The Idea

The Idea

The problem

Most care technology is built for the family member far away: an app on a phone, a stream of alerts, a feeling of being on duty. The person it is about is the last to be asked. She is watched, nagged, taught or beeped at, and the thing that was meant to help her stay at home becomes the reason she resents it.

Meanwhile she already spends hours a day with one screen. Older Americans watch television for more than four hours a day (BLS American Time Use Survey). That screen is trusted, it is in the room, and she already knows how to hold its remote.

The turn

Wick makes the person at home the user. The television she already watches is the screen. She installs nothing, learns nothing and wears nothing. Her family is the customer, but they only ever see what she has agreed to share.

The resident is the user. The family is the customer.

Who it is for

Margaret, 78, the user.	Lived in her house for forty-one years. Forgets appointments, not people. Wants to stay in her house, not be a burden, and know who is at the door before she gets up. Will not put up with being watched, nagged, taught or beeped at.
Sarah, 51, the buyer.	Works full time, has two teenagers, worries about her mother at a low level all the time. She does not want more data. She wants less worry. If Wick makes her check more often, it has failed.
Maria, 44, a carer.	Eleven clients, paid per visit, filling in timesheets from memory. A door event that Margaret herself confirms is a better record than a timesheet, and it needs no camera on her.

Who it is not for

• People with advanced dementia. Wick assumes she can read a card and press one button.
• Anyone who needs clinical monitoring. Wick is not a medical device and makes no clinical claims.
• People who rarely watch television. Everything happens on the screen.
• Households where she has not agreed. Wick needs her consent, and the software enforces it.

Why only Amazon

Wick needs a trusted screen in the room, a doorbell with a real developer API, and an assistant the family already uses. Only Amazon has all three.

	Screen	Doorbell API	Assistant
Amazon	Fire TV	Ring	Alexa+
Google	Google TV	Nest (limited)	Gemini
Apple	Apple TV	none	Siri
Roku	Roku	none	none

Design principles

These are rules for the product, and several are enforced by tests.

1. The resident is the user. The family is the customer.
2. Never interrupt a scene. A note waits for a measured calm point, and the film holds while she reads it. Only the door may come over the story.
3. One button. Every action is reachable with the D-pad and OK. No text entry anywhere.
4. Nothing to learn.
5. Silence is the default.
6. Three things, never four. A card holds at most three actions.
7. Large, calm, still. Type is never below 32 pt, contrast is at least 7:1, no red, no badges, no beeps.
8. Never nag, never score, never judge.
9. No time limits. Nothing disappears on a countdown.
10. She can always see what the family sees.
11. When Wick does not know, it says so. Silence beats a wrong description.
12. Dignity is a requirement.

What Wick will never do

Each of these is a promise to the resident.

Never	Why
Stream an indoor camera to the family	The one line Wick will not cross. Ring is for the door, never for watching her.
Detect falls	Unreliable without dedicated sensors, serious when wrong, and it would make Wick a medical device.
Put a chatbot on the television	She speaks to Wick with one button, not a conversation.
Give her a wellness score	A person is not a number out of ten. Wick writes sentences.
Use streaks, badges or gamification	No.
Track where she goes	Wick knows the front door opened, not where she went.
Listen to the room	Her television has no microphone.
Notify her phone	Wick exists because that channel does not work for her.
Guess her mood	Reporting her feelings to her children is overreach dressed as care.
Beep	The quickest way to get unplugged.

Read the full product document in docs/WICK.md, including the business model and the numbers behind the problem.