The Tivo Remote - A story of design...

Gizmodo has an interesting exclusive on the development of the Tivo remote - beloved by many (and envied by Comcast DVR users like myself) for its intuitive layout and ergonomic comfort. I find it particularly interesting that, since the remote had to serve an entirely new product category (DVR) and support the usage patterns that category wanted to enable (frequent forwarding, rewinding, pausing, etc), it was especially important that the remote be "comfortable for long periods of in-hand use." And to let users gain quick tactile familiarity with the button layout, "each button needed to have a distinctive feel, giving the ability to control the remote without even looking at it." This layout was apparently "surprisingly helped by the 'blank finger parking spots between keys' that were equally important." Fascinating stuff, yielding very usable results! Check out the whole article here.

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