Now that the Fall TV season has kicked off, I’m back to sitting on the couch again. Luckily I do have DVR so my wife and I can watch at our convenience, but on occasion, I’ll watch live television. It’s usually how I stumble on new shows, like the Human Weapon.
As a viewer these days, you have three options; you push up and down on the channel button, you punch in the channel, or you push a button to bring up the guide. That’s great, three different ways to get to a channel.
I happen to have a cable television provider who offers television on demand, where I can purchase movies and preview television shows. Another great feature to have, no need to get off my butt to do anything else. To get to a menu for all these options, I simply push the giant IO button on my remote control. I can’t miss it. I even get an update on the weather, which acts as reassurance on my decision to stay home and watch television.
Now, there is yet another button above the IO button labeled “GUIDE”. You would assume that pushing it would bring up the tv guide, and you would be wrong in your assumption. It brings up the same menu screen to select from on demand shows and the tv guide. So anytime I want to browse or even schedule a show for recording, I have to push two buttons; the GUIDE or IO button, followed by the SEL button.
This is where I am baffled. A product manufacturer would typically execute some usability testing. Which buttons are hit most often, which features are most utilized on a remote. The candidates would seem to be channel up/down, volume up/down, dvr button, playback functions, and a tv guide. Everything else seems auxiliary or not used often enough to warrant a button. In this case, I have a remote that does the exact same thing and forces me to press two buttons to get to what I want to.
Back to burning those extra calories pushing an extra button…