Essentially, it is 'the big red button' which lets senior citizens stay in touch with their family easily - just hearing their family's voice or seeing their face can brighten up their day. Video chat is nothing short of magic, and this project aims to remove all the hassle in setting up a video call so that it is accessible at literally the push of a button.

Most phone companies try their best to make their tech accessible to the elderly with large text and text to speech software, but this does not take away from the base level complexity of the phone itself. Unfortunately, the statistic above will only have worsened in the context of this pandemic. According to the NHS : more than 2 million people in England over the age of 75 live alone, and more than a million older people say they go for over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member.

Not being able to visit your family who live across the country/globe is sad, but not being able to contact them first because you cannot remember or figure out how to call them is even sadder. Social isolation is one of the biggest issues facing the aging community in England, and with the current COVID-19 lockdown this problem is only worsening.

These days it's easy to forget that a lot of the technology that we use intuitively is very hard to use for the older generations who grew up with cord phones and black and white TVs. The inspiration to this project was my grandmother, who due to her deteriorating vision is finding it progressively harder to navigate the ever-changing menu screens and small fonts on her mobile phone to stay in touch with us.

Big red button