How to design a usable remote control

Sunday, September 16, 2007

(The Tivo remote control, with the clearly visible yellow pause button)

A somewhat older (2004), but insightful story in the NY Times on the development of the Tivo remote control. We all know the omnipresent, but disaster-like remotes, that have an overload of functions neatly arranged in a 7 by 14 matrix of small buttons with even smaller text labels.

A typical remote may have some 40 buttons, with functions that are hard to divine. Often the labels -- ''toggle,'' ''planner'' and the like -- are no help. The device can feel like an afterthought, thrown together without any planning at all.

The TiVo remote control, however, is a device that is so easy to use, it even has the blessing of Mr. Nielsen (no first name needed I presume):

''They did a really good job,'' said Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, a technology consulting firm in Fremont, Calif. Mr. Nielsen called the oversize yellow pause button in the middle of the remote ''the most beautiful pause button I've ever seen.''

A very interesting accomplishment of the design team was to be able to keep the number of buttons on the device as low as possible. 'Less is more' is a slogan that many designers use, but that is not always reflected in the designs these designers make. However, the design team of the Tivo remote managed to hold the fort:

''Buttons proliferate on remotes like rabbits,'' Mr. Newby said, adding that he and his designers, who ranged in age from 25 to 45, had ''bloody battles'' over which ones to include. They managed to hold the number at 30, a considerable achievement given how many functions the TiVo receiver performs.

I think that the remote control is more and more getting the attention it deserves. If I walk into a audio-video store these days, finally they don't just display the tv sets, but in most stores they also show the remote. For one this allows you to touch the part of the TV set you will be actually using to control the box on the wall (I presumer were talking flatscreens here...). Secondly, if the remote is provided in the store, you can actually see what the UI of your TV is like, instead of just trusting the salesman that "this one is real easy to use, because all models of this brand are..."

On a side note: this Worth-1000 entry shows a solution for never losing your remote again.

See also these other remote control posts:
- The Story of A Peanut - the history of the Tivo remote (Gizmodo)
- Harmony control not so usable (uselog)
- I Love My Remote Control (uselog)
- Fruit Sticker Fixes Unusable Universal Remote (uselog)
- One Person per Household Understands the Remote (uselog)
- More Than Four Remotes in 75% of Dutch Homes (uselog)

6 reactions:

DavidJ said...: Sure, the "pause" button is hard to miss, but how often do you want to pause without resuming play? I think the "play" button is just as important. So why is it so small? More usable would have been pause and play on the same button...; 3:14 AM
Jasper said...: Sorry Dave, I disagree. First of all, when you need to pause something you're usually in more of a hurry then when you want to start a movie. Someone's at the door, phone call, etc. So that justifies a pause button that's more discernible than a play button. And I think it's good that they separated pause from play. It's two different functions.; 11:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Nice remote. The only thing I'd change is the skip button, which is where I'd expect Stop to be (since it's the opposite of Play). Skip is like forward, so those buttons should be similarly placed (basically mimicking the controls of every CD player I own). And how to do you skip backwards?

In the end, the real question is "Who needs a single remote anyway?" If I actually used my Tivo remote, I'd need at least 2 more for stereo and cable.

Now when someone makes a usable universal remote, I'll be impressed.; 7:43 PM
David J said...: Jasper, pause and play on the same button in no way makes the pause harder to do. And it makes resuming the movie (or CD or whatever) possible without having to look at the remote to find a different, smaller button. Pause is usually followed by play, regardless it's 2 seconds or 120.; 4:12 AM
Jasper said...: Indeed, "pause is usually followed by play", but play is not always preceded by pause. You can start a movie without having paused it before. If you could change the play button to show a pause symbol when a movie is playing (as happens in quicktime for example), it might make sense. But making a pause/play button instead of a play and a pause button, I don't think so.; 9:19 AM
Anonymous said...: totally makes sense, one big button does play and pause.
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Like on many devices.; 8:05 AM