For my Mom, who’s about the same age, I set up her phone by:
- Putting the apps she used on the front page. There were few enough of them that they all fit, and then that was the only page she had to deal with.
- Putting the really heavily used apps (email, web) on the dock.
- Turning off all notifications and then turning back on a select few (this after she accidentally subscribed to Apple News about five times by tapping on a notification).
- I deliberately got her an iPhone 8, which still had a home button, so no matter where she gets herself lost in the phone, I can tell her to press the button and she’ll get back to the front page.
- Set up a few group chats with various family & friends and then pinned them to the top of Messages so they’d always be available.
- Told her that no, her grandson is not stuck in Mexico/Estonia/Italy and that she should not wire him money (to be fair, she’s pretty skeptical about that kind of spam already)
- Set up favorites in the phone app so she could just tap them and call select people.
- She was already on T-Mobile and they have good plans for seniors so I got her on one of those.