After last week’s unfortunate review of the Claris tablet by a magazine called FastCompany, I got in touch with Claris Healthcare. One of Claris’ people said they don’t have any control over a journalist’s choice of headings, but she was dismayed by the “firestorm” that reviewer had created. It seemed fair to offer Claris a chance to say something on their own behalf, so here is their statement from Kara Wood:
Simple is Smart
There has been quite a bit of discussion about a recent article titled ‘A Tablet So Simple, Even An Old Person Can Use It’. Claris Healthcare, the company that makes Claris Companion – the subject of the article, appreciates the opportunity to offer our perspective.
Kara Wood, Claris Healthcare
There are a lot of older seniors that enjoy keeping pace with today’s rapidly changing technology. But there’s also a portion of the population (independent of age) that isn’t interested, or because of a physical disability, isn’t able to benefit from being online. We developed Claris Companion to help anyone connect with friends, family and caregivers by removing the barriers imposed by modern computer design.
The latest tablet is great if you want to learn all about the pages of icons, settings, menus and options. But what if you aren’t that interested? As my 92-year-old mother would put it, “I never had to enter a user name and password to answer the phone, or launch a web browser and enter a URL to read a letter”.
She’s far from alone. Yes, seniors are the fastest growing population of Internet users (see Sparkbeat 2012/07/03) – not to mention the fastest growing segment of the population, period – but there are a significant portion who simply don’t want to climb the learning curve to get the benefits of the Internet, or due to disease like arthritis or Parkinson’s, have trouble with devices that were specifically designed for a different demographic of users.
So our design challenge was to make a device that can engage anyone in online communications – sharing of email, text messaging and photos with family in a way that most others take for granted. And there is a much larger issue at play here. Access to the Internet is not just about photos and email; but for our aging population, it is increasingly critical to their care and wellbeing. That’s because our healthcare system simply cannot withstand the wave of aging boomers that is coming. We will no longer be able to provide prolonged care for older seniors in hospital or extended care facilities – increasingly people will have to age at home. So effective delivery of self-care assistance and monitoring at home will be critical to successful aging-in-place.
The answer is to be sure that the immediate benefits outweigh the effort required to use the technology. The benefits side of this equation is easy –most people (including older seniors) are very happy to engage with sharing photos, email and text messages with family – and even adopting personalized self-care assistance if and when they want.
It’s the other side of the equation that is challenging – how to design something that doesn’t require any training at all to use. This is not about ‘dumbing down’ computers to make them ‘so simple even old people can use them’. This is about designing something where the benefits are much greater than the effort required to use it. That’s what we believe we have achieved with Claris Companion.
Apparently, we have found that balance for my mother. She now gets photos sent to her from everyone in the family and dashes off emails to us too. But what is even more important to me is that she has now decided to turn on the medication reminders and I get a notification each day confirming that everything is okay.
Once again, Lynne, looks like you are on the front line of issues us Gen Fabbers are facing. I am regrouping at my family’s cabin and looking forward to catching back up with your posts.
I agree with one of the earlier commenters that no computer technology for self-help is going to help us when our memory fails..and it will. I think of my partner’s 91 yr. old mother who fell on the floor and laid there for 2 days because she couldn’t get up to get to the phone. No cell phone on the counter will help you. And who wants to wear a cell phone at home all the time or will have the fortune / luxury /emergency alert system tied to paramedic/nurse response? Will all of us afford this?
There are days I get tired of dealing with IDs and passwords for all the tools I use for personal purposes and for work.
But nothing with a simplifed tablet design.
I would like to hear directly from Fast Company for the way how it was advertised..
By the way, she got me interested in the Claris Companion.
Me too, for my mom! But the writer of the article Zak Stone, was unhappy with the title assigned by the editor. He felt it was in “poor taste.” But I didn’t say that because I didn’t want Zak to get in trouble. A difficult call.
Shame on the editor. Wow. He or she is paid far too much for what he or she offers.
I never had any problem with the product itself. But, dammit, words do matter! It’s unfortunate that Claris had to be associated with a writer who had no clue. And, honestly, the Fast Company editor’s response was equally clueless and stupid. That’s what I responded to on their comment section. What a shame that a lot of new writers or writers in other fields, just don’t get what rhetoric is all about – that word choice frames whatever follows. And if the wrong words are used in the Headline, then the message is gone forever. Poor Claris. I’m glad, though, that they are thinking about the special needs of lots of people. That’s what good technology should be about – usability reigns supreme, not gadgetry.
I haven’t read the original article on FastCompany, but I’ll go look for it. It’s usually one of my favorite websites, so it’s a shame that the article had a negative spin. I do like your perspective here and giving Claris a chance to give their side. It’s a real issue getting everyone to use technology. Regardless of age. It’s how communication happens now and everyone needs to be using it. Whatever it takes to do it, is what society needs.
Downton Abbey is one of my favorite shows and I see so many similarities between then and now. We are just 100 years in the future, but the hesitance to use new technology is the same then and now. Some people were wary of using electricity, phones and driving cars. But we can look back now and see that anyone who thought they could avoid them was being naive. Now it’s the Internet, solar power, gene mapping and everything that’s coming that most of us cannot even imagine. Except for some 5 year old who’s dreaming up the next big thing in 15 years.
Lisa, thanks for your support. I don’t sense any malice in the folks at FastCompany, at all, just maybe oblivion. Clendaniel doesn’t, apparently, feel the issue has merit, which makes him look kind of obtuse (it’s a day for ob-words). I think it’s fantastic to have lived thru the time spanning carbon paper/whiteout (speaking for myself) up to what we have today. For the most part I’m thrilled, and I think Claris is on to something. Now if I could just get my Android calendar for Google to sync back to my laptop!
I have a fundamental disagreement with the idea that taking charge of one’s own health at any age requires a device like the Claris tablet. For example:
***Taking prescribed meds every day is extremely easy to do by using one of those cheap plastic gizmos divided into days of the week with subdivisions for times of the day. I keep mine in the bathroom by the sink.
***Making and keeping doctors’ appointments is not high-tech business. I write mine on a calendar.
***For a Type 2 diabetic, measuring blood glucose is simple and quick, but—when the mother in the video got a message about measuring her blood glucose–she touched “Show Me” on the screen. Huh? She’s forgotten how to put the test strip into the glucose meter since the last time? Maybe she needs to look at the simple written directions and figure that came with the meter.
Finally, the main concern about the projected “wave of aging boomers” has to do with Alzheimer’s disease because there is still no definitive way to prevent it, diagnose it, or treat it. The Claris tablet may possibly help family to check in but only during the early stages.
I have one of those cheap plastic things with my pills in them. It’s next to my sink. Last night I forgot to take them. Too bad it coudn’t send me a message!
I don’t think Claris is saying an electronic device is required, just that it’s a nice tool to make self-care a little more organized and easier. It’s too bad FastCompany didn’t consult with Claris first before trashing their customers. It was obvious to me when reading the FastCompany review that it was written by your basic youngish, arrogant techie types. They’re great with technology, but tend to be not so good with people. I worked with techies for 20 years and have a deep respect for their skills and amazement that they see the world and people so differently than I do. Good on you, Lynne, and your other readers for pointing out that not all new technology is going to be used by younger people with mad computer skills and good eyes!
Thanks, Sorta. Several commentors pointed out that older peeps laid the groundwork for all this tech stuff to come into existence in the first place, and here is the news of one of them passing last week: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-douglas-engelbart-20130704,0,1651153.story
I would be interested to know what is meant here by ‘old’ where people are feeling insulted by the terminology. Is that when you turn 60 or 90? Madeleine mentions how easy it is to follow taking medications by using the blister packs. My 86 year old mother recently commented to me how those blister packs are a sign of her independence. No – not remembering to take them, but putting the tablets in the blisters in the first place. She claims most of her friends (those not in a care facility) use the services of the local pharmacist (chemist / druggist) to do that on a weekly basis. She is proud that she is still able to do it herself.
My mother is still writing history books, by the way, so is intellectually fully functional. However, there has been gradual loss of her physical capabilities over the past 5 – 10 years. There is no doubt that there are some things that older people find more difficult.
Elizabeth, you raise good points. Personally, I wonder when we’re going to stop using OLD as a negative. It means something, it’s like a code word for certain attributes, but those attributes are actually not age-related. Here’s one: old can mean uninvolved, out-of-it. That’s certainly not limited to a certain age. Anyway, that’s my wish, that we can start using more accurate words (e.g. “her vision is weak,” or “he can’t climb stairs so needs to take the elevator”) and stop our unconscious ageism. Thanks for commenting.
Good point!
My 86 years young mother refuses to join the local ‘senior citizens’ club as she does not think of herself as senior. Instead she belongs to the local history society, the show society, church groups and volunteer groups for various charities. It is definitely a perception thing.
Whatever keeps her afloat. Sounds like she knows her mind – a good example of maturity.
Lynne, I appreciate your attempts to present both sides of the story. Kara’s response makes perfect sense. It is unfortunate that the negative spin has had such extensive coverage. This certainly shows the power of headlines and words in shaping opinions–there’s always more to the story. Thank you for bringing this to our attention and for offering a platform to clarify.
Hi Kathy, the discussion is good, because it helps us see ageism in real time. However, Claris is the innocent party getting slandered by FastCompany, which doesn’t seem right. Hopefully this will help clear things up. PS happy belated birthday, my friend!
The response makes perfect sense. Too bad the ad wasn’t this earnest in explaining the benefits. It’s always retrospect that makes the errors in approach abundantly clear. They likely fired that ad designer and have someone else to design a new ad for them, but in the mean time, I’m sure they have lost a lot of potential clients in this blunder. It’s not the product that was a bad concept. It was the insulting marketing that got them into trouble. If they continue to run the same ad, they are really not getting it!
Tamara, Claris didn’t hire FastCompany. FastCompany isn’t a marketing company, it’s a magazine like Consumer Reports – they did a review of the Claris product. FastCompany is the party that caused the bad impression. Claris had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry I didn’t make that clearer. Thanks for your comment.
Being a fifty something woman and someone living with a disability, I represent thousands of people who I post to each day about ways to live a better quality of life. I am glad I will be able to talk about this new product. Thank you Lynne for sharing this.
My pleasure, Cathy. I think this might be the needed link between offline and on for many people. Do help me get the word out to them, and thanks.
I appreciate the forum for Kara to receive ‘equal time’ (I realize we’re not talking about a monthly circulation that parallels ‘Fast Company’ – but your followers are reliable and talk a lot to so there’s hope). And I love the new pictures of you too..
Mimi, thanks. I wanted to be fair. It would be nice if readers would publicize this tiny, if earnest, effort at setting the record straight. Thanks for coming by.