Honestly, I think Apple really needs to simplify the iPhone for the elderly. I know there are accessibility modes, but you don’t want to have to go through all that and spend hours trying to customize the phone. Also, the whole phone setup process needs to be delayed; having to go through it for an hour puts them off from even wanting to bother. I first set the phones up to make accounts, but it turns out none of them could understand how to unlock the phone. Entering a passcode was a nightmare because they kept forgetting it, even though it was a birthday they knew, lol.
So, I tried Touch ID and Face ID, and that was even more complicated and kept erroring out. Then, the Siri thing kept popping up on the phones with Touch ID, despite turning it off, and the whole swiping from the button kept making the screen go down to the bottom half. :/ There were too many apps; all they wanted was the phone app, but it doesn’t default to the keypad, which was too much for them to find.
The phones are too fiddly now, and pressing random things as they try to hold the phone meant the phone got lost in a sea of opening stuff up. So, I tried the assistive access, but why isn’t this an option from the get-go? It asks you the age of setup; why not have a 65+ or something for a senior mode?
They don’t need passcodes, accounts, and a sea of information. It’s insane, and it’s insane how fiddly these phones are. I never noticed because I’m used to it, but for these people with hands that barely move, the fake Touch ID button and the swiping from the bottom on Face ID phones seem to be the worst! I think having a proper physical button, like iPhones used to have, would have been superior. The one complaint about the fake button was that it didn’t feel like a real button, so they couldn’t gauge it.
I left there achieving nothing because they couldn’t figure out their old Nokia phones. The unlock thing on the keypad was too difficult, and if I turned that off, they kept dialing 999 in their pockets for some reason. That’s why I was there: they were calling emergency services 100 times a day, lol.
I think what I’ve realized is that I need to go back with flip phones that answer and hang up when you open and close them. However, the two I tried before didn’t act like that, and they had too many features. I really thought I could make the iPhone simple, but NOPE!
Apple should work on their phones to make them more accessible and less fiddly, without having to go through a sea of menus.
