This TV Remote Is A Mess

I wasn’t sure what to write this post about until I got home last night, picked up my remote, and turned on my TV. This gave me flashbacks to my TV remote back at home, which is a mess. Not only does it have over 50 buttons on it, but even with all that ‘functionality’ I have yet to figure out how to use my TV. I’m an ECE major. This should not be very hard.

As I already mentioned, this remote has way too many buttons. I’m sure it would be possible to design a remote with a fraction of the buttons with the same amount of functionality. For example, the left/right buttons be used as back/forward on the DVR, instead of whatever ‘themes’ and ‘browse’ are. Also, there are two different power buttons. Although I know that one is for the TV and one is for satellite, this can be very confusing to users. The last flaw I’ll mention is the mysterious row of colored buttons. I have used this remote for a few years now (which is already embarrassing — this is a relatively new remote), and I have never used those buttons. I think this is a good example of a company trying to create hardware to go with the awful software that comes with DVRs with absolutely no concern for ease of use. As a quick aside, I have seen some new TVs that come with iOS apps so you can supposedly use their TV easier. These apps are just as hard to use as the remotes! Companies need to learn that integrating new technology into their products isn’t enough — they also need to design their products well.