Laura Urban Perry is a Seattle-based designer and has provided interface design for BigScreenLive. Laura took an active role in the creation of electronic publishing tools at Aldus and Adobe - the developers of PageMaker, Photoshop, and Acrobat PDF. Laura has led consumer and corporate user interface design efforts for Amazon, America Online, Hewlett Packard, various innovative startups, online magazines, and small businesses. We take the opportunity to introduce Laura as one of our team and get her perspective on the BigScreenLive product.

Question: What has made BigScreenLive interesting for you?
Making interaction with computers effortless for anyone. For this particular market, there are ways to make tasks simple. We do this by using clear visual space, simple and engaging graphics consistently placed, and making the experience memorable. The goal is to make each task understandable each and every time you come to it. In my view older adults are not as successful as they can or should be with computers. Its interesting to me to help fix that.

Question: Why do you think Seniors need computers?
Computers provide a way for Seniors to connect with their family and friends who are using computers. Younger people use computers to communicate with friends. Computers are now a social and conversational tool not just a productivity tool. If Seniors can use a computer, they can more frequently connect with friends and family who they are separated from by time and distance.

Question: Why not use a phone?
When you send a letter (or todays equivalent, an email) you can take as long as you want to craft it. For the person receiving an email its a different thing than a phone call. I don’t see the computer replacing the need for phone calls, but as another form of communication. So there are some things that a phone call is appropriate for and some things that an email is good for. And often busy family members don’t take the time for a phone call but will take a quick minute to communicate via email with their senior if it’s an option.

Question: What have the challenges been for you as a designer working on BigScreenLive?
Making it easy to see and learn - making the type clear, making it obvious what’s clickable, making it easy for users to find what they want quickly and directly.

Question: What is the best part of the product?
I think the set of features we have brought together and how we get them to work together. But our future ideas are exciting.

Question: Have you been inspired by any stories of people using the product?
I interviewed a woman who had got her Dad using the product. He had used a computer at work and knew computers well. But as he got older he became more forgetful and had stopped using the computer - it was now too complex for him. Once he had BigScreenLive he was able to use his computer again and send email. It enabled him to engage again over email and he was happier and more confident in himself as a result. To me that’s inspiring.

Question: What’s your vision for BigScreenLive?
I see it as a place for seniors to go that brings them delight every day. They get to see a message from a loved one, to see a photo, to learn something new. They engage with family, community, and the world right from their home. This means people are in touch, not out of touch. I see it as very empowering for seniors to be active members of the online community.

Question: Do you have any tips for someone new to BigScreenLive?
Try clicking on each button to see what’s there. You can’t make a mistake. Also, remember the ‘A’ buttons at the bottom of the screen enlarge the type for people with low vision so try that out to get the text to the right size for you.

There has been a lot of interest in the potential for computer games as a way to help exercise your brain. Many seniors are interested in these products. I was recently passed this interesting review of some of these products, by Kelly Greene of the Wall St Journal.

eMarketer has released some interesting findings regarding Boomers online behavior - see You’ve Come a Long Way, Boomers, and You’re Online Now!

The author of the report, Lisa Phillips, makes the point that older Boomers go online “to get things done, such as finding information on products and services, shopping, and staying in touch with friends and family”. The challenge is how to keep this group online as they age and find technology harder to use. Look below at how big this population and the fact that a growing proportion of this group is getting online - in five years time there will be almost 60 million US baby boomers online. That’s a significant market that deserves to have products and services tailored to their needs.

Paul Glader of the Wall Street Journal has written an interesting article “Home Appliances to Soothe the Aches of Aging Boomers” explaining how appliance manufacturers are starting to design products with seniors in mind. These companies recognize that the “around 76 million baby boomers — born between 1946 and 1964 — control the biggest share of purchasing power for the roughly $25 billion U.S. appliance market”. Also, that “more than half of Americans are expected to have elder-care responsibilities within 10 years, and many will likely want their homes to be senior-friendly”. It’s great to see designers targeting the needs of seniors. While GE and Whirlpool are helping the kitchen and laundry, we’re working on making it easy for seniors to use computers. See the full article here. The Wall Street Journal also has a video showing designers trying out what its like to be a senior with arthritis working in the kitchen.

In these days of ‘cloud computing’ its possible to have all your data stored on a central server somewhere ‘in the cloud’ and to access your information from any computer that can connect to the server. With the BigScreenLive product the way we make this easy is to provide our software on a USB memory stick. Simple plug the ‘BigScreenLive to Go’ USB stick into any Windows XP or Vista personal computer and the software will launch from the stick and give you access to your BigScreenLive account. Since your data is all on our server ‘in the cloud’ you don’t have to worry if you lose the stick as there is nothing personal on it - all your emails, contacts, and pictures are stored on our server rather than on the USB stick. Someone finding the stick can’t access your account unless they have your username and password to get into your account.

The BigScreenLive to Go USB stick gives you access to BigScreenLive from any PC

Having a BigScreenLive to Go USB stick allows seniors to use simple email, easy picture sharing, shop on Amazon, look at news, or access their address book when they are away from their own PC. This means they can easily access BigScreenLive on a computer in an internet cafe, in a residential computer room, at the library, or while visiting a friend of family member. To learn more about BigScreenLive to Go click here.