I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that my grandma pretty much runs the show. Upon my arrival I usually have a small list of chores to help them out with. On the list this year were the usual suspects: dusting light bulbs on the ladder, lifting heavy stuff, a lot of Windexing…and replace the computer!

While my grandfather is very much in the “I’m too old for that crap!” group, my grandma has always been interested in technology. A number of years ago she purchased a Dell desktop computer with a dial-up modem and a fresh 1995 version of CompuServe. Things have changed a little since then. The extent of her activity centered mostly around basic email and checking the weather. If I ever sent a picture by email my grandmother thought I was trying to give her a virus because the Internet was downloading something onto her machine. Needless to say, she wasn’t getting the full experience.

I saw this as an opportunity for a complete technology makeover. My goal for the day was to get her a laptop, high speed internet, a Gmail account (to replace her CompuServe membership), and a Facebook profile. Being a staunch Apple zealot, it took little effort on my part to set her up with a Macbook Pro (oddly the biggest selling point was the illuminated keys).

I was interested to see if Macs were truly as user-friendly as they claim, so when we got home I had my grandma go through the process of booting it up herself. After about 15 minutes and only a little bit of help, she was able to get online with her new wireless modem. With her wireless connection and new Gmail address at the ready, we had sent out a notification to all of her friends with the new email address, inviting them to join her on Facebook.

The best part of all of this by far was the instant gratification that came to her as people responded to her email and seeing people’s pictures on Facebook. It was an enlightening experience for her (her face literally lit up) to realize that so many of her family and friends were a part of this online community that she didn’t even know existed.

A few things I took away from this experience:

• Iconography is very effective in describing applications and the functions within them… especially over the phone.
• A trackpad can be difficult to use if you have never used one before. I had to adjust the preferences for her which would have been difficult to do on her own.
• The Gmail interface is busy and it’s hard to quickly begin using the application. My grandmother found it easier to view her mail through Mac Mail and was able to set this up very easily.
• It’s not obvious in most programs how to increase the text size for the visually impaired. This is something that is frequently buried too deep for many novice (or senior) users.
• A Macbook Pro is probably way more than my grandmother needs. Portability and the illuminated keyboard were the biggest selling points, but something like an iPad would be a better solution for her needs.
• I’m more confident now than ever that using established design patterns in interface design is crucial. Once my grandmother understood some basic principles, she was able to quickly translate them from program to program… functions such as close, submit, expand, save, trash were all easy to use once they became familiar.

Many young people have gradually grown up with the web, beginning with early bulletin boards, forums, gaming, blogs, and later social networks. As a result we have a distinct sensibility about how things generally work. As a newcomer I had to explain to my grandma all of the metaphors of the web, like what a ‘wall’ was, and why you would want to ‘post’ something on it. Or why it’s annoying to ‘poke’ someone. At the end of the day my grandma got a sweet set up and even had 19 friends on Facebook! She thought it was especially funny that she had to ask to be ‘friends’ with her own grandkids that she had been sending birthday checks to for so many years.

I had another take away from this whole experience: Anytime you make a technology recommendation to your grandparents you have voluntarily signed yourself up for 24/7 customer support. I’ve already had to tell her not to click on anything related to the mafia or farm animals.

Oh…I think that’s her calling right now. Gotta run.

I am about to make a visit home and my mom wants a new phone. Frankly, she barely uses her existing phone but she wants to start communicating with my younger siblings the only way they know how – via text. I don’t want to send her into the phone store alone because she will walk away more confused then when she walked in. Just throw out a few buzzwords like tweet and app and she’ll be halfway to the car.

Nothing “makes sense” to her and rightly so. After doing a few trainings on Windows, how to double click the mouse and avoiding the pop up ad I have come to see that not everything is as easy-to-use as it claims. With her I like to eliminate the clutter and focus on just a couple features that will truly make her life easier and more fun.

Making my daughter’s life more fun is the easy part. She has a blast copying everything we do and part of that entails trailing us around with her fake phone and pushing buttons, or as she calls them “butts”. The amazing thing is when she has my touchscreen phone in her hands she already knows how to navigate through the icons and slide the windows up and down. She can pull up the pictures and scroll through them by herself. Very impressive and a thumbs up to user interface designers. It seems we are finally at a point where working these gadgets is intuitive. At least for a toddler!

While I’m not actively pushing digital devices and Internet browsing upon her, we’re still happily watching the old standby television, I do need to be aware of what is happening as one day she will be showing me what to do.

Keeping  up with new inventions is top of mind. So far so good as I work in the interactive field but there will be one day when she is taking me to some store to decode and translate what to do and what to get as if I don’t speak the language. If the world seems fast paced today, I don’t know what it will be like tomorrow… but I am sure it will hit me over the head in the form of an eye rolling teenager.

For now, I am good to go, channeling my efforts as a happy medium minding the generational gap. I’m confident I can find my mom the right phone (so there won’t be a need for the technical support package) and keep the electronic toys at bay for my daughter so we can control the pace… for now.

Perhaps I should just send the two of them out for a day of shopping and stay home with a coffee and that large, smudgy black and white package that my parents call the newspaper.

Let’s take my dad, for example. He’s in his sixties and super tech-savvy when it comes to computers, software, and general computer hardware. If the computer isn’t working, he’ll find a way to troubleshoot it, reboot it, reinstall something, call Apple Support, or whatever it takes to get it up and running again. He subscribes to MacWorld magazine, loves to learn new tips and tricks, and helps his co-workers when their computers begin dying. He does not work in the technology field; he just has a passion to learn new things, think analytically, and solve problems.

My mom is pretty savvy when it comes to using technology to connect with people. She was one of the first people I knew (outside of eROI, that is) to create a Facebook profile and use it to stay in touch with friends and family from across the country. She’s connected to some of my friends (that’s an entirely different story and post) and will quite often know about what’s going on with them before I do! Crazy, but true.

I would imagine that my parents are pretty similar to a lot of other folks from their generation. They love technology – to a certain extent – but shy away from things that they either deem irrelevant to them or that are daunting to learn. My folks tend to have a hunger to learn and try new things, so they adapt really well to new technology.

These two clips below – the first paying homage to the fathers and the second to the mothers – were funny representations of parents trying to adopt new technology, and using their son, Darren, as their teacher. They come from a video series on Current, called SuperNews!, and I found them particularly great because they poke fun at what I’m sure many of us twenty- and thirty-somethings have experienced with our own parents.

I’m curious about those real-life technology scenarios that you’ve experienced. Anything similar to these videos? Any funny Mom and Dad situations? Please share and commiserate!

Boy, was I wrong. Although several website-related references were mentioned, it appears as if other pieces of technology are underutilized more and noticed more poignantly. These non-website items could use an upgrade according to my eROI cohorts. And, since random bits of fun are a cultural staple around here, I threw in a few other questions into the mix to keep us on our toes.

I’m curious to see what your take is on these three questions. How would you respond?

1. What is the most underutilized piece of technology out there?
2. If you have a half-hour to kill in between meetings, what do you do?
3. What’s your favorite cocktail to make at home?