Television Remote Technologies - Essay Example

Television remotes have become a part of modern life but little attention has been paid to up them. Consequently, a number of issuesexist in using television remotes including low learnability and unnecessary complication due to the presence of a large number of buttons. This report will explore these issues in detail as per human computer interaction and will propose fitting solutions to improve the usability and the overall user experience. 2. Introduction Human computer interaction has been on the rise continuously and remains one of the frontiers of development in electronics. Typical developments in human computer interaction are concerned with specialised devices that tend to operate for a limited audience such as machine operators. Alternatively, there is some development in other domains such as cellular phones although such development requires some time to set in and change the overall market. For example, the introduction of more interactive cellular phones such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform took people some time to learn and use. However, one of the more neglected platforms in terms of human computer interaction have been television remote controls. The situation has been made more complex by the introduction of auxiliary devices that operate in conjunction with televisions such as DVD players, TV top boxes and the like. It is not uncommon for a digital television viewer to use up to several different remotes in order to perform a function. An estimate puts the average amount of remotes at more than four in around 75% of all Dutch households (Use Log, 2012). In order to deal with this issue, this report will concentrate on elucidating the current shortcomings of remote control handsets in order to propose changes for a better system. Problems with current technologies will be identified as per usability and experience of use in order to propose a simpler and more interactive system. 3. Phase One A number of problems have been associated with current television remote technologies. The problems have more to do with usability than with user experience since user experience relies directly on usability. The usability of any device can be enhanced by either making the device simple enough so that it depends on learnability from other aspects of human computer interaction or it can be enhanced by producing devices that are simple to learn to use (Smith, 2011). The greatest challenge with using television remote sets is the lack of usability found on both accounts. Typical television remotes are lined with a large number of buttons in a matrix fashion. It is typical to find the channel number buttons at the lowest or on a matrix next to the lowest matrix. However, the opposite could also be true and these buttons could be on the highest matrix as well or near it. These buttons are usually easy to identify for all television sets since they are numbered and represent a common belief that using them would change the channel. In contrast lie a number of other buttons on a television remote set that serve no useful purpose during the remote’s lifetime. A large number of these unconnected buttons typically relate to setting up a television which is a service that is performed rarely throughout the television set’s lifetime. However, placing these buttons in the same domain as other buttons tends to confuse the typical television remote user. Moreover, the presence of these buttons also tends to add to the chance of mistakenly pressing such buttons to achieve undesired results (Pirker et al., 2010). This in turn tends to lower the overall user experience when using a remote. Another common problem attributed to remote control sets for televisions is the labelling of buttons. While an intermediate or advanced user may rightly interpret the word “Aux” to mean auxiliaries but a large number of basic users would not be able to do the same. The resulting confusion would tend to obscure the task of these buttons and would make basic tasks hard to achieve or even unachievable. For example, if a basic user had to change the audio balance on the remote, they would have to navigate a large part of the menu to get to audio controls and would then be able to modify the audio balance. This results from the use of a hierarchical function structure on a remote control. The typical television remote menu is segregated as per the relevant functions section such as audio control, channel control, video control and the like. The average user cannot understand this as simply because they are not used to navigating large menus such as in the case of cellular phones that have only a few items per menu (Karapanos et al., 2008). 4. Phase Two The first issue to consider is the usage of the device in controlling the television and its related auxiliaries. It is common for the television to be littered with a number of auxiliaries such as DVD players, gaming consoles and the like. In order to decrease the number of remotes, it is advisable to develop a common platform television remote control that is capable of handling other devices as well. In a sense, this is similar to drive recognition in operating systems given that one operating system carries enough information on disk to adapt to a number of different hardware types. Given the fact that such information is small and can be housed in relatively small space so it is practical enough to develop a remote that has the most common configurations for a number of different devices. This would have a number of advantages, the most noticeable of which is the reduction of remotes required to interact with the television. Additionally, using this strategy the overall user experience will be enhanced since learnability issues will decrease and user experience will go up. Interfacing with a number of other devices will also provide the television remote set a universal status whereby one kind of remote could essentially operate all kinds of televisions and their auxiliaries. This unification of remotes would allow the learning curves of users to decrease considerably since all televisions would have one remote only. Thus, a user could buy a Samsung, Phillips, Sony or any other brand of television and experience the same thing in terms of the remote control set. Learnability would improve manifold given this strategy. Moreover, the television remote control being proposed would also feature a limited number of buttons that are required for common functions only. The hierarchical menu structure will be replaced by common functions being bundled together. The user would then not have to undergo the entire menu structure in order to find the functions he is looking for. Instead, the user will simply select the required function from a number of common functions and then use it accordingly. The remote control being proposed is being shown below for reference. The remote control being shown above features the menu screen in front followed by two menu buttons just below the screen. These are followed by six buttons out of which the first two are for vertical menu control. The rest of the buttons can be assigned in a manner similar to short keys as they would be programmable. This structure would allow the users to assign their most commonly used functions as they desire. Additionally the menu screen would allow the user to run demos for specialised functions that they would like to perform. This is similar to demos available in cellular phones where the cellular phone screen shows what to do in order to achieve a higher order function. In this configuration, it is proposed that the last button on the remote be for help using nothing more than a question mark for the label. This common configuration would allow the user to simply seek out the required help and perform accordingly. 5. Conclusion Television remote sets are a common device in everyday use but they are way behind the kerb when it comes to usability and user experience. A number of shortcomings exist and must be addressed in order to deal with usability and user experience issues. Notably, the number of buttons on remotes should decrease along with the inclusion of interactive screens that allow the user to navigate the required functions rather than menus. 6. Bibliography Karapanos, E., Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J. & Martens, J.-b., 2008. User Experience : Beyond usability. CHI, 510, pp.1-5. Pirker, M., Bernhaupt, R. & Mirlacher, T., 2010. Investigating usability and user experience as possible entry barriers for touch interaction in the living room. In Proceedings of the 8th international interactive conference on Interactive TVVideo EuroITV 10 (2010)., 2010. ACM Press. Smith, K.T., 2011. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Consumer Product Design: Methods and Techniques. In W. Karwowski, M.M. Soares & N.A. Stanton, eds. Handbook of Human Factors in Consumer Product Design. New York: CRC Press. Use Log, 2012. More than 4 remotes in 75% of Dutch homes. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.uselog.com/2008/04/more-than-4-remotes-in-75-of-dutch.html" http://www.uselog.com/2008/04/more-than-4-remotes-in-75-of-dutch.html [Accessed 13 May 2012]. Read More