Advice on setting up an X for Grandma

[botero]

So to start off... My grandmother is pretty bad ***.

She has decided to take the plunge and get a smartphone. She hasn't used a computer in 20+ years though. She wants an X though because me, my wife and my mom all have one and she figures if anything goes wrong, we have one and we'll be able to walk her through fixing it.

Any advice on how to set it up to make it SUPER simple for her to use? She is 84 years old and downright amazing. Just the basics...

 

[JimmyMac]

Hmmmmm, delete all the widgets and start her off simple. Maybe with only 3 screens of simple stuff. Basic time, calendar, hmmm weather, and maybe text widgets? And maybe put on a separate widget or icon for the camera and a separate one for video camera so that she does not have to switch within the camera app. You can also add each of your contact widgets with your face on each one so that she can connect directly to each of you when she pushes on your face/icon. Start there I guess.

 

[botero]

That sounds like pretty sound advice to start with. Anyone else with helpful granny tips??

 

[ottscay]

I'd second what Jmac said, but be sure to find out what she's really interested, i.e. if she wants to check the weather, or an RSS feed on a subject she likes, or a sports score widgets, or whatever (what, my grandmother watched sports every day till she was 101!).

If you can set her up with a couple of things she's really interested in (especially if she can just look at them to get the info) then the phone will seem that much more worthwhile, and she will be less likely to be frustrated by the feeling that she should be getting more out of it.

Just my 2c.

 

[bc6droid]

Give Grandma 1 screen and thats it, and give her your # for tech support lol.

 

[DaRkL3AD3R]

Give Grandma 1 screen and thats it, and give her your # for tech support lol.

Hell I use 1 screen and its plenty lol. Not because I'm not tech savvy, but because I AM tech savvy. To me having extra homescreens with widgets and shortcuts is a waste of cpu and memory. If I need to open something I just use the app drawer lol

 

[lemcoe9]

Maybe give her the dock so it's nice and easy to charge and find the phone.

My grandma likes having a dock for her dumbphone (I guess you would call it)

 

[dookie.]

don't.

 

[Cory Streater]

don't.

Don't what?

 

[billfisher1]

I was looking through my apps and it looks like you have a very good start. In time she will be ready for more options. Only idea I had was to have the browser with a bookmark to the local newspaper. My mother thinks it is so "cool" that I can read the headlines for free. lol.

 

[botero]

Thanks for all the good advice, folks. I'm taking her down to the store today to order hers. Figure it will be a week or so until it comes. If you have any more ideas, I'm still all ears.

 

[badchevy]

Don't forget a couple games for entertainment. I know my great grandma played solitare all day long, makes me wonder what she would have done if there had been technology like there is these days lol. I agree with the others about keeping it simple but I disagree about 1-3 screens, I would say use as many screens as she needs to keep each screen as simple as possible. Put a good size widget at the top of each screen that will trigger a memory for a shorcut at the bottom of that page.