While the possibilities of Senior Chat are diverse enough to change communication as we know it, I’ll speak purely from the design intent point-of-view. The Senior Chat allows elderly people who are cooped up at home to converse with one and another. Simply put, it’s instant messaging, done in a way that retains the older ways of communication while allowing technology to do its thing. One simply writes a letter and scans it, sending it out anonymously to all the other people using Senior Chat. Pull the rope on the device and your received letter prints out in all its hand-written glory. More like a bulletin board at home, the Senior Chat allows elderly people who feel lonely to converse with each other in a way that seems comfortable to them, but still manages to retain an element of surprise and awe!
Now imagine being able to maintain a tiny, exclusive social network among your close friends with the Senior Chat! That’s my personal prediction for the future of this novel little device!
Designer: Choi Jae Yeon
