My Erickson

It’s not perfect, but it supports the needs of the Erickson senior living community about as well as possible, given the age and diversity of the population, some of whom lack digital age skills.

I have to take exception with the technical criticism of this app. I have been associated with massive efforts to test and design apps for a diverse residential population. It is really complicated. This Erickson app is designed for a primarily senior population. The lack of bells and whistles supports the aptitude of the users. We are talking senior users with cell phones. The hypothetical high school programmer would never be willing to support an app for this population. I’m a relatively new resident and find the app well designed to answer questions and provide information for the residents here. Now—if you can add a feature —incorporate a GPS feature to help navigate the grounds at Charlestown!

Not exaggerating, most high school kids could write better software. It is aesthetically horrible, seriously looks like something from the 1990s. Also not obvious to navigate. It does not allow the use of a device’s biometrics, so when you log in you have to manually log in every time. Interestingly, the Erickson sales web site is amazing — slick, interactive, easy to find things. So they know how to do user-friendly software, they just don’t care to spend any money once they have yours.