To turn Big Buttons into the most helpful tool for seniors, we really need to hear from seniors!

We also need to hear from anybody who has experience with training (or trying to train) seniors to use:

• Computers (PCs & laptops, which are actually different to use!)
• Mobile phones
• GPS devices
• DVD players
• … anything technological!

Please leave your suggestions as a comment to this post, or send me and e-mail via the online contact form of this site. If your suggestion is useful and original I will make sure you receive a free copy of the Big Buttons CD when the development is complete, to say thanks.

I’m pleased to announce that it seems very likely, one way or another, that Big Buttons will soon be significantly improved to include tutorials and a range of other functions to really make Big Buttons a ‘one stop shop’ for seniors & computers.

Ideally, if everything goes to plan, Big Buttons will not only allow somebody who is totally new to computers to perform basic functions, but will guide the user through the computing experience and allow them to perform increasingly complex tasks, until voila – no more need for Big Buttons at all!

I will let you know how things go, but at the moment the development programme appears to be 6 months long, so there won’t be much if anything to show until August – September 2010.

This website:

http://www.seniorsguidetocomputers.com/

… is extremely useful! Have a look!

Technology is not only responsible for the shedding of jobs through making certain manual labour redundant… it is also responsible for allowing people to work longer. It’s easy to dwell on the negative aspects of the technologisation of the world, but this won’t get anybody anywhere, especially when this digital trend is moving so fast and on such a grand scale.

The phenomenon in the Western World of the “Ageing Population” means that there are more and more retirees requiring pensions and fewer and fewer labourers producing the revenue that will pay for the retirees. The obvious cure (or at least mitigation against) is to allow seniors to produce wealth for longer.

If seniors learn how to use computers, which in most cases is as simple as overcoming fear of the unknown, they become far more appetising to employers. Operating a computer does involve many months of practice, to reach a level where one might consider oneself “competent” or at least “confident”, but the individual tasks involved with computing are quite simple. With time, computing can be mastered by just about anyone.

Consider this: if you were an employer, would you hire a young, untested candidate with proficiency in computing, or would you hire a 65 year old veteran of your industry who is also competent in computing?

In many situations, the latter option is far more appealing (reduced necessity for training, value for money etc) and the main thing that’s stopping this recruitment scenario from being the norm is a lack of understanding of computing by seniors!

If we solve this problem, there are too many benefits to count.

Here are a few:

1. Our economy will reach a new level of efficiency, as wisdom of seniors is injected back into industries
2. Seniors themselves will enjoy the many benefits that remaining in work can bring (with the option of retirement still available, of course)
3. Young people will be forced to learn real skills, as opposed to mere computer proficiency in order to compete for jobs – boosting the overall skill base of the economy
4. Seniors will enjoy the many benefits that IT literacy can bring to their lives