The idea for the NoticeHome was conceived on the 18th of December 2018. I remember the date because it's my Granny Joyce's birthday. She’d been living alone with memory problems, after the death of her husband, my grandpa and this company's namesake, Ken.

On this day, my family arrived at her house to pick her up for her big birthday meal out. Joyce had been looking forward to the meal, it was on her calendar, but as we show up on the doorstep it became apparent she had forgotten all about it. She was elated for the now-surprise birthday party, but "Oh… I've already eaten" she said. Great. We laughed it off and took her out anyway, but I started to think there must be some way technology could help prevent this.

I’ve inherited my Granny’s knack for forgetting important dates, but I have a phone in my pocket that reminds me. Sending calendar invites to her seldom-used phone didn’t seem like the best idea, and the tiny calendar on the wall was being ignored, so I hacked together a plan. I used an old 32-inch TV and a cheap computer to load a website, refreshing it every few minutes or so. I hosted the website from my house, and I could change the website at will. “Go back to bed!” It said at 1am (Joyce had a habit of waking up too early). “Sam is picking you up at 2pm today!” would make her face light up every time she walked past and read it. For the rest of the day it would just show a friendly message and maybe a picture of a family member. 

If I knew I'd be writing a blog about this one day, I'd have taken a better photo

I showed my mum how to edit the website so she could do it from her phone, and she started using it more than I expected. It became a sort of one-way messaging platform, without the need for Joyce to learn anything new. After a few carers were impressed by it, I decided that this could help more than just my Granny.