Setting Up “Senior” Systems

Like many of us in the unofficial “nerd herd,” I’ll be spending part of this week setting up systems, gadgets, and toys my friends and family received for Christmas. This year, several of the seniors in my life have new tech gear, so I’ve been giving a lot of thought to their special priorities.

Seniors enjoy the same “big picture” benefits we all do, such as email, news, online shopping and banking, entertainment, and games.  But, perhaps even more than those of us who have “grown up computing,” they hate the sometimes confusing messages systems generate and worry about getting duped by an email or website.

The seniors I know also find many of the things heralded as “intuitive” anything but.  For example, have you ever considered that nowhere on a Windows or Apple desktop does it say, “Click this to do X”?  That baffled one senior friend of mine, who kept waiting for her computer to offer some hint about how to start.

With those things in mind, I’ve been taking a few steps to help:

Make things easy to read.  Set up a solid-color desktop wallpaper that provides good contrast for words and icons, at least until they get comfortable with the system. Bump system fonts up in size, and use Windows’ “Ease of Use” settings to improve contrast and accessibility.

Write helpful names for icons.  “Click here for the Internet” is better than “Mozilla Firefox.”

Set up icons for things they want to do, not programs.  If someone plans to do something like read the New York Times or visit Citibank frequently, I find a large, recognizable icon for the site and create a direct link to the page.  Same with things like “Click here to write a new email” and “Click here to read your email.” 

Dump the crapware.  I use ccCleaner and Windows Defender to remove crapware. 

Deactivate program reminders.  It can be very daunting to have a message pop up like, “Upgrade to XXXX Professional Version 32 today” or “You have 2 days to activate XXX.”  I try to block and eliminate these from the start up.

Match software to need.  Programs like Wordpad and Microsoft Works often provide the functionality users need with simple, clean interfaces.  OneNote’s notebook motif seems to resonate well, too.  Find out how what the senior wants to do and find simple ways for them to do it.

Avoid “AOL Hell.” Almost every senior I know uses AOL – some even still pay for it.  On the plus side, AOL gives them an interface that tees up information logically and appears to “protect” them from the Wild West of the Internet.  On the minus side, it leads to a false sense of security and endless bloated, intrusive, uncontrollable apps.  I try to get the best of both by wiping all AOL software off computers and setting up shortcuts to the AOL homepage in Firefox. 

Get the right security set up.  I’m not a great believer in security software – most of it seems more cumbersome and slowing than helpful.  Instead, I use NoScript in Firefox, disable pop-ups, run the native Windows firewall,and use Windows Defender.  Although NoScript can sometimes cause browsing frustrations, these are easier to deal with than security software issues.

Consider remote access.  For my parents and a few close friends – and with their express permission and understanding – I set up remote access for myself via LogMeIn.  This lets me troubleshoot and do maintenance/updates from wherever I am.  It also offers a great way to teach someone how to do something, if you can’t be there personally.

Set automatic backups of some kind. Whether its a simple SyncToy back up to a second drive or partition, or an online service, make sure systems get backed up on a regular basis. My parents’ systems back up to each other, and they copy data to a remote drive at my house.

In the end, I view setting up someone’s computer as a very personal thing.  I want to make sure that it will work the way they want to use it, not the way I’d use it.  I also want to help them preserve their privacy and dignity, so I try to take every request as a serious, important consideration.

Another OneNote trick

I’ve found the OneNote Daily Journal PowerToy to be a great tool for taking notes on the fly.  It creates a daily notes page in OneNote  that you can reach through a mouse click or CTL-J from any program in Windows.

I use it as a catch-all for notes, web clippings, planning, reference info, and photos.  I even draft short projects on the daily notes page.  It’s especially convenient for those of us who shift among several computers all day, since everything is always in the same place (and synced).

Unfortunately, the CTL-J command works only on the computer that generated the page originally.  If I invoke CTL-J on one of my other systems, it creates its own page with the same date.

Since my main desktop system isn’t normally the first computer I use in the morning, this can be frustrating. If I create a daily page on one of my other computers, it renders the CTL-J command useless on the system where I use it most.

So, I came up with a workaround. Since I leave my main desktop running 24/7, I created a scheduled task that runs the powertoy at midnight every night and creates a daily page automatically.  My other systems sync automatically when I turn them on, so regardless of which system I use first, the daily page already exists. Then, when I go back to my main desktop, I can still use CTL-J all day.

Anyway, this isn’t exactly a huge technical breakthrough, but a small hassle avoided always counts.

Electronic wish list

The other day, I was sitting on the couch watching TV and juggling several nearly identical-looking devices – a cordless landline phone, a cable/TV remote, a Blu-ray remote, and a PDA phone.  As I sat there, trying to change channels with my phone and answer the remote, I wondered whatever became of convergence.

For instance, why has no one invented a cordless landline with an IR radio?  Or a multi-device remote with a built-in phone?  I’d buy a combo cordless phone/multi-remote in a heartbeat.

Come to think of it, why don’t a lot of things do more, especially when they have the computing capability?  Here are a few things I’d like to see improved/invented fast:

A cordless smartphone. I know landline connections are decreasing, but there are still millions who would jump at a base-station (maybe with a built-in modem and router) that came with cordless phones that had wi-fi-enabled iTouch-like capabilities.

A 21st century clock radio.  I don’t need a clock radio anymore – my PDA phone, which charges next to my bed, tells time, sounds alarms, and plays music and radio just fine.  But, if someone invented something “smarter” with a screen, email/web access, wi-fi, streaming media, and a landline phone, I’d buy it tomorrow.

Video books.  I love the way ebooks turn into audio books at the press of a button.  Now give me video books, depicting scenes from the book, when I press a button. (Think how much more interesting textbooks would become…)

A smarter car.  Cars can call for help, tune themselves, and track GPS data automatically, so why can’t they download/read my email aloud, recommend stops I should make based on my to-do list, make their own service appointments, register themselves, talk to Napster, and download trip data to my desktop automatically?

More barcode-style scanning technologies.  At my supermarket, I can walk around with a device that scans the UPCs off products I put in my cart, allowing me to avoid check out lines.  Cool.  Now make it even easier, and let me scan using my phone’s camera.  And, coordinate it with my grocery list, so I know if I’ve forgotten anything.  Even better, integrate it with inventories of my cabinets and refrigerator.

Smart wallet.  I carry five cards in my wallet: Driver’s license, insurance card, Amex, debit card, and security key card.  (Sometimes I have a Metro SmartTrip card, too.)  All of these could easily merge into a single, programmable card, or, even better, encrypted data that sits on my PDA phone.

Web tablet reader.  The Crunchpad seems kaput – and the Apple Tablet may have been delayed again – but with the growing popularity of ebook readers and smartphones, how long will it be before someone brings out a magazine-sized multi-purpose device for reading, surfing, notetaking, and basic PIM functions?

Am I the only one who needs these devices?