Stories

Design notes

How we design and build each project, and what we learn when something gets in the way.

A big TV showing Ben is calling, with Ben's photo on the left and two large choices on the right: Not now and Answer. A small webcam sits on top of the TV.

Part 6 of BoomerOS for TV

I'm turning my dad's TV into a video phone

FaceTime is hard for my dad, who has mild Parkinson's. So I'm building video calls into his TV, testing on mine first. He taps my name, and I'm on screen.

November 6, 2026

Illustration of an older couple waving from their sofa at their adult son, who smiles and waves back from a video call on their big TV, with a small webcam on top of the screen and the remote left on the coffee table.

Part 5 of BoomerOS for TV

Video calls on the TV for seniors: Jetsons, but real

I turned my mom's TV into a video phone with a Raspberry Pi 5 and a webcam. When I call from my phone, my parents see me on the big screen and talk back.

October 27, 2026

Illustration of the planned keypad: a black box on brass posts with an upright screen showing six coloured tiles, three square keys down each side lit yellow, green and dark on the left and orange, red and dark on the right, and four white keys below for back, home, minus and plus.

Part 4 of BoomerOS for TV

Beyond big buttons: a better TV remote for seniors

Remotes for seniors are the old remote with bigger buttons. How I'm designing a better one for my dad: lit keys beside a small screen, like an ATM.

October 8, 2026

Four BoomerOS for TV screens in a grid: Eric's first screen with four big buttons reading I'm okay, Call Eric, Today and Something's wrong; three early phone remotes; a Watch TV screen with six big choices and button keys beside it; and a News on now screen listing six news programmes.

Part 3 of BoomerOS for TV

Designing a simple TV interface for seniors

How we're redesigning a simple TV screen and remote for my dad: each version so far, what it fixed, and why it will keep changing as he uses it.

October 4, 2026

Three photos side by side: the DirecTV setup guide's "What you'll need" page, a TV showing its list of inputs behind a Network Disconnected box, and a TV showing a trivia question while a bar along the bottom says Downloading Updates.

Part 2 of BoomerOS for TV

DirecTV Gemini setup: a senior's worst nightmare

Setting up DirecTV streaming for my parents meant a sign-in nobody could find, an answer hidden on a web page, and a password typed one letter at a time.

October 3, 2026

Three photos side by side: the yellow CanaKit box on a wooden table, the finished black case with its round fan held in a hand, and a large TV showing a mountain desktop picture with the small black box beside it.

Part 1 of BoomerOS for TV

Building Dad a simpler TV, part 1: the Raspberry Pi 5

Part 1 of building Dad a simpler TV: setting up the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 5 kit, turning on HDMI-CEC, and the five places a tech-handy son got stuck.

September 29, 2026