Buttonworks and resident apps and tablets
Resident apps, portals, and in-room tablets cover activities, menus, announcements, and family video calls. Those are real jobs and Buttonworks does none of them. The part worth examining is what happens when the same app is also where a resident is supposed to ask for something.
Where a resident app works well
- The activity calendar, the menu, and family video calls genuinely belong on a screen.
- Families get a window into the building, which is a large part of why these get bought.
- A tablet mounted in the room cannot be lost.
Where it runs out
- It is a new thing to learn, and that is the whole barrier. Download, account, password, and a device to keep charged are four separate places to lose people.
- The apps older adults already use are the ones they were taught by their families. Among US adults 65 and older, 57% use Facebook.
- Requests usually go into a form with categories and dropdowns, which asks the resident to do the sorting. That sorting is the work the software should be absorbing.
- The staff side is often an inbox. No team routing, no scoping, and no work-order lifecycle behind it.
Side by side
| Resident app | Buttonworks | |
|---|---|---|
| What the resident installs | An app, with an account | Nothing. An app they already have |
| Password to forget | Yes | No |
| Device to charge | Often a dedicated tablet | Their own phone |
| How a request is made | A form with categories | A sentence, typed or spoken |
| Who sorts it | The resident | Buttonworks |
| Activities, menus, family calls | Yes | No |
| Staff side | Often an inbox | Routed to one team, with a work-order lifecycle |
What happens with Buttonworks
- The interface is the app their grandchildren already message them on, so adoption is not a project.
- A resident can say what they want in a sentence instead of finding the right category.
- A voice note works, which matters for arthritis, tremor, and low vision.
- The request becomes a work order with a team and a status, not a message in an inbox.
If you already have a resident app for activities and family, this sits underneath it. The test is simple: count how many of your residents opened it this week.
Buttonworks is in early access. Statistics on this page are cited on the Sources page. See the other comparisons, or what Buttonworks does.
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