[xahrepap]

And when you finally have a along controls everything is overloaded.

Dish forced a new remote on us last time a device broke and they replaced it. It has far fewer buttons. I’m sure it helps getting familiar with it on a super basic level. But the old one wasn’t that complicated anyhow.

But here’s the kicker: there’s no fast forward or rewind buttons. There no stop button. No record button. All of these (and more) have been turned into menu items and/or secret chords on the remote.

Oh. And it has a mic on it too. Hard pass.

Tv remote is just the easy example. I see it all over the place. Sleek no longer is pretty to my eyes. If I see something that I have to interact with these days and it looks sleek, I see frustration.

[rapind]

The worst offender of this is the Apple TV remote. Most of my actions with the Apple TV remote have been unintentional.

[Mumps]

Makes me think of the "MacBook Wheel" [0] from ages past.

It's really a shame how user-hostile design can be.

[0] https://youtu.be/9BnLbv6QYcA?feature=shared

[pjettter]

Haha! I haven’t seen anything from the onion in years. They kind of became irrelevant at some point :)

[addicted]

Apple TV remotes have always been so awful.

I remember when Front Row for the Mac was announced. I loved Front Row (although the supported content was far too limited).

But despite Fromt Row’s limited functionality and simplistic interface, the Apple Remote still didn’t feel adequate.

[miramba]

I just got an Apple TV and got crazy with the unintentional swipes and touches. Then I discovered you can turn that off, to click-only. It‘s much better now, maybe that helps you too.

[pjettter]

Yes direkt a 1:1 mapping of an analog (button/knob) would work better than what you describe.

Multifunction buttons… that never existed in the analog world? Or is that what is called “mode”? Send vs receive etc. Does anyone have a concrete example?

I’m not a remote control designer but I would think it would be fun to give it a try! Maybe I will :)

[ourmandave]

The reverse of that is the 4-in-one replacement remote with it's bazillion buttons.

It's like a 747 cockpit.

[pjettter]

At least everything is in a designated place!

That’s another thing I like about the analog world.