Why simplicty is hard

Comcast universal remoteWe spend more and more of our daily lives handling electronic devices. Every low-price, faux-metal, sweatshop-laborered one of them seems to come with a remote, a remote that is so badly engineered that not even the equally horrible user guide can explain.

Among the crown jewels of this slop is the Comcast remote, a 45-button monstrosity that stands as a testament to this industrial engineering design that should have come and gone long ago. Compare the user interface these buttons present with that of the ipod. Both remotes are used to guide the user through a screen and therefore visible content can easily change depending on context. That’s what Apple’s designers understood, and what Comcast’s didn’t, so we ended up with a remote that is frighteningly unusable.

Look at the buttons. What does Guide and Menu mean? How about Info? What’s the diff? And why are some buttons red — am I in danger of destroying something? Do I dare press a white Last? Is ON DEMAND a pressable button? What’s the difference between Power and All On?

What about the Enter and OK/Select buttons? Significant difference?

Sigh.

And all I wanted was to watch some NHL hockey!

Comments

[Gary]

Here are 2 very cool options you might consider. This is one I have:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detailsharmony/US/EN,CRID=2084,CONTENTID=11700

and the top of the line model is this one:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detailsharmony/US/EN,CRID=2084,CONTENTID=9933

They are both great for managing multiple systems with a clear unambigous UI.