Most communication apps hand you a board: dozens of buttons sorted into folders, each one a word you might need. Boards are powerful, and for some people they are the right tool. For many adults who lose speech later in life, they are slow.
Research on adults with aphasia found they were faster and more accurate with arrays of four symbols than with larger ones, and with fewer levels to navigate. That finding sits under one of Selvo’s firmest rules: you see three replies at a time, never a wall of options.
Three choices
Scan in a second. Pick, or ask for Another.
Forty choices
Search, then navigate, then pick.
Choice without overload
Three is enough for a real choice: something short, something longer, something closer to how you would joke. If none of them fit, Another brings three more. Nothing is spoken until you pick it.
In a 2025 study of AI tools for people with aphasia, the design participants liked most generated a few sentence options from keywords and left the final choice to the person. Control mattered as much as speed.
Speed is part of dignity
Pauses in conversation are not neutral. People in the same study described awkward silences and being talked over while they searched for words. A short list you can scan quickly keeps you in the conversation instead of waiting at its edge.
What this means in the app
- Three replies at a time. Another for more.
- Large type on every option, sized to your eyes.
- Positions never move, so your hand learns where to go.
- Incorrect on every suggestion, so teaching Selvo takes one tap.