I built out a simple "technology access" solution for my late grandma about five years ago. It was just some simple scripts running on a raspberry pi. The scripts would fetch emails from a gmail account, extract the attachments, and display them on loop. The subject line of the email, sender and the date were overlayed on the image.

The advantage over those IoT picture frame products was that I could use any display I wanted. A cheap 32" TV was perfect. This was key as her vision degraded. The approach also allowed anyone in the family with email to send her photos, no proprietary apps or accounts required.

She passed away mid-Covid and I didn't get to see her in her final 6 months, but she always bragged of her "picture machine." I think she was the envy of many of her fellow nursing home residents!

There are so many beautiful UI hints with this.

1) The shape of the microphone positively urges the user to lean forward and talk into it. Compare to a modern smartphone where it's not at all obvious where the microphone is.

2) The giant red button next to the microphone positively scream "press me to talk", and it's obvious that the red LED will light up when the button is pressed. Removes any "is this thing on"? thoughts.

3) The patch panel is quite genius, it's obvious how to target the desired recipient. One might quibble with the plug systenm, but using the large style plugs is a great choice for unsteady hands. These plugs have more leeway if not plugged all the way in than micro style plugs.

4) The recipients are all in a line, and due to the design, one of them is always selected. That removes any "did I select someone", sa I sometimes experience when sharing on my phone to some social network.

5) What's more, the last selected recipient is persistent, even in the event of a power cut.

6) Thermal printer is genius. Yaya can tear off important messages and carry them with her.

Two interesting things about this project.

1. Just about 100% of the code already existed, it just needed to be stuck together in a classy box. That's pretty damn cool: there's no need to re-invent the wheel for some advanced components, and it means more sophisticated ideas can be built quickly.

2. This has been posted 11 times on HN and it finally went viral: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=yayagram

The use of an XLR cord is a stroke of genius. Having the state of the machine clearly visible and manipulatable by people with fine motor problems solves 90% of the problems I encounter when volunteering with the elderly.

This is brilliant. A single device that does one thing, and does it (hopefully) really well. It is a much needed antidote to the "all in one" apps we are seeing more and more of.

Touchscreens really embody the "all in one" design pattern, and lend themselves to those types of apps. That's after all what they're intended for: interchangeable interfaces. Nice to see a modern service being used with an analog interface.

On top of the points others in this thread have made, I think this is also a lesson for UX designers. It's really obvious how the Yayagram works and how to use it and this is how our UX should be.

I want one. In fact I want there to be a whole line of quirky hardware interfaces to do simple things that we usually use a phone or computer for. They’re fun and I think kids would love them.

I think it's amusing to imagine what the fifty-years-from-now equivalent of this might look like. "I built a fake 'cell phone' that lets my grandpa 'text' me, it translates the words into thoughts and beams them directly to my neural implant."

For folks interested in technology that helps to keep our less-technological relatives connected, I highly recommend NanaGram[0].

I’ve been a paid user since the early days and it’s an absolute delight to my grandmother every single time it shows up during the month.

1. Register and get a unique phone number to text

2. Start sending photos to that number via SMS

3. Share the phone number with other relatives and tell them to do the same

4. Grandparent gets envelope of printed photos just like the ones filling their old albums on the shelves

It really is that easy. It’s affordable. And the founder is very responsive to any support inquiries.

It was a service I always wanted to build myself but never had the time. I’m very grateful for it.

[0] - https://nanagram.co/

This is really neat. It has me thinking about my own grandma who loves getting pictures on her phone, but is that the best interface for her? What if I could send pictures and they'd automatically print out, I think she'd like that even more. I think it's funny because that's a pretty easy thing to set up, but I never considered it until now.

This is incredible, I wish there were more analogue centered devices for older people with both hearing and vision loss. The combination makes it virtually impossible to interact with any well designed software because it's all touch screen and way too complicated. But also makes it impossible to interact with the limited number of phones with analogue buttons because they are usually feature phones with even worse designed software than touchscreen phones and at that point the analogue buttons don't really help at all. So yeah this is truly incredible.

This is brilliant, but maybe I missed it: what happens when yaya's run out of thermal paper? It feels like the Achilles' heel of this design. Perhaps, a blinking LED for out of paper situation? Can yaya change the roll herself? I'm concerned about it because I loved this project in all aspects, I want it to be perfect.

My thoughts are that the font should be larger for the names and and for the text output. Ideally include pictures next to the names, so even if it's hard to read, it would be easy to spot who you want to connect to. I didn't see it, but you also probably need a notification to reload the paper roll as you come to the end. This could be a warning LED and it could also be a warning text sent to some or all of the people on the other end of the YAYAGRAM that Yaya is running low on paper, can you help her reload?

This is the reason why I like Telegram so much more than WhatsApp. The fact theres an API and the possibility to write bots makes all the difference.

I firmly believe there is a market for this. Please, someone, make it a commercial reality.

Since I had kids, I've started using Google Photos automatic Albums (with face recognition) to share photos of my kids to the family (really out of my lazyness of sending it through whatsapp groups). My wife's grandma (86 y/o) is in that shared group and see the photos e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y. Recently she shared how important it is to her to see her grandgrandkids videos and photos during these lockdown times. There is all this talk abou how tecnology keep us apart but there are many use cases, like this, where it helps brings us together. In the past (grand)grandparents would stay months or even years without seeing and following their families lifes.

See also: ad-free smart TV for elders - https://m.habr.com/ru/post/511060/

When I'm asked to find some phone or other technology for an elderly relative, I'm always concerned about the usability of devices.

A lot of companies and people don't realy appreciate how much training is really needed to operate even the simplest of mobile phones.

I've not really seen any solutions other than making buttons bigger and reducing menu options, I'm sure these are great for those with deteriorating eyesight, but they aren't really offering anything for a person who has never used a smartphone before.

The real solution has to be usable by someone who has never operated _any_ modern technology - It has to be so simple you could maybe even train a dog to use.

An idea of mine is to have a bank of "walkie talkies" - one for each person you wish to speak to.

And this problem is always growing; my parents haven't retired yet, but even they are struggling to use today's on-demand television. What will happen when digital terrestrial TV is shut down and they have to learn to use whatever new interface is on the successor to the inevitably cancelled Android TV.

This is brilliant. It can help connect an entire generation that might otherwise be “left behind” in a thoughtful and meaningful way.

This is amazing. I can think of several relatives who would absolutely love something like this over struggling with a touchscreen.

I work on a company that is squarely targeted at the market of people who don't have Internet. Nearly 10% of Americans don't have Internet, the vast majority are older. During COVID, at least in my family, it was pretty stark. My grandmother didn't see a video of my nephews for essentially a year, as she was quarantined and doesn't know how to use a smartphone or tablet. She also doesn't have WiFi, so 'smart frames' and the like aren't an option (nor is this device unfortunately). It's a real market of real people.

This is so great. I'm really moved by the author's empathy and love. Those of you who are lucky enough to still have grandparents (or parents for that matter), please take inspiration to connect with them while you still can. Life is short, and nothing in the world can take the place of family.

Cool! So.. as much as I love the Yayagram, I think people underestimate the elderly and willingness to learn something that "makes sense" and technology that does not work against them.

To give an example, my 103 year old grandmother didn't know a thing about computers until we gave her an iPad about 6 years ago. Now she's available on FaceTime and e-mails. For some reason she doesn't find messaging interesting. She has a variety of hobbies (like knitting, reading and TV) but she checks the news both in paper format and on the iPad.

I am actually so thankful that iOS is relatively easy to understand and that Apple spent those millions on UX, because it could easily have gone the other way with technology working against her.

Is there a video of a gramma using it?

Super cute and well executed project.

But after imagining how this would work in practice, my loved ones sitting down to talk to a box and getting text responses some indefinite time later to recorded messages they might not even remember the contents of (I wouldn't), it seems comically sad. It makes me think of how unsatisfying it is to attempt any real convo over SMS.

Then again, I'm sure it's a supplement to the weekly or monthly video calls they're already having where yaya gets to see and hear their grandkids. But I can't shake the pathetic vision of yaya recording a 10min voice message and then, three days later, getting "school is good thx yaya!!".

That's really awesome. Then this comment:

"Is there any other way than thermal paper? It can't be processed like normal paper after usage. So it's quite bad for the Environment."

Heh. I wonder how much paper he thinks Yaya is using per annum.

I really appreciate the coverging of retro machines with modern APIs. I've been working on a smart home solution (automated blinds, etc), I really want to build a control panel with lots of physical switches like the Yayagram now

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter#Obsolescence_of_te...

Something like this needs to be made commercial at a reasonable price-point :-(. It will help bridge the technology gap between aged grand-parents who aren't comfortable with modern tech and up-to-date grand-kids who live in far-flung places and are more comfortable with the newer methods of communication. Also connecting to a network must be made transparent somehow in these devices like Kindle's WhisperNet.

My grandmother uses a smartphone since the first Samsung Galaxy Note, the first smartphone to have a big screen about 10 years ago. She is doing perfectly fine to receive and send text messages, photos, videos, and give audio and video calls.

Is there a way to create something like this for video calls? An always-on device that can make calls through Skype or similar? Or are the protocols too closed and apps too unavailable to make it possible.

Sometimes, the fact that my parents and grandmother are so good with technology disappoints me because I have fewer chances of building cool stuff like this.

Back in the 2000s, my mother & grandmother communicated via fax because grandma didn't have a computer. This makes sense to me!

Congrats on your project, looks promising! Thanks for using tg fork. If you've any new changes, feel free to send PRs.

This is such a beautiful project!

Can I buy this or would like to make one in partnership with someone!

I wonder if it's harder to voice-to-text your average Yaya.

Yaya: "Oh what the hell has this crazy kid made now..."

really inspiring

This is cute but bearing in mind most of today's grandparents (at least in the West) have had decades of using computers professionally and at least a good few years using tablets and smartphones, I really think the pitch should be directed elsewhere. I especially don't think they would appreciate a 'telegram' feature!

Also, I know it's not meant literally, but its genderisation as 'granny' is a really problematic cliche that I wish tech folk would stop repeating.

I only wish it weren't named Yaya, as I hate promoting the idea that old women are the pinnacle of technological ineptness. I know that wasn't the intent, but still. It's unfortunately a common expression to say "This product is so easy, even your grandmother can use it!" As if the only group more incompetent than old people, is old women (or, if you prefer, the only group more incompetent than women are old women).

I really think it's time to consciously move away from this outdated meme.