How would you customize Opera for grandma?

September 18, 2007 · by Lawrence Eng

How would you customize Opera for grandma?

We all know that Opera is highly customizable (right out-of-the-box, without having to download a ton of plug-ins). For fun, some Opera users like to share how they've customized their browser. Generally, however, it's power users who show off their customizations (which tend to be quite advanced).

So here's my question: How would you customize Opera for your grandmother? Since not all grandmothers are the same, and many are probably more tech-savvy than I am, please consider the following hypothetical situation:

Your 80 year old grandmother wants your help installing Opera on her computer, which is about 3 years old. She is not very technical, which is why she's asking for your help. She mostly uses the computer to communicate with her family, and she is somewhat nearsighted.

So after installing Opera for her, what would you do to customize it for her needs?

(screenshots are welcome, but not necessary)

Readers' comments 24

Left under the original article, as archived.

Dan AlexandruTuesday, September 18, 2007 9:09:17 AM
Your 80 year old grandmother...
I would install Japanese fonts because there's no way any grandmother I know could come close to a computer.

If I were to imagine such hoary skills, I would assume she needed (in no particular order)
- Minimised Opera interface (no advanced options) with big font-sizes all around
- Fit-to-Width, proper zoom
- high-contrast skin and user-mode
- customized buttons and dialogs, with re-translations in plain talk of the technical messages
- No mouse gestures/one-key shortcuts
- reassigned F1 to specially prepared instruction pages in case she forgets (saved on localhost or online to be easier to update by the nephews)
- auto-start with a predefined session: email client on Compose, relatives' blogs etc, and the active tab with speed-dial
- customized auto-run widget with timer for events (would sync with a calendar-type file shared by the family)
- speed-dial with links to a private authenticated IRC channel, an instant message website, the rest of the communication tools
- preloaded contacts with nicknames
- no plugins/java -- custom settings for select sites
- proper content blocker
- newsfeed registered to family's blogs, albums etc
Lawrence EngTuesday, September 18, 2007 9:22:56 AM
Well, maybe 80 years old is too much, but I wanted to get the point across that it's a much older user with less tech experience/patience.

Some questions/comments:

How would you minimize the Opera interface, specifically? Which advanced options would you remove from view?

Which buttons would you customize, and can you provide an example of a redone dialog?

I like the idea of easily-accessible and custom instruction pages.

Using Speed Dial makes a lot of sense to me.
Dan AlexandruTuesday, September 18, 2007 10:48:05 AM
Originally posted by Lawmune:

maybe 80 years old is too much
Yeah, I thought for a moment this is for an emerging Norwegian/Swedish/Japanese market
Originally posted by Lawmune:

How would you minimize the Opera interface, specifically? Which advanced options would you remove from view
I would remove the unused menu items: Edit (grandma either knows the system-wide shortcuts or uses Backspace), Bookmarks, Feeds, Mail, Chat, Tools, Windows and replace them with a basic Actions > Read received email, Send email (would be Compose or Send link by email, depending on context), Read news, My notes, etc. I see a spartan setup with just the menu, Tab bar and Address bar (no status/personal bar).

Grandma won't need more than half the menu options and toolbar buttons: view source, reload, spell-check, newsgroups, tile tabs, encoding, etc.
Originally posted by Lawmune:

Which buttons would you customize
The small ones, and I would remove the superfluous ones, e.g. in Manage Sessions and Write Email
FataLTuesday, September 18, 2007 4:47:39 PM
Your 80 year old grandmother wants your help installing Opera on her computer, which is about 3 years old.
This is mostly unbelievable. I can't imagine someone (especially this old) can ask for help to install Opera. If a person already know Opera (or Firefox) he or she is probably techy enough to install by himself.
More likely there will be one of these situations:
Your 80 year old grandmother wants your help with connecting Internet (DSL, cable) to her computer, which is about 4 years old. Previously she used to use AOL dial-up connection and AOL browser.

Your 80 year old grandmother wants your help with connecting Internet to her new computer.

And you, as smart grandchild, want to install Opera for her (and completly hide IE), because you lasy enough to clean grandmother's computer from spyware, trojans and viruses every second months.

As for grandmother's Opera config, I mostly agree with dantesoft.
Ice ArdorTuesday, September 18, 2007 6:30:47 PM
Daniel wrote a post about this last year, where the community gave some feedback that you might want to use.

I also posted a little list on my blog about what should be in this kind of tutorial.
Andrew NguyenWednesday, September 19, 2007 1:41:26 AM
Uh...80 years old....I'd just let her use a phone..

Here's how I'd do it though...
-Use a clear and easy to see skin
-Have only these bottons: Back Foward Stop Go
-Disable Tabs, use windows
-Have the status bar saying only "Transferring data, completed request, etc.

And that's pretty much it..
Lawrence EngWednesday, September 19, 2007 6:30:02 AM
IceArdor: Thanks for the links. I had forgotten about that conversation, though a tutorial is slightly different from one-time customizations (which were also talked about).

In general, the consensus seems to be that the browser UI has to have less and not more. Anyone want to take the opposite position, for the sake of argument?
Dan AlexandruWednesday, September 19, 2007 9:53:55 AM
Good UI should be second to function.

If you're asking if Opera needs to add more features for grandma, then probably yes (I'm thinking about better voice interaction all all desktop platforms). If you're asking if grandma would prefer a more dense UI, then probably not.

Or do you mean something like an UI-integrated assistent?
Dan AlexandruFriday, September 28, 2007 12:15:24 PM
http://www.savvytot.com/v/vspfiles/photos/TEE-TechSupport-2.jpg
Lawrence EngFriday, September 28, 2007 5:35:34 PM
Very nice

Do they have one for grandpa?
Dan AlexandruFriday, September 28, 2007 6:12:39 PM
Not yet
walterSaturday, February 9, 2008 9:00:26 PM
hi,

i get a lot of phonecalls from people that learned to handle their computer by try and error. after years of emailing and wordwriting they never learned and wanted to learn what hides behind "File, Edit, View, ....."

after installing opera there should be a mode-question like
( ) beginner
( ) advanced
( ) expert

startpage in the beginner-mode is a beginner helpsite in their language

the menue should be

"Home, Print, Email, Zoom, Help"
"Forward, Backward, Reload, Adress"
"Leftpanel should show the bookmarks"

a lot of people that are not in grandmas age would love to have that.
especially those from aol, that never left the communitypage for years.

regards
Charles SchlossTuesday, November 18, 2008 8:51:14 PM
make it as easy as possible to use Opera
DavidTuesday, November 18, 2008 11:26:18 PM
I would try to follow the good old KISS rule: Keep It Simple Stupid!

Any button that isn't needed, should be gone, anything else clearly visible and easy to understand. A letter icon for email, a house for a nice starting place (maybe a website designed for her to directly drop messages to her relatives) with a simple search. Then Forward, Backward, Reload. That's all.

My own configuration isn't much different, just much much smaller. I have tiny buttons and use lots of shortcuts, but the interface is still very basic (sidebar completely hidden but heavily used).
Talk of The WebWednesday, November 19, 2008 4:04:46 AM
Make the font larger. Have a place readily assessible that a person can adjust the font on a page to where they want it. We cannot all read the same font size. Sorry I found it under view. It would be nice if you could it put it more out there like on one of the tool bars too. I just thought to look at view some may not know to do that.

Have Opera come with an audio reader where the computer can read the pages on the web. That would help a lot. Also have access with this on one of the toolbars like where home is listed. It is hard to hunt all of this stuff down. I also would have the font large enough for her to read.

The sound and font enlargement should be readily accessible like with the Open through Home section below file.

Plus, I would just like people to realize there are a lot of senior citizens out there that successfully use computers. The wider audience you have the better to make money and reach the public, plus the better chance for a better product because there is more funds available to use to refine product.

In addition, I am a senior citizen. I taugh myself how to design webpage, do animations, use Java script, HTML, DHTML. I am not the exception, either. I have a friend in her mid eighties who is computer literate. She is taking computer classes. She also plays games on the computer. I am going to teach her how to make web pages and blogs. Thanks very much.
EyoWednesday, November 19, 2008 7:41:15 AM
Firstly for a 80 years old, i will select a large font size.
I will also enable a voice prompt in her computer. I will also bookmark her favourite web site for a stree free access. I will set the image quality to high for a clear..
davidgibson72Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:47:06 AM
Booyah
PatttyWednesday, November 19, 2008 8:21:00 PM
- Standard skin
- Larger font size
- No feeds
- Customize toolbar with just 5 buttons: Back (the one with the little arrow), Forward (wich has the little arrow too), Refresh, Home, Wand
- Remove Panel Button and enable Panel Toogle
- Move New Tab button to left (where it MUST go!)
- Explain her some basic functions
- Configure her mail and explain her how to use it
- Help her to save her passwords for wand to remember them
- Save some bookmarks for her
- Put usefull pages on speed dial

- Make her a practical test
PatttyWednesday, November 19, 2008 8:53:35 PM
I can't imagine someone (especially this old) can ask for help to install Opera. If a person already know Opera (or Firefox) he or she is probably techy enough to install by himself.

On my previous job I theached Office, Internet and e-mail for "grown-up" ppl (50-75 y. old), and when I teached "Internet" I installed Opera on all PC's (IE was already installed), and I teached first Opera and then IE... ppl prefered Opera because it was easier to use and to customize, and because of the skins ... now that I remember they loved to custom toolbars and to download skins!!
At the end of the course most part of ppl asked me how should they do to have Opera in their PC's, and their sons helped them to install it... :They hated IE
FataLMonday, November 24, 2008 6:15:37 PM
As my own experience shows:
Oldies like Speed Dial, because the use very few web sites actually.
Also they quite like Opera Mail, if someone setup it for them.
Opera zoom and fit to width rules too!
Dan AlexandruTuesday, December 9, 2008 10:14:05 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmGQXv8i6Xs circa 1996
Charles SchlossTuesday, December 9, 2008 10:22:37 PM
dantesoft interesting video link, people forget that the internet used to be that slow and look like that.
Talk of The WebFriday, January 16, 2009 7:10:34 PM
I love speed dial. I also love Opera. The only thing I needed as a senior citizen was large type.
Charles SchlossTuesday, January 20, 2009 10:48:25 PM
maybe something like this:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/?em

to help the ones that are new to computers

the bbc also has a simalr tutorial for new computer users