Industrial design and the TiVo remote

The New York Times has a fascinating article about the evolution of the TiVo remote control. Almost everyone that I have spoken to about the remote raves about it (I personally am a fan of the SVR-2000's remote over the Philips one), and this article goes in depth about what it took to make it. Lesson learned? Don't let engineers design the remote control and let your designers go crazy -- it gives us an insight on how far the TiVo design team actually reaches.

"There tends to be this conservatism in the design process," he said. "I encourage young designers to go off and scare me.''

Some of the results fell under the category of "Be careful what you wish for." One sketch was of a remote that looked like a horned toad. Another resembled an ice scraper for a windshield.

Comments

[John]

I do agree that the TiVo remote is on the level of Mac design skill. Nevertheless, I am haunted by the proximity of the tiny TV Input to the tiny skip button.

[brian w]

Kottke comments on the remote, too, although I must say I've never had the "holding it backwards" problem that he has. Maybe I just instinctively reach for the little molded TiVo button at the top which helps with finding the right orientation.

The best button is, I think, the gigantic pause button right in the center. It's very inviting and has the most satisfying click-y feedback.

[Joost Schuur]

I wonder if you can get custom color casings for yoru remote like in the NYT article picture anywhere as a replacement.

[pb]

Kottke is right on. It's odd that Tivo made it so symmetrical and that the news article didn't bring that up.

[Scott]

I owned an SVR-2000 for four years before getting a DirecTV unit, and I sorely miss my Sony remote. I could hold the remote in one hand and hit all the buttons I needed with my thumb. The peanut remote is too large to do that. The clear button is down in one corner, the TiVo/DirecTV button is way up at the top, and so on. I am constantly grabbing it and holding it upside down. If I hit rewind one more time when I intend to push fast forward, I'm going to scream. If Sony made a programmable SVR-2000 remote I'd be all over that.

[Nico Macdonald]

There is a thorough and enlightening case study on British Sky Broadcasting's remote control handset, designed by Frazer Designers. Sky is generally considered to be downmarket with respect to TiVo (in which it is an investor, I believe) but its approach to product design in this case is laudable.

[Joe Clark]

Remocons are hard to get right and easy to screw up, as my Explorer 8000 experience shows.

[phil]

I've had the 'upside down' experience a few times (out of many thousand uses) but overall I like the 'peanut'. I wish they'd put the 'clear' button in an easier-to-reach place, though; when I'm deleting shows I have to keep going up and down the remote from 'clear' to 'select'. And I never use the 'instant replay' button (for instant replays anyway - I use it mostly for HMO stuff). I wonder if many people use it at all.

And the little 'inset picture' button that does nothing is silly. A button that does nothing (yet)? At least give it some kind of super secret use to justify its continued existence.

Still. When I can explain to my 3yr old 'push the big yellow button' to pause Dora the Explorer, that's pretty good. I think they did a great job for the most part.

[David]

I HATE the new TIVO remotes. That is actually the #1 reason I switched to a different brand of DVR.

I have always loved the TIVO and was one of the early few to get one. I liked the original remote, it was perfectly functional and required only one hand to use.

On the new remote I have accidentally held it backward a number of times. Accidentally turned off the TV when I meant to instant replay, and cursed up a storm any time I tried to clear shows off of the hard drive, as that requires a two handed dance across the remote so insane that I feel like I'm doing Fingerobics.