I grabbed the wrong clicker

In my home, the TV remote is known as a clicker. And there are 4 different “clickers” sitting near our TV, in a maddening display of technological overreach. Why not just one? Why are there so many unused buttons? Why are they all the same color with no distinguishing logos for identification purposes?

Why, why, why? I’m carping about industrial design created by engineers. We have extraordinary engineering prowess in the world that has taken us into space, created the Internet, cured diseases, built bridges and tunnels, and made the art of living less challenging. But there are still mountains to climb and conundrums to solve where engineers have failed, by inflicting unnecessary burdens and needless friction on us, the target users. Great design matches human needs with technical resources. It must be economically feasible and practical; human-centric and balanced between emotion and rationality.

At Healthrageous, we are laser-focused on a friction-free experience for the seniors who enjoy our meals. Here are examples of our senior-centric design:

- One survey noted that 56% of seniors have never downloaded an app for use in health care. So, we designed Healthrageous to depend on an SMS texting platform – nothing to download.  

- Our frozen meals are viable for up to a year in the freezer. Were we to ship an entire program of meals at once, we would save on storage, shipping and handling. But then seniors would receive a large, heavy box that would be difficult to lift and too many meals to fit into their freezer. Hence, we ship every week.

- We could insist on using our SMS platform or email for enrollment and meal ordering. But we know there are seniors who will want to speak with someone, so we also offer our call center for those functions.

- We could only have 10 meal selections and no customizations when ordering. Instead, we offer 32 different meals, with cultural diversity and plant-based offerings to meet a variety of needs.

- Each meal that we have produced meets key criteria for those with heart or diabetes conditions. We wanted to spare seniors the burden of reading fine print labels with ingredients and having to decide which of our meals was right for their dietary needs.

- We could be loading refrigerators with fresh fruit and vegetables. But the elderly have made it clear that CONVENIENCE is the most important ingredient in their mealtime rituals – so we’ve prepared the meals for them.

By offering our Healthrageous Made Easy Meals program to Medicare members, we’ll not only provide them with delicious & nutritious heat-and-ready to eat meals, we’ll also remind them about wellness visits and important screenings, nurses standing by to help with medical concerns, a free transportation benefit, and the other benefits offered to improve their health and make their lives better. We’ll help keep them healthy and engaged.

We are not done cooking up new ways to reduce meddlesome friction from the daily lives of seniors. But I can assure you that we are huge advocates for senior-centric design and will continue to make that our mission while serving the Medicare population. Let us sweat the small stuff, and together we can help your members focus on optimizing their Golden Years. Click HERE to get more information about how to get Healthrageous to sweat the small stuff.