We have a basic desktop PC in the household, meant for generic use such as internet surfing and simple word processing, but my parents hardly touch it, and I don’t boot it up often except to do occasional maintenance and Windows updates. My parents are not very computer-literate. My father likes gadgets — digital cameras and mobile phones — but I’ve never been able to persuade him to use the PC regularly. My mother has attended a number of computer lessons for seniors, but I noticed she wasn’t really interested to use the family computer, except when in the rare mood for some spider solitaire.

I actually feel quite bad about it, like I’m the only one hogging the computers at home. I’m also worried about my parents, as my mom is retired and my dad is retiring soon, I’d like them to stay active and keep in touch with latest things. Furthermore, a lot of services these days rely some use of the internet, so one of my aims is to encourage them to be comfortable with using the computer, in case I am busy or away and unable to help them.

I started observing their usage and habits, and I’ve noticed:

• It’s not for a lack of interest. For example, my dad likes tech stuff, and he’d often ask me to load up certain URLs or google things he read about in his hobby magazines.
• My mother finds it a hassle to wait for the computer to boot up, then having to wait for Windows to load before she can get to do anything on it.
• My parents are not fluent in English, they don’t always understand terms used in the interface or system messages.
• Left clicks and right clicks and double clicks and middle clicks and scroll-wheels are too complicated, they don’t always remember which one to use.
• The font sizes and icons are often far too small and difficult to read.
• The various anti-malware stuff confuses my parents. They don’t know what to do when an alert or update message pops up, and they’re afraid to click on anything, because they’ve heard a lot about malware on PCs.
• They’re afraid, period. Generally, the PC confuses them, and there are too many steps and things just to get stuff done (e.g. visit a website to check for some info). Plus, they’re aware that a computer is expensive, so they’re scared that they may do something to break it.
• For the most part, the Windows interface is unintuitive and not user-friendly. I’ve tried to teach my dad how to rip MP3s on the PC and transfer them into his phone’s memory card, and it showed me how confusing Windows Media Player was from his point of view. 
Its interface has a lot of eye candy, but when it comes down to key issues like function, it falls short.
• Fortunately, they’re still pretty much aware and in touch with some key terms like “blogs”, “MSN messaging”, MP3, Youtube, Photoshop, etc. It’s just that they don’t actively experience it for themselves.

The solution? A Mac. The point of this isn’t to crow ‘Windows bad, Mac good’, let me elaborate.

I have a 14″ iBook G4 running OSX 10.3.9. It’s a solid machine, I only had to do a format of the OS once in 4 years. I recently moved on to using a unibody MacBook, and decided to give the iBook to my father. I’ve long suspected that a Mac would eliminate most of the problems with my parents and the computer. However, bringing home a new, shiny iMac will just bring about a new set of problems. My parents are thrifty people and they’re put off by the idea of using the computer because they’re afraid they’d spoil it. The fact that my iBook is old and I don’t need it any more puts them at ease.

Bearing in mind all these, I formatted my iBook made some configurations and changes before handing it to my father.

1. I made a separate user account for my dad, under which I set limited options — can’t change important system settings, can’t access key system folders — so he could explore and fiddle with the computer without accidentally causing any significant damage.
2. I set it to automatically sign into that account, so my parents don’t have to go through the extra step of a login screen.
3. I considered his interests and needs and placed the programs that he would use the computer for in the dock — Safari, Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, DVD player, Chess, Pages, iCal — and removed all other unnecessary programs.
4. I increased the dock size to its maximum, which on the iBook’s screen, looks about 3cm high. I also disabled the fancy magnification effect or hiding, knowing how such effects tends to irritate or confuse my parents.
5. I set up an email account for my father and configured POP3 access for him on Apple Mail.

I took my dad through the iBook one evening. He knows about Macs; I assured him that the computer was very stable and unlikely to freeze or crash, and not to worry about viruses, so he can play with it as much as he likes.

So, from booting up, I introduced him to the programs and the dock. It helps that the icons under my configuration are huge and they communicate quite well what the program is supposed to do. The CD is for music, stamp is for email, compass is for web-surfing, camera and photo is for photos, etc. I showed him how to use the track pad, drag-and-drop, and how to slide in and eject discs. Then, I opened Safari and showed him how to access the net, and I bookmarked sites of interests, such as Lianhe Zaobao and Youtube. In the process I also showed him how to bookmark websites, and that dragging things such as images from the browser window to the desktop will allow him to save it.

My dad has some basic familiarity with these tasks, it was only a matter of figuring out where everything is and how it is done on a Mac. It involved the un-learning of of some Windows-centric quirks which I think he’s quite happy to forget. He was particularly happy with the one-button mouse. Finally, I told him about shutting down and putting the iBook to sleep.

The iBook now sits on the coffee table in the living room, and my father uses it almost every evening. Mostly, he plays chess, reads websites, or watches DVDs. He has only managed do something weird to the computer that required my fixing once. He also shares it with my mother, and sometimes both of them would prod it together. One evening I found my parents leafing through newspapers and magazines looking for website addresses so that they could enter it and visit the sites. They’d discovered Singapore Pools and how to check for 4D results, and wanted to see if they could find more things.

So far, so good. In future, I’d like to buy them an iMac, and teach them some of the more advanced things, like photo editing, instant messaging, and maybe using the webcam. Perhaps I could also convert them into gamers via the Wii. Might be fun.