
My Product Is Unexpectedly Being Used to Help People with Dementia - aacook
https://nanagram.co/blog/nanagram-for-dementia/
======
arkades
I signed up for this the last time it came up on HN. Although I’ve had trouble
on my end with mailing addresses and uncooperative nursing homes, Alex at
Nanagram has been absolutely fantastic and proactively helpful.

It’s been a niche use-case for me - getting photos to the two grandparents
that can’t get on board with smart phones - but as far as it goes, it’s a
phenomenal product for that niche. It’s definitely allowed me to keep
grandparents involved with my newborn in a way that would otherwise not be
nearly as convenient. The closest alternative would be to make a point of
sending a snapfish order every few weeks; with NG, I just text a photo to them
at the same time I’m texting my other relatives.

My only wish is that they could somehow foolproof their packaging to get past
the front desk at nursing homes, but I don’t know if that’s possible. NH seem
to just not be built for accepting mail for their residents.

It’s a good service, run by good people.

~~~
aacook
Thanks so much for the kind words. I'm working on some new packaging. Nursing
homes tend to be pretty sensitive about HIPAA and mail. I had a dream to get
NanaGram into nursing homes as a group activity, hammered on sales a while and
put it on the back burner. I'll probably revisit it soon. The general idea is
people would open their photos together, making for a way for residents and
team members to get to know each other better. All of the photos would come in
one box to avoid delivery issues.

All that said, I'm working on some new packaging and will reach out to you by
email to get you hooked up in a beta so we can improve your delivery.

~~~
reitanqild
Add chocolate to the boxes ;-)

And a note: "take care of the grandmas/grandpas and also make sure these
photos gets delivered to their rooms and there probably be another box next
month."

I'm joking but I feel I'm not too far away from a useful idea.

~~~
acct1771
It's a lovely idea, but with forethought into allergy concerns in medical
facilities and shared homes (especially in international market), as well as
maybe import/health code related stuff, I wouldn't sidetrack the original
vision for it.

------
abakker
I really like this product. As others have said, Alex is excellent at customer
service. He’s taken my actual phone calls, and really helped out. He’s even
implemented some features that helped my sister contribute from Scotland (with
no overseas SMS). I continue to recommend it constantly.

~~~
aacook
Thank you! I love talking to customers on the phone. I subscribe to the idea
of building a product or feature for one person. You kickstarted what
eventually became an international email product. Now we've got customers
delivering all over the place. Pretty soon I hope to start shipping worldwide.
Thanks for sharing us with your friends.

~~~
kaybe
Might it be cheaper/easier/more ecofriendly to print in the destination
country?

(Which probably might not be possible for any country, but for example in
Europe it might work pretty well. Many printers offer the services you'd need
I think. Or just one printer per continent might also be ok.)

Although there might be other problems of course.

~~~
aacook
We're doing that right now with most international destinations. We just don't
have a Canadian printer. It's likely I'll start printing them here in the
Boston area for Canadian users. The US and Canada offer super fair postage
rates for first-class mail.

------
crazydoggers
Thank you for a product that focuses on a real need for the elderly. It might
seem like an inconsequential thing to some, but I’m sure this kind of thing
can considerably improve the quality of life for older people.

My mom has always embraced technology, but as she gets older, I can see her
struggling with increasing anxiety using her computer and iPad, etc. I can
imagine some day this being the perfect thing for her.

It’s so easy to forget our older loved ones, and it’s easy for the elderly to
slip through the cracks of our society. I’d love to see more companies out
there solving problems like this that improve the quality of life for the
elderly.

Bravo for a product that brings joy and makes the world a little nicer place.

~~~
aacook
Thanks so much! Susan Pinker gave a fantastic Ted talk about this topic:
[https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_longer_may_be_your_social_life)

The #1 factor to leading a long and happy life is the frequency of your social
interactions, both with close friends and family and acquaintances. I'm
certainly getting reports of people talking to their grandparents more since
they started sending photos and it warms my heart.

There's quite a bit happening in this space which has recently been coined by
some as "elder tech." Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan's fund Initialized are
investing in the space in startups like
[https://www.joinpapa.com](https://www.joinpapa.com).

------
snthd
On a tangent, the BBC has a site to assist with "reminisce therapy" using
material from BBC archives.

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2017-02-bbc-rem-arc-
dementia-m...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2017-02-bbc-rem-arc-dementia-
memories-archive)

[https://remarc.bbcrewind.co.uk/index.html](https://remarc.bbcrewind.co.uk/index.html)

~~~
aacook
Awesome, haven't seen this yet. Thanks. The UK seems to be leading the way in
elder care. Last year, they appointed a "Ministry of Loneliness."
[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/europe/uk-
britain-l...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/europe/uk-britain-
loneliness.html)

------
phasetransition
Thumbs up everything about this product. I just started a side project that
has minimal interface goals for a low(er) tech use case, and this is lovely.

~~~
aacook
Nice! Best of luck with launching.

------
tokyokawasemi
Good to see you ship to Canada too. I'm in Japan where Mixi has a service
called
[Nohana]([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19966877](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19966877))
that's similar (but an app), but looking forward to checking yours out, maybe
with the help of my brothers back home. Nice work!

~~~
aacook
Sweet! I haven't heard of Nohana yet, thanks for sharing. Japan seems like it
would be a great place to expand to soon.

BTW, I'm hoping to drop the price for Canada in the next couple months!

------
lemiant
@aacook this is awesome! I just showed it to my sister and we're going to sign
up for my Grandma's birthday next month. One request: Snapchat is our native
photo sharing app (and I assume that's true for many other millennials) any
chance there's a way to send from snapchat in the works?

~~~
aacook
Thank you! I've explored other platforms. One of the reasons I've been
hesitant to rely too heavily on social tools is NanaGram is often used for
photos that never make their way to social. That said, Whatsapp has an API but
it's invite-only and I've had no luck getting in. It's too bad because it
would be a perfect medium. Hopefully in time.

Snapchat would be a great fit. I looked it about a year ago and it wasn't
feasible. I'll take a look again!

In the meantime, we do support email by giving you a unique NanaGram email
address.

~~~
acct1771
Making the UX on explaining/teaching the user how to add a custom email as a
contact, or doing it for them, will be huge.

~~~
aacook
Thanks! I had a step in the initial onboarding to let folks add their NanaGram
recipient as a contact via a contact.vcf file. I user tested with 5-6 people
and couldn't quite nail it. Had other priorities at the time and decided to
back burner it. The concept of downloading a vcf file, opening it, etc is
foreign to many people. Another challenge to nail was the copy around adding a
contact record for the recipient, as many people were confused (I already have
a contact for my Nana!) This kind of address book integration seems easier to
do in a native app. Soon, I hope!

------
laurex
I also work on a product that's been unexpectedly beneficial for dementia,
amount other things (Marco Polo). As a researcher, it's been a revelation
about how often products are useful in ways we don't design for, and the
inverse, how products designed for a purpose can end up having negative or
even counterproductive effects. (Social Media might fall into both
categories). This is a good argument for design and user research in general.

~~~
aacook
Awesome! My wife and her family are crazy about your app. Her mom discovered
an unknown half-sister through an Ancestry.com match. They used Marco Polo to
get to know each other. My wife's mom also sends monthly printed photos via
NanaGram.

------
Mizza
Just sent this to my mom. I think your product looks really useful, joyful,
well-priced, well-built and well-run. I think if you keep it up, you'll be
really successful! I'm rooting for you!

~~~
aacook
Nice! Thanks so much for the supportive words. There have been a few times
were I've considered "giving up" (putting this on the back-burner to take on
contract work and pay the bills) but I've been fortunate with things like this
HN thread. I'm also lucky to have a crazy supportive wife and family.

------
gnicholas
Costco sends photos for free when you order from a computer. I regularly send
a handful of photos to my older relatives and pay just 17¢ each. Print quality
is much better than places like Walgreens, IMO.

~~~
aacook
Nice, thanks for sharing! Do you have to be a member? It's free shipping with
no order minimum?

NanaGram works best for people with siblings or cousins who want to send a
curated pack of photos to their loved ones. The account owner can invite
people to send in photos and everyone can tailor reminders (1 week, 3 days, 3
hours, etc from the monthly ship date).

The other nice thing is the interface, since most of the time there isn't one.
We give you a unique phone number and all you have to do is text your photos
to the number.

I'm hoping to release a couple low-priced solo-sender plans soon.

~~~
gnicholas
No minimum! I literally send 3 photos for the cost of a stamp. You do have to
be a member, I think.

~~~
aacook
That's pretty cool. Thanks for this. I tried to sign up but it won't let me
through without a member number
([http://bit.ly/2YDIHaD](http://bit.ly/2YDIHaD)). Maybe Costco is able to do
this using member fees to offset the costs.

I am offering a way for people to try us completely free right now. It's on
the home page. You can also just text 3 photos to 617-622-5124.

I wonder if Costco ships internationally. Thanks again for the heads up.

~~~
gnicholas
Costco doesn't ship internationally. I used them to make the mugs for a
Kickstarter once, and I had to pick up and separately mail all the
international orders.

I appreciate your letting people try this for free! I would pay a little extra
to get their good quality printing and matte option. Of course, the
convenience you offer would also be great!

------
matthewaveryusa
Bah this was on my todo list for a while -- ended up subscribing today
finally!

~~~
aacook
So amped to have you on board.

------
TadaScientist
It's a great idea and I wish I'd known last Christmas when I had to print and
post 5-6 photos to 5 recipients with a total cost of ~£100. My hustle also
costs something but it's not priced in.

Only one question if I may. How can I know for sure you delete the photos? Is
the business GDPR compliant? If I am based in the EU, do my photos need to go
to server in the US? I'd prefer if they didn't have my young daughter's
pics...

~~~
aacook
Thanks for these details. We take privacy extremely seriously. Most
international folks use the email version of our product. In that case, they'd
go from your mailbox to ours (Google Apps / Gmail) and then onto our server
(Digital Ocean, NYC). We never use your images for marketing or promotion,
unless in specific cases where we have your permission. For example, when
people post reviews with their loved ones holding NanaGram prints. We don't
get that many requests for deletion, but when we do, I run a full delete on
your data.

------
willdotphipps
Thank you, what a great idea! :)

~~~
aacook
Thank you! I can't take credit for the idea. That goes to my brother Andy.
He'd originally dubbed the prototype "Instagrandpa" but we thought Facebook
might get upset and went with NanaGram.

~~~
Kuraj
Good for you, because that's a fantastic name.

~~~
aacook
Thanks! I wrote a little bit more about the story around the name at
[https://nanagram.co/blog/the-grandma-test](https://nanagram.co/blog/the-
grandma-test)

------
brlewis
Is an API on your roadmap?

~~~
aacook
Not yet. What would you use it for? Alternatively, drop me an email via the
button on the bottom right of the home page.

~~~
brlewis
Mostly curious. I have an old photo sharing site and was wondering what kinds
of integrations are possible.

------
docker_up
As someone who is dealing with a mother with actual dementia, the term "tool
to fight dementia" is deeply misleading at best.

It's fine as a product, but it does nothing to "fight" dementia. It's a
convenience and that's it.

"Fighting" implies that it has some therapeutic value that can stop or slow
down the progression of the disease, and this does nothing. It's just an easy
way to flip through pictures. After watching my mom go from a brilliant
pharmacist to an incontinent, paranoid, angry stranger in the span of 6 years,
I guarantee you there is absolutely nothing that flipping through a photobook
will do that will do to fight dementia.

It's great for grandparents and older folks because it's familiar and
convenient and easy to change. It's not a tool to fight dementia.

~~~
aacook
I am truly sorry to hear about your mom's dementia progression. I can only
imagine. Wishing you and your family strength.

A few of my customers have mentioned it's helping them. I observed first-hand
that going through fresh photos seemed to help my grandma too. She had
dementia, although hers didn't progress as far as your moms. Maybe the photos
didn't help but instead it was the frequent interactions with her loved ones
that did. Also, maybe products like NanaGram help in the early stages of the
disease but not later on.

I'm not a psychologist and dementia is an extraordinarily complex disease. I'm
most definitely not trying to mislead. I drafted a few different variations on
the title and ended up going with this one to get the point across.

~~~
docker_up
I appreciate what you said, and I don't assume bad intent.

However, I would urge you to be careful with the words that you choose,
especially when it comes to a topic like this. I have no doubt that your
product will make those with dementia happy and having actual tangible photos
is easy for anyone to use. Seeing photos of loved ones or just photos in
general even if they don't recognize the people anymore. Anyone will get happy
looking at a picture of beautiful child. We have an iPad for my mom just for
that purpose and my siblings will go through pics with my mom all the time.
She no longer recognizes my wife or my son (she confuses my son with me now
all the time, and she talks to the iPad thinking that she is communicating
with the person on the screen). But no doubt seeing those pictures makes her
happy in that moment.

But dementia is an extremely cruel disease, worse than any other because it
robs people of their humanity over many years and leaves families with huge
bills and extreme guilt.

Photos won't help. Exercise doesn't help. Neither will omega fatty acids,
various other pills or diets, 40 Hz light therapy, etc. It will continue to
progress until the person is only alive in the clinical sense, but will be
nothing like what their family remembers. Photos make people laugh and smile,
but that's not help in any sense more than watching a funny tv show would
help.

~~~
aacook
Thanks so much for all of your feedback. I won't take it lightly. Looks like
HN edited the title. I edited mine too. I'll be thinking of your feedback when
writing future posts.

