what kind of remote are you looking for. I think for uninformed people the best way to go is with a remote like the Pronto. It has an LCD that let's you do with it anything you want. But it does take a long time to setup and how well it works depends a lot on your capabilities. The other thing is that touchscreens intimidate some people at first.

An other remote you might want to consider is a Harmony remote. It is a lot easier to setup, and it has an LCD with icons. It is not as customizable as a Pronto, and you might have to show the people how to use the scroll wheel.

The last one I would say, is either a HTM MX-500 or MX-700. They are push button remotes, 10 of the buttons are labeled using an LCD display and can have any name up to 5 characters.