An Unusable Thing: Are TV remotes designed to give us a good experience?
I set my glass of wine on the coffee table and sank into my favorite chair. The pressures of the day began to release as I popped out the footrest and reclined. The fireplace was on and I was ready to enjoy an evening of TV. But, as I looked at the TV remote in my hand, I took a deep breath and felt my shoulders tighten. The next half hour consisted of pressing buttons on three different remotes, attempting to understand the feedback on the screen, and finally, throwing the remote across the room. There has to be a better way to design TV remotes so they can provide us with a good experience.
In his popular book, The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman wrote, “Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding. Discoverability: Is it possible to even figure out what actions are possible and where and how to perform them? Understanding: What does it all mean? How is the product supposed to be used? What do all the different controls and settings mean?”(Norman, 2013).
As our TV options have expanded, the experience of using a TV remote control has changed. For years, people had to get up and walk to the TV to turn a dial that would change the channel. But there were only a few channels available, so walking to the TV once or twice an evening to change the channel was no more of a nuisance than getting up to get another glass of wine. When cable TV became available, it brought along a new challenge. There were dozens of channel options! Channel surfing became a thing, and it wasn’t practical to stand by the TV and turn a dial or push buttons to surf. The TV remote provided welcome relief as people could sit in their comfy chairs and make selections from a hand-held device.
Fast forward to 2019. Our TV viewing options have multiplied and there are thousands of choices. We can select from different networks, record or delay shows, pause the football game to get more nachos, live stream and more. This high-speed evolution has prompted designers to produce new remote controls to help us navigate through all the different options. A device that was once relatively simple with on/off, volume control and arrows or numbers to select channels has become a complex display of buttons. They are different colors and shapes and are labelled with words like SWAP, PIP, INPUT and POSITION. And to further complicate the problem, we sometimes need to make selections on 2 or 3 remotes to go through the process of turning the TV on and navigating through the on-screen prompts to get our desired result.
Designers should take a closer look at the conceptual models and feedback systems of TV remote controls. Norman writes, “Technology offers the potential to make life easier and more enjoyable; each new technology provides increasing benefits. At the same time, added complexities increase our difficulty and frustration with technology. The design problem posed by technological advances is enormous” (Norman, 2013). When will the principles of Human Centered Design be applied to the design of TV remote controls so users can intuitively navigate the many wonderful features of their home viewing system?
We used to love our TV remotes. Will we ever love them again?
Norman, D. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things. New York, NY: Basic Books.
