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.
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