You know the moment—your phone lights up and your heart does a quick gymnastics routine because it is an unexpected call from your parents. First thought: Please don’t let it be about health. Second thought: Oh no, please don’t let it be about technology.
This time, it was my dad. And yes, it was a tech issue.
Tech problems in my parents’ world usually fall into two categories: a forgotten password or an app that has “mysteriously disappeared.” (Root cause analysis: the app was accidentally moved to the second page of the home screen.)
I always start with the universal solution: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Sounds simple, right? Now, try explaining to your dad that rebooting his iPhone requires pressing two buttons at the same time. Instead, he’ll usually press one button, wait to see what happens, and then press the second—completely missing the reboot screen. I once spent 15 minutes just trying to explain the meaning of “pressing the buttons together”.
The password saga is my personal favorite. My parents like to scribble passwords in the margins of calendars. One unforgettable day, they solemnly informed me that their passwords had “expired” because they were written on last year’s calendar, which had since been unceremoniously sent to Bukit Tagar’s landfill.
And don’t get me started on scam text messages. My sister and I are seriously considering hosting a family seminar titled “Why Elon Musk Don’t Usually Slide Into Your DMs.”
Still, as much as I’m tempted to confiscate their smartphones altogether, I know that’s not the solution. Instead, we train them. Or, better yet, as app developers, we need to design technology that’s so intuitive they won’t need our help in the first place.
Remember when Apple introduced the one-button mouse and the “no more than three clicks” philosophy? Simpler times. Now, using a smartphone feels like performing an interpretive finger dance: Swipe up! Swipe down! Left, but not too left! For our parents, it’s like asking them to do touchscreen yoga with arthritic fingers.
As someone who has managed digital applications, I firmly believe that creating intuitive interfaces is paramount. My golden rule? If my parents can’t figure it out on their own—without panic-calling me—it’s back to the drawing board.
Is it challenging to build such user-friendly applications? Absolutely. It’s a delicate balancing act: encapsulating all the functionality of your app while making the interface feel intuitive, personal, and seamless. And it doesn’t stop there. The iterative design-develop-deploy cycle ensures the app gets better with every release.
But in the end, it’s worth it. If it spares us just one dreaded tech support call from an anxious parent, that’s a win.