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d'Wooluf · 2017-10-12, 04:01

I'm trying one last time to set up Kodi for my parents. They are both technophobic and they are at that stage where their cognitiion is not quite what it was. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience in customising Kodi to be as easy to use as possible. Easy to use may mean less powerful. There may be combinations of skins and settings that have worked well for some people?

It's the kind of topic that's probably come up before. I did a search but couldn't find anything.

**Klojum** · 2017-10-12, 08:46

There is unfortunately (still) no 'simple' skin for, for example, kids or the elderly. Something that may come a bit close is a CarPC (mod) skin, with less graphics and bigger buttons as a 'simpler' screen layout. The main drawback is that the CarPC skins are based on Etouchy, meaning touch screens. I don't know how TV remotes (via CEC or otherwise) will react to those type of skins.

Anyway, have a look here. It's one version of the original CarPC skin: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=320735

**Dangelus** · 2017-10-12, 09:45

I did I similar thing for my elderly mother. She only uses Kodi for one specific purpose. I would recommend:

1) Pick a simple skin (I have stuck to Confluence for her) and take the user on a tour of it. My mother only uses a specific add-on from our official repository so I have a shortcut for it on the home page and showed her how to get to it.
2) Disable any menus / features you do not require. In my mother's case she has no use for the Music, Weather, Programs menu etc.
3) Create a limited profile (so the user can't access or mess up Kodi settings) and make sure Kodi boots into this profile. Set a pasword.
4)Use a device with Libreelec or an Android device that can boot straight to Kodi. The reason for this is that if they mess something up or get confused they can just power cycle it. Make sure the power switch for the device is clearly labelled and obvious for this purpose.

Hope this helps.

**Klojum** · 2017-10-12, 13:16

A password protected profile for the elderly? I would, in case of profiles, limit the main profile and use no password, and create a 2nd, admin profile with full access with a password.

**bry** · 2017-10-12, 13:22

Provide local content
buy a flirc.tv and find a simple remote.
install libreelec on hardware of choice.
find a skin that has kiosk mode that allows customization and remove all unnecessary menu items.

d'Wooluf · 2017-10-13, 08:48

Thanks for the ideas. I got them a Mecool s905x M8S Pro. At the moment it's got the Nexus ROM on it with Kodi and Netflix the only apps that they'll see. Netflix might be a bit hopeful on my part. Plan B is booting straight in to LibreElec on a MicroSD card. I really like the look of the Arctic: Zephyr ROM. Elegant and minimal bling to distract them. Ideal for people like me would be to be able to construct our own menus. You can kind of do that with Zephyr but you need to press an arrow key to see the menu items. I know that they won't remember to do it. I'll work on the main screen customisation in Zephyr when I get the time. I'd like to make the library system disappear basically and have them walk through a folder structure to get to what they want. Might be possible. The remote is just ok but I'll see how they go with it before going for something else.

**bry** · 2017-10-13, 11:33

I think folder structure is more difficult than library to be honest.

bilgepump · 2017-10-13, 12:04

(2017-10-13, 08:48)d\Wooluf Wrote: I'd like to make the library system disappear basically and have them walk through a folder structure to get to what they want.

Why? That's the whole point of Kodi, to display the movie (whatever) and info about it and picture and all that. The library is very straightforward, you've got "movies" and all your movies there, etc. With a folder structure, they'll need to know where stuff is and how the folder tree works.

As for skins, if you want to look at others as well as Arctic Zephyr, I like Metropolis (and I'm old and tired and can't be bothered with "fuss")

d'Wooluf · 2017-10-15, 14:58

(2017-10-13, 12:04)bilgepump Wrote:
(2017-10-13, 08:48)d\Wooluf Wrote: I'd like to make the library system disappear basically and have them walk through a folder structure to get to what they want.

Why? That's the whole point of Kodi, to display the movie (whatever) and info about it and picture and all that. The library is very straightforward, you've got "movies" and all your movies there, etc. With a folder structure, they'll need to know where stuff is and how the folder tree works.

As for skins, if you want to look at others as well as Arctic Zephyr, I like Metropolis (and I'm old and tired and can't be bothered with "fuss")

I'm not wedded to the idea, but the advantage of folders is that they don't change. They choose Pictures from the main menu and straight away see 'Scanned from film', 'European Trip', ... whatever. That's what I'd like to get. Straight to what they're interested in and hopefully over time familiar with. They need to learn how to get into a folder and how to back out of it. And really, that's pushing the envelope for these guys. I'll definitely check out Metropolis. Thanks.

bilgepump · (This post was last modified: 2017-10-15, 15:08 by bilgepump.)

(2017-10-15, 14:58)d\Wooluf Wrote:
(2017-10-13, 12:04)bilgepump Wrote:
(2017-10-13, 08:48)d\Wooluf Wrote: I'd like to make the library system disappear basically and have them walk through a folder structure to get to what they want.

Why? That's the whole point of Kodi, to display the movie (whatever) and info about it and picture and all that. The library is very straightforward, you've got "movies" and all your movies there, etc. With a folder structure, they'll need to know where stuff is and how the folder tree works.

As for skins, if you want to look at others as well as Arctic Zephyr, I like Metropolis (and I'm old and tired and can't be bothered with "fuss")

I'm not wedded to the idea, but the advantage of folders is that they don't change. They choose Pictures from the main menu and straight away see 'Scanned from film', 'European Trip', ... whatever.

I don't use pictures in Kodi, but I'd expect the folder titles to stay the same, after all it's not as if anything can be scraped and replaced with another title. None of the titles for movies or tv change, you might have to make the folder have exactly the same name as on the scraper, but they don't get called anything different. Or am I completely misunderstanding what you mean?

(If they get used to looking in "files", they can see things as they are locally.)