment time, competing with wage levels of Walmart and McDonald’s? Finally, will we read the same lament in 10 years about the large population of now-aged boomers who cannot afford assisted living? Count on it.  Rant off.

category tags: 

senior living, baby boomers

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from Tips For Aging In Place https://www.ageinplacetech.com/blog/older-adult-finances-and-future-senior-housing-options-are-out-sync