Development Of The TiVo Remote Charted

victor_the_cleaner writes "The New York Times (anonymous readers need not apply) has an article about the development of the TiVo remote control. The article reviews the user-centered design approach the designers took. According to the lead designer, they considered 'how it feels in the hand, for long periods of time.' How about you - do you have an emotional attachment to your TiVo remote? Or other well-designed objects?"

Text of article

[Snake_Plisken]

To most home viewers, remote controls may seem like ancillary sidekicks to the main attraction that is the television, DVD player or digital video recorder. Yet in some ways the remote has become the centerpiece of home entertainment: so many functions have been relegated to this slip of an object that if it is lost, you may find yourself unable to do so much as call up a menu for watching the movie you popped into the DVD player. Advertisement But if the remote control is a linchpin, it is also often an inscrutable one. A typical remote may have some 40 buttons, with functions that are hard to divine. Often the labels - "toggle," "planner" and the like - are no help. The device can feel like an afterthought, thrown together without any planning at all. Increasingly, however, electronics companies are recognizing that building an easy-to-use remote control is an important and challenging task. To improve the remote, they are deploying teams of experienced industrial designers who focus on the product for months - and reaching out to consumers for advice. In 1998, design engineers at TiVo, the Silicon Valley company that helped introduce the digital video recorder to the world, set out to produce a distinctive remote control. The result was a textbook blend of complexity and ease of use. A month into the model-making, the peanut emerged. "The shape is comfortable in your hand," Mr. Newby said. "It's friendly and disarming. It's designed for simplicity, and it stands apart from the crowd of remotes on the coffee table." The next challenge was to fend off an attack of buttonitis. "Buttons proliferate on remotes like rabbits," Mr. Newby said, adding that he and his designers, who ranged in age from 25 to 45, had "bloody battles" over which ones to include. They managed to hold the number at 30, a considerable achievement given how many functions the TiVo receiver performs. Color, too, was a well-trampled subject. "Color is this very emotional thing," Mr. Newby said. Determined to come up with shades that the designers considered "warmer" than standard-issue black, they chose dark cherry as the base color, with light gray keys for contrast. Advertisement To avoid a look that was too bright and toylike, he said, all of the colors ultimately got "dusted down a notch." The pause button, for example, is a subtle yellow-orange. Then came the feel of the buttons, for which they chose a smooth, pliable rubber. Mr. Newby likened the feel of hitting the buttons to that of playing a piano. When a button is pushed, the user feels a slight snap, signaling that the key has traveled far enough to achieve electrical contact. "These are the devilish details that often get overlooked," he said. In the middle of the design process, Mr. Newby turned to non-engineers on the TiVo staff for feedback. This helped the designers refine the size and shape of the keys and the amount of space between them. By September 1998, 11 weeks into the process, Mr. Newby and his team had completed the first few hand-built functional remotes. Then came a quick tooling cycle so TiVo could distribute the remotes to beta testers, consisting of technologically inexperienced friends and relatives of employees. The testers' feedback prompted the TiVo designers to reduce the time lapse between pressing a button and seeing the command executed on the screen. The same group helped the designers fine-tune the dimensions of the remote to maximize the comfort level. Mr. Newby said the testers also advised the designers on where to put the battery compartment so that the device would balance nicely in the hand. Other refinements followed, and by the time the first TiVo box was shipped to stores in March 1999, the remote was being produced in high volume. The base color of the remote has since been changed to a dark gray to match TiVo's Series 2 receiver, with buttons of much lighter gray for contrast. And the number of buttons crept up to 34. But the look and feel of the original TiVo remote as it emerged from the design team's sketchbooks and modeling labs ha

Google Link

[aaron_ds]

Google Link here [nytimes.com]

RTFA via google

[Ubi_NL]

God I hate the NYT registration. I must have over 25 different accounts there by now and just keep forgetting them. Anyway: use the google partner-link [google.com]

Link to printer-friendly non-reg article

[Anonymous Coward]

With the recent trend of article mirror trolls, I don't trust the first poster's text.

Now Preening on the Coffee Table: The TiVo Remote Control [nytimes.com]

Re:RTFA via google

[BrianEnigma]

Use a registration from here: http://bugmenot.com/ [bugmenot.com]

my favourite remote

[boarder]

I have used the TiVo remote, and it is pretty good... I prefer the remote I have, though.

It is the Radio Shack universal 15-2116 (previously 14-1994, which I also still own). I hacked together a little parallel cable to connect it to my computer and program every single button exactly how I want (called the JP1 hack). You can map any button any way you want, clear out the memory of unused buttons, etc. I have that thing programmed for 6 different things (from the replayTV to the original Apex hacked dvd player to an offbrand tv/vcr combo) and have the buttons so intuitively mapped that I don't ever need to look at it. It also has this weird textured plastic that feels like hardened suede. IR learning and everything else, all for $30.

That's not my TiVO remote!

[dcmeserve]

I have the Sony remote [stevelionel.com]...

...You insensitive clods!

By the way, one complaint I've heard (and can see) in the Phillips remote design is the fact that it's too symmetrical front-to-back -- when watching tv in the dark, it's hard to know if you're holding it the right way. Guess they didn't think of turning out the lights when they were doing their ergonomic tests. Whoops!

Ha-hah!

Re:RTFA via google

[berkut1337]

that didn't work for me, try this URL instead:

http://tinyurl.com/2cmny

Wow! So ergonomic! So in the drawer it goes.

[Channard]

At least that's the way it went in my house. I suspect a number of slashdot users - certainly myself - have so many remote controls they replace them with an all-in-one remote. My current cheapy all in one controls my CD player, my TV, sky box, vcr and DVD. And nice as any individual device's remote control may be, I'd rather stick it in a drawer and use the all-for-one instead of having to fumble for more than one remote.

Nintendo GameCube controller...

[nhaines]

I've always loved the way my GameCube controller sits perfectly in my hands, and the deep contour of the shoulder buttons. The Control Stick is very precise and sensitive, and isn't too loose. The face button configuration is likewise very intuitive and easy to use without looking at the controller.

Sure, it took a little getting used to for some games. But there were a few games (mostly ports) who did a bad job with controller mappings in the beginning. Any native GameCube game controls beautifully. I prefer the controller to the PS2 controllers. They are also nice controllers, but a little boxy, and I can't stand the analog sticks. Way too loose for me.

That's my attachment. :)

Text of article (with line breaks)

[Anonymous Coward]

// The article really pissed me off because of the huge flash ad in the middle of the page. You shouldn't suffer the same. Missing: stock photo of a remote control.

To most home viewers, remote controls may seem like ancillary sidekicks to the main attraction that is the television, DVD player or digital video recorder. Yet in some ways the remote has become the centerpiece of home entertainment: so many functions have been relegated to this slip of an object that if it is lost, you may find yourself unable to do so much as call up a menu for watching the movie you popped into the DVD player.

But if the remote control is a linchpin, it is also often an inscrutable one. A typical remote may have some 40 buttons, with functions that are hard to divine. Often the labels - "toggle," "planner" and the like - are no help. The device can feel like an afterthought, thrown together without any planning at all.

Increasingly, however, electronics companies are recognizing that building an easy-to-use remote control is an important and challenging task. To improve the remote, they are deploying teams of experienced industrial designers who focus on the product for months - and reaching out to consumers for advice.

In 1998, design engineers at TiVo, the Silicon Valley company that helped introduce the digital video recorder to the world, set out to produce a distinctive remote control. The result was a textbook blend of complexity and ease of use.

The peanut-shaped TiVo remote is at once playful and functional. A smiling TV set with feet and rabbit ears, the company's logo, graces the top. Distinctive buttons like a green thumbs-up and a red thumbs-down button have helped the remote win design awards from the Consumer Electronics Association.

"They did a really good job," said Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, a technology consulting firm in Fremont, Calif. Mr. Nielsen called the oversize yellow pause button in the middle of the remote "the most beautiful pause button I've ever seen."

When Paul Newby, TiVo's director of consumer design, arrived in June 1998, as the company was just starting up, he and a team of six designers were given 14 weeks to come up with a functioning remote control. Along the way they relied not only on their own instincts but also on feedback from potential users on everything from the feel of the device in the hand to the best place for the batteries.

Mr. Newby, 45, a mechanical engineer, came to TiVo by way of designing much larger objects - Caterpillar construction equipment, to be specific. Designing something that was by comparison microscopic was an inviting challenge.

Many remotes are monochromatic slices of hard plastic. For years, they have generally stuck to the old design conventions, a rectangle with neat rows and columns of buttons lined up like so many cadets.

"They were designed by - and I hate to say it because I am one of them - engineers," Mr. Newby said.

Mr. Nielsen said: "They work well if you're sitting in bright light and you have good eyesight and you're 20 or 30 years old. They're overloaded with features you don't really need except once a year or once a lifetime."

The shape of the remote - the subtlety of how it feels in the hand - was Mr. Newby's first major design consideration.

Because of the nature of the TiVo video recorder, the remote is held for long periods as users continually choose shows to record, skip commercials, fast-forward and rewind recorded shows, rate programs by pressing the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons, and even pause live TV. Designing a remote that consumers would find comfortable was a high priority.

Central to the process, Mr. Newby said, was producing prototypes "early, ugly and often."

Ugly?

"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 sket

Re:It's ok.

[steppin_razor_LA]

Removing channels you dont want to watch can be done -- but it would be really nice if there was a way to do it from the guide.

If you aren't afraid of voiding your warranty, you can install software like MFSFTP, Tyserver, Tystudio, etc and be able to do digital video extraction for archiving onto your file server or DVD.

Re:Nintendo GameCube controller...

[Rallion]

Plus I never needed to look down at the controller the first time I played a GameCube game. Er...square? What's the intuitive location for a square, and how does that differ from circle?

GameCube has A. First. Primary. Big. Then B. Like A, but less important. Then X, to the right, and Y, up. Or, for the letter-impaired, big circle, small circle, bean one, bean two. All of them EEL different, you know where your fingers are. And you always know that no matter what game you play, A means confirm, B means cancel.

Beats the hell out of faintly printed symbols on small, identical buttons.

Of course, that's in addition to what you said about the fantastic comfort level of the thing. Nine out of ten people who say that beautiful thing is awkward to use haven't given it a chance. Though I loved it right out of the box.

Don't take mine though. Take my little sister's MicroCon(?) version. Now THAT controller is too small.

Re:Yay TiVo!

[Yottabyte84]

What I LOVE about my TiVo remote is the way every button press is recorded and sent back to the TiVo command complex once an evening!

If that bothers you, you can opt-out, or hack the unit. It's /var/log/tivoLog.prv. 'ln -fn /dev/null /var/log/tivoLog.prv' will do the trick quite nicely.

Brand: Home Theater Master

[Anonymous Coward]

The Tivo remote is a fantastic design, but I've replaced it with a universal remote - truly universal; that has programable LCD buttons on the top 25% and REAL buttons with different shapes for the remaining.
This new remote replaced no less than 2 other so called "universal remotes." No longer will you have to hunt for the original remote because your universal remote is missing 1 or 2 buttons, this thing controls them all, supports macros, is programmed over a PC interface, can learn commands, and comes with many devices preprogrammed into the interface.

What is it? A "Home Theater Master MX-700"
http://www.remotecentral.com/mx700/

I found it on eBay for $140. Ok, that is steep for a remote. It is about $50 more than other full featured remotes that lack those few buttons. I ask you, how much satisfaction will you get when nobody can complain that your universal remote isn't really universal anymore. There is a newer model which has features I didn't need.

Whatever you do, avoid those fancy all LCD remotes. There's no "feel" to them and you'll be pressing the wrong buttons contantly.

Did I mention it controls **everything** on my Tivo perfectly with intellegent tactile button locations?

Re:Biggest problem with TiVo

[stevel]

You're not supposed to turn the TiVo off. Even "standby" isn't "off". The only way to really turn it off is to unplug it, which eliminates the whole point of having a TiVo.

Just turn the TV off and leave the TiVo alone.

On standalone TiVos, Standby turns off the audio/video outputs and front-panel LEDs and routes the RF in to RF out. On DirecTV TiVos it also stops recording the live buffer(s).

Sony TiVo remote is BETTER then TiVos'

[rufo]

I know what you mean (a friend of mine is a Sony nut, all the remotes he has are awful), but the Sony TiVo remote is completely different [stevelionel.com] from any other remote Sony has made. I would even go so far as to say that it's better then the TiVo peanut remote, and that's saying a lot.

The remote is just so perfectly balanced and shaped... I actually started to fall in love with TiVo just because of the remote without ever seeing the TiVo interface.

Re:Depends which one you have..

[Chris Pimlott]

I also have a Sony series 1 recorder. Although I've never used the peanut remote, I must say I really have come to love the Sony remote control. It is incredibly well balanced and fits in your hand very easily.
The most frequently used keys - the playback controls - are directly beneath your thumb at all time, with the pause, ffwd and rewind keys slightly recessed to make it easy to feel where they are without looking.
The next most useful keys, volume control and channel number, as well as the TiVo menu keys and arrow keys, are close by and easy to reach.
The number keys, which are handy but less often used, do require you to move your hand, but it's good they were placed out of the way to make room for more frequently used buttons.

There's a lot of great feedback in the remote design itself. Groups of buttons are similarly colored and there are a lot of physical features that make it easier. The TiVo button is a hard, shiny plastic, which sets it apart from the rest of them. Many different button shapes help to differientiate the controls, and some are angled, raised or lowered to make it easy for your thumb to find them.

Anyway, I digress, but I really love this remote. I wish there was something comparable to it in an "all-in-one" remove control. The only thing bad about the remote is if you lose it - because Sony didn't both to put any buttons on the front of their DVR! Sure, the featureless faceplate looks pretty cool [sony.com], but it makes the box useless if you can't find the remote.

How to clean and restore your remote

[plover]

[ DISCLAIMER: The following instructions work for me, but I'm always very careful. They may or may not work for you. You may damage or destroy your remote if you try these suggestions. You are responsible for your own actions. By trying any of these suggestions, you agree that you will not hold me responsible for any damage you may cause to your own remote. Remember, this is Slashdot and not Chi1ton's Remote Control Repair Manual. Eat your vegetables. ]

Take the remote completely apart, removing every component possible. When disassembling, take notice of where the battery wires and/or springs run so that you can return them to their original positions. Also, note the order in which you removed the parts.

Clean the plastic housings and other case parts like the battery cover with dish soap, water and an old toothbrush. Clean the button side of the button membrane with the toothbrush, but do not get water on the contact pad side. The circuit board usually just needs a good dusting, I typically dry blow it off. (By dry-blow, I mean "don't use spit-or-humidity-laden breath".) And never directly contact any circuit board with the nozzle or brush of a vacuum cleaner, they generate tremendous amounts of static which can blow chips.

If the circuit board is really filthy or sticky, (as in "beer spill",) you will need to clean it and the membrane pads with the soap and toothbrush, too. Make sure you completely and thoroughly dry the parts afterwards. I use a hair dryer. I have heard of people washing the circuit boards in the silverware tray in their dishwasher, but I have not personally tried this. I would also not put any plastic components through a heated dry cycle.

Once the circuit board is clean and dry, take a pink pencil eraser and clean the contact pads. If they are bare copper, polish each one until it is bright and shiny. If they are carbon coated, lightly rub them with the eraser but do not deeply abrade them. You just want to break through any surface dirt, not reshape them. And be careful not to rub so hard as to lift the copper traces from the circuit board, or your remote is probably toast. Afterwards, carefully brush or dry-blow all residue from the polishing. Even the tiniest particles here will cause the buttons to fail.

The buttons, however, are usually where the problem lies. For many years I've used a new U.S. dollar bill (or any new paper currency) as a mild abrasive on the black contacts. Depending on the design of the button and the membrane, you can either grip the individual buttons and rub them one at a time on the abrasive, or you can sometimes place the whole membrane assembly flat on the paper, move it with a circular motion and press the buttons to the paper. Be careful, some membranes are extremely thin and fragile. When rubbing the contacts on the abrasive, it is very important that you maintain the parallel planes between the button pads and the circuit board pads -- if you grind too much off one edge of a button pad, you'll typically just make your problem worse. You want to rub off just enough to break through dirt and/or damage. You may need to abrade more to repair badly rounded or misshapen contacts. When it's properly done, each pad should be flat (or imperceptibly convex) and parallel to the circuit board.

Reassemble the remote, usually in the reverse order in which you took it apart. Carefully route the battery wires and/or springs back through their original positions. Finally, install out-of-the-package fresh batteries.

Re:That's not my TiVO remote!

[srs5694]

For those who love the Sony TiVo remote but who don't have Sony units, be aware that the Sony remote is actually a UEI model. This means that you can hack it and upload upgrade codes to it. There's a thread about doing this on the TiVo Community Forum: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.ph p?s=&threadid=101136. Of course, you'll need a Sony remote to hack in order to do this. If you owned a Sony TiVo that died, maybe the remote's still lying around. If not, check eBay. I think Sony may sell them, too, but I'm not sure exactly where you'd go to find them.

Re:The pencil

[ePhil_One]

The TiVo folks really did a great job in the design of the remote

I don't get it. The peanut shaped remote of the Tivo is the worst design ever in my book. I have the Sont T-60 and a Hughes DirecTivo, and I'm waiting for somebody else to put out a new DirecTiVo so I dump the Hughes just because of the remote.

The Sony Remote [ndntp.com] is easy to tell one end from the other, buttons are distictive to the touch, works well one handed, and its very comfortable.

The peanut controller requires extra work to determine one end from the other, often requires two hands for basic channel entry (The buttons are at the bottom, so one han must hold while the other pushes), and lacks tactile feedback to help you locate buttons. I suspect this article was written by some chowder-head who never used a really good remote, and was just impressed by the fact that anything more than "We need three buttons, labeled A B and C" went in to remore design.

Worst part is, I think they are attached to this design as part of a "branding" thing. At least they have abandoned the god awful front panel design that plagued their units for years.

The best pens, period - Lamy

[Anonymous Coward]

Lamy pens, made in Germany. If function matters most, other pens don't come close.

The Safari and Al-star models are my favorites, and are ergonomic masterpieces.

http://lamyusa.com/

Re:Best Remote Ever

[pzarquon]

Design, good. Price tag? Bad. And since they know just how much we love our TiVos, they know just how desperate we'll get if we ever lose the remote... and charge accordingly. When my son introduced our factory remote to the toilet, we bought two - $70 plus ridiculous shipping to Hawaii. Then I read the One For All URC 6131 [amazon.com] universal remote did TiVo for about $15. I found it on sale at Circuit City. We've used it ever since. The design is nothing to cheer about, but it works, and I don't have to feel like I have to protect the thing with my life.

Re:RTFA via google

[Anonymous Coward]

25 accounts! try turning on cookies.