A trip back to my parents home inevitably involves figuring out why the TV isn’t working again. Their TV is only a few years old, so it, like anything built in the last five years, has the cesspool of bells and whistles we’ve all come to expect and dread. And like other modern technological whizbangs, their TV comes with an anchor called the remote, which once you discard the indecipherable user’s manual, will most assuredly drag you down to the depths of despair.
After my Dad has exhausted his capacity for fixing the problem, he hands over the remote control to me. This is as welcome as being asked to operate a stealth bomber. The remote is a killing machine without the blue sky and super sonic speed. Out of curiosity, I counted the buttons on the face of the remote. Fifty-eight. Really, engineers? We’re watching our favorite reality shows, not splicing genes or expanding on the string theory.
Perhaps I’m being hasty attributing all the blame to engineers, who are simply doing the bidding of the divas with an expense account. What the heck is wrong with you marketing people? Where were you all during the focus groups? Checking your messages? Grabbing a quick latte? You left the room of elderly folks who volunteered to test the remote control’s usability, and there they were – pushing all 58 buttons and wondering if the thing was intended to produce a picture or blast a hole through the screen. You idiots. Not you, elderly people, you, marketing people. Is your bonus dependent on how many useless and confusing buttons the engineers can cram onto the device?
Shame on you. You’re creating a confusing, terrifying, and frustrating world for millions of older people, who just want to turn on the television and join Alex Trebek on Jeopardy. Granted, it’s just a TV, but for the housebound, it’s a lifeline to the larger world. This inhuman and cruel treatment of the elderly enrages me.
One of the more irritating and egregious flaws on my parents’ particular remote is the location of the ONE BUTTON THAT SHOULD NEVER BE PRESSED — the SOURCE button. Press the SOURCE button and the earth reverses it’s rotation. Okay, not really. What happens is that the source of the signal switches and renders the TV useless, unless watching a screen filled with snow amuses you. But back to the button’s location. Think about how you hold a remote — the hand covers most of the face on the device, the heel of the hand rests ON THE SOURCE BUTTON. Notice the problem, engineers? Anyone? Anyone?
Donald Norman, brilliant usability engineer and author of The Design of Everyday Things, would be ashamed of engineers, marketing staff and anyone else responsible for foisting this nonsense on a huge portion of the population. It makes me wonder how tolerant the perpetrators would be if they had to fix their parents TV or DVR every time they visited. Or how about this very special form of torture: each time the engineer or marketing person tries to order his or her latte, they have to push 57 buttons in just the right sequence. And if they accidentally hit the SOURCE button, they’re ejected from the coffee shop.
I had to call one of my brothers long distance to get him to diagnose the problem. In a few seconds he solved the problem and proposed a remedy that might prevent my Dad from accidentally pressing the Source button. See below.
Corn pads aren’t just for corns anymore.
A must read: The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman.
Norman’s belief is that designers too often create unworkable technology because they fail to understand a human’s point of reference and his or her relationship to the environment in which technology is used. Director of the Institute for Cognitive Sciences at University of California, San Diego, the author examines the psychological processes needed in operating and comprehending devices. Examples include doors you don’t know whether to push or pull and VCRs you can’t figure out how to program.
Link to the book review:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=5393
I laffed til I snorted my chai tea latte! We are retired, although not quite willing to accept the elder designation (see, we were EARLY retirees!) but share your dad’s frustration with the remote. PLUS, we have surround sound (1 remote) a rotor-operated antenna (1 remote) a DVD (1 remote) a fan (1 remote) and at least one other remote I can’t recall at the moment. A universal remote doesn’t do the trick as it doesn’t handle the antenna or the fan, and so we juggle 3 remotes just to watch a movie. That is 97 buttons… (my husband snorted HIS mocha watching me count them!)
You need to send a copy of this blog to all the geek magazines that rank equipment etc. Protest Remotely!
That’s way too many buttons! Crazy!
We’re watching our favorite reality shows, not splicing genes or expanding on the string theory.
I pressed something weird on the TV remote. I have a whole separate remote for cable. Don’t ask me why. It messed everything up. Picture but no sound. I don’t know if it’s that Source button. My partner was able to fix it. I’m too scared to touch it again. So I get up and turn the TV off and on without the remote.
I think Norman’s belief is spot on (and he’s from my alma mater so yay). I wonder, though, why they don’t have regular people test these things to give feedback. Then, they can tweak them to make them user friendly. A focus group of some sort. Maybe it isn’t worth the time and expense since it’s “just a remote.”
Regular people should be part of focus groups, absolutely. I bet food companies spend more on focus- testing their products than tech companies do. But I found, in my experience with engineers, that they can be an arrogant bunch with disdain for us regular folks.
SDS – You Are My Hero.
My parents were always “old” to me – I was born in their 40s. I have been advocating about this form of senior abuse for many years. Both parents have passed and now I shake my head because I’m beginning to see that keeping up is paramount to daily exercise.
There’s a dangerous assumption being made…that companies “test” their products. Not anymore. A so-called brilliant cost cutting idea was born (Microsoft may have been the first) to let the consumer BE the test.
We get to deal with the frustration from five different angles – the last one being any hope of satisfactory replacement or solution.
There are gems being placed in your daughter crown!
So well said, souldipper! Yeah, it costs a lot to do focus group testing, but you’d think it costs so much more to fix the crappy technology!
Ah well, see, you’re still thinking like a rational human being. Who says they ever fix the crappy technology?
Oh boy – you nail this one. Just got off the phone with Comcast. This time my 89 year old mother inadvertantly ordered phone service through them, so it didn’t have to do with her issues with the remote. But last time, she was trying to order the film “Billy Elliott” on demand — and ended up with the wrong movies – watched 30 seconds of about five each, and gave up. Little did she know she was getting charged about $20 per view — because they were….Pornos!!! Had to have my 15 year old son put parental controls on his grandmother’s remote. Arrrrrrgh.
Great post.
That’s just classic – having your teenager put parental controls on an octogenarian’s remote! Love it!
OH NO! That’s hilarious but scary. I hope that most companies have customer service folks who are trained to be sensitive to the needs of their elderly customers.
That is the BEST story I’ve heard in awhile…mostly because I can just picture my southern Baptist grandma doing the same thing and the exact shocked expression on her face!
Hi,
It is very hard for a lot of elderly people. I am forever getting calls from my Father that something has gone wrong with the TV, or the set top box, once there it is usually because he has pressed something he shouldn’t have on the remote, usually in the menu. Once he was only receiving digital radio on the TV, as this was in the menu and somehow he managed to press this and then couldn’t work out what had gone wrong. I really think manufactures need to rethink all the unnecessary buttons that they love to put on their remotes.
I loved the corn pad on the remote that is brilliant.
We experience exactly the same thing. My dad no longer has a computer. It was good for him for a while, but then became another source of frustration for him!
My father-in-law was a systems analyst for Rockwell in his day. When he passed away, he had in his possession a Commodore 64, an Atari 64, an Atari 4600, and about 10 other computers in various stages of being built. But he had no idea how to hook up his DVD player (Blueray) to his television (most definitely NOT able to support Blueray) and make ANY of the remotes work. He pretty much just gave up and fell asleep in front of the TV to whatever happened to be on most of the time.
The photo of the remote is very funny!
Until my husband gets some time to fix the situation, it takes 3 remotes to operate our TV – one turns the TV on, one turns the Satellite on, and one turns the Sound System on. That is 132 buttons to choose from… the potential combinations that could lead to a failure we would never recover from are mid boggling.
132. It’s just damn inhuman.
Looks great Jean, at least he can’t miss it. And you forgot to tell everyone about his forays to the back of the TV set where he has a predilection to disconnect all the power supplies and cables as if gremlins were back there since the last time the TV worked and he needs to check it out. There are other possible solutions like the one mentioned about just turning the TV off at the TV but he won’t remember to do it that way. Oh well, 1 more day!!
Yeah, I checked back there, too but didn’t set up any obstacles cuz I figured mom would take the brunt of his frustration and blame. By the way, their ceiling light in that TV area isn’t working. I almost had a heart attack when Dad mentioned taking a look at the wiring. Geez.
Jean, I have looked at that before for Dad and do not believe it is wired to begin with. He has asked me about 3 times since then. Don’t bother
Whenever I am faced with complicated technology, I find myself wishing I was more entrepreneurial. If I was, I’d make a whole line of products for people 50 & over. I’d make microsoft & apple look like neighborhood lemonade stands.
We could make millions…
I thought they already have that…..it’s the same thing, just all of the buttons are much larger. Ohhhh, I crack myself up.
This is a fantastic post! But my “pilot” side really likes all those buttons. I wonder if our future will involve changing channels with mind control and then having to get some kind of brain washing every time we think about the source button.
So, what else is new?
That’s the sad part – we just accept the foisting of unusable, frustrating technology. Some of us eagerly await the next thing; a whole lot of others get more and more marginalized by it.
So true, Terrence! You may now call me Capt. Obvious.
Ok, Capt. Obvious with a spelling deficiency. Sorry, Terrance. Next time, I’ll have some more coffee before attempting to address you.
Oh, Captain, My Captain,
You don’t have to correct spelling for me. I’m a hit or miss writer who usually misses. So, no biggie.
Yes- of course- for you, technology should be welcome – but wouldn’t even a technophile eventually say, “Enough”? I wonder.
Absolutely. Even though I really like pressing buttons, there are times when I’d much rather press ONE button to get a certain function rather than type out a “code” in order to look smart in front of my children.
Hilarious and sooo true. You would think that the shifting demographic would result in products that are more older person friendly but the trend is just the opposite. Try to find a phone with pressable/visible buttons.
I agree about parents and technology–everything is more complicated at their house for some reason!
You’d think there would be a huge market for elder- friendly technology! But it seems that technology forces us to bend to it- we’re slaves to “innovation.”
I long for the good old days when you actually had to get up of your ass, walk to the TV and manually turn that channel selector dial. But then you only had three choices, and a TV Guide that was easy to read. Down with machines!
This reminded me that when we visited my folks a few weeks ago, my mom hadn’t used her tv since our last visit a few wekks before that. My hubby had given her a new tv and hooked it to their satelite but she didn’t see the button beside the tv button and was afraid she was going to mess the controls. I know that sometimes when I hit the wrong button it takes me forever to get the picture back…TOO MANY BUTTONS!!!!
I feel so sorry for our parents and grandparents. They probably think they’re living in a special form of hell.
the phone call i dread getting most is my mother calling and saying the tv (or dvd player or vcr) isn’t working, i don’t know what i did.
i guess what i’m thinking and feeling is akin to my calling my son and saying the computer isn’t working, i don’t know what i did. yes, it is possible to feel daggers through the phone. 
that’s why (and i am not making this up) there are files on my computer named MOM DO NOT OPEN.
my son just got me a new tv for mother’s day. of course, it came with it’s own remote. it has 47 buttons. of course, i only use 2 of them–1 to turn on the tv and 1 to find the correct setting so that either the cable or the dvd recorder is in use. the cable remote has 53 buttons. other than the numbers, i think i use maybe 6 or 7 of them. i’m on my second dvd-recorder remote. the old one had certain buttons wear out–the one for play (pretty important one) and the one for commercial skip (nice to have, but i can survive without it). i called panasonic, and a new remote would have cost over 40 bucks.
i found a place online, which just happened to be local, and bought one for less than half that. that was a few years ago. since then, the play button and the commercial skip don’t work. 
sigh. design problem, perhaps? i bought a universal remote in hopes that it would work, but, alas, it wouldn’t do anything other than turning the machine on and off. i use the dvd-recorder every day, and instead of play, i have to fast-forward, pause, and then unpause. it’s really a pain, but i’ll be damned if i buy yet another replacement. by the way, that has 48 buttons, but let’s call it 46, because play and commercial skip are just there for decoration.
ARRRRGH. I got angry just reading your comment. What a mess these companies make of our world! Last night, I was at my sister’s and the remote wasn’t working. Then I found out that there weren’t even any buttons on the TV to push so that we could change the channel. I almost lost it.
And here we all sit, nonnie, accepting the tech torture. We need a revolt! Consumers have a ton of power, but we don’t use it enough.
Complexity for the sake of complexity just makes life harder, which defeats the purpose of technology. And it isn’t just the electronics. At least once a day I find myself struggling to open a jar of salsa or a bag of pretzels and saying, “How do the elderly or people with arthritis ever manage to get anything to eat?” As soon as I take over the world, I’m going to immediately resign and hand power over to you, SDS. You have just the right balance of intelligence, exasperation, and humor.
In our world, anything with more than 4 buttons and any package that can’t be opened without a hammer or other brute force would be banned. You’ll have to stay on as my Prime Minister of Bright Ideas, though.
I love the corn plaster on the remote! What a brill idea.
We recently connected up our old DVD player which records) to our very old VCR and what with the newer DVD player (which doesn’t record) and the TV… there are too many remotes. It’s difficult to see let alone be able to position ones fingers on the right buttons… and then we have to remember which remote which belongs to which thing… crazy. You’re right, they don’t take these things into consideration.
And, the sad thing is, I don’t think the companies care anymore. I guess you could label all the remotes you have, but why should we have to? And those universal remotes are the most confusing!
I’ve a remote on my car stereo. While not a large, it has a dizzying array of buttons, all of which seem designed to create a radio listening crises while driving. More than once, often really, I’ll accidentally press a button that seems to make all of my settings go away, I think if I keep pressing it, the pre-set buttons come back. Of course, I’m throwing a fit and cussing loudly so it might be that the car stereo gods are suddenly afraid that I’m going to pitch the stereo (with them too), so they relent and give me my pre-sets back. I’m not sure.
Oh, I can’t even get started on what engineers have done to make the car dashboard a living hell! It can’t possibly have created more car safety by adding all of these buttons and dials and cryptic symbols!
Perhaps we ought market a 4 button remote….on off volume channel
This is EXACTLY what I want. Easy to make and the demand would be huge! Get on it, OMA!
I’d buy two. One to use, the other one to bronze and put on a pedestal.
their TV comes with an anchor called the remote and the fun begins there. You are hysterical and lawd knows I need some of that in my life. Glad I wandered over from Spinny Liberal’s blog.
I am tired of being the family electronics expert. Damn tired of it. Do they think I have a friggin degree in hooking up things or making small electronics work? Hell no!
Thank you for being here, Dusty! Isn’t it amazing how someone is appointed to fix all these doggone things? Everyone else gets to look helpless and impatient, while one poor soul is left to experience all the frustration and anger. At work, people will call on me to figure out their software issues, never thinking to call IT instead!
A corn pad…now that’s funny!
Great post,
Mikalee
You have managed to say something I’ve tried to articulate for ages. I am an idiot when it comes to all things buttoned! Thanks for expressing my frustrastion.
Remotely Resigned,
Kathy
Funny! Isn’t it amazing how we humans make ourselves adapt to the products rather than the other way around. I’m sure that 99% of people have just given up using all of the buttons save for On, Off, Volume and Channel. It should not be that way! Thank you for coming over!
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Technology hates me. We have three, THREE, remotes so that we can use all this electronic crap and if I’m the only one home it never fails that something won’t turn on correctly and I spend 20 minutes just trying to get a movie to play. It’s ridiculous. I miss rabbit ears and getting up to dial through one of five channels.
i despise remotes. i think everything should run off an i-pad or something. i realize some fancy pants people actually have that capability, but at this point i’m still juggling 4 remotes in just a 1-bedroom apartment. brutal.
Great post. I personally always have issues with taps and showers in hotels or public toilets. I swear most of them actually work through telepathy.
Also the last update to Microsoft Office, which deliberately hid all the buttons I use the most. Engineers do it on purpose….
You know, I have never really even thought about the whole issue until you highlighted it in your post. technology is supposed to make things more simple- not complicated!
Remotes absolutely terrify me. Someone else always has to turn on the DVDs. Unfortunately, my brother, who claims to be better at technology, is really no better. I will never let him live down the day he tried to restart a paused movie and turned it mute with spanish subtitles.
A corn pad?! Now that’s too funny. My mom used to have those things all around the house heheehe. Thanks for sharing.
I HATE technology that does this. The problem is that this garbage is designed by geeks who get off on seven thousand buttons on their remotes. Spending a half-day up to their nosehairs in the manual is their idea of a fun way to waste an afternoon. For the rest of us, it’s our idea of HELL. This is why Apple has taken over the world — they make computers with NO BUTTONS AT ALL on them. Heaven.
Oh yeah the remotes will drive you nuts you’ve gotta have the book or you’re toast. Nice little blog. Come visit http://thor27.wordpress.com
I tend to agree with you, but if you’re a homebody and TV is your life and you don’t have any impairments and you can’t figure out how to use your tv (you know, those instructions they write, did you throw them out?) or going to google and typing “Company+Model#+User Manual” and discover it in full as a PDF. I have no sympathy for you.
Awesome what a great post I can totally relate I often have to walk my Mom through a myriad of steps over the phone to see why she can’t change the channel. She will be 80 in a few weeks and just wants to be able to watch tv sans all the ridiculous buttons. Congrats on being pressed!
HAHAHA! I almost swallowed my cherry seed. Funny post. Congrats on Freshly Pressed.
We get calls all the time from both sets of parents and it is getting better in them setting up in a new location – both winter and summer in two different locations and one of the first things to setup is the TV and dish. Now they have laptops too and that is another set of challenges. We have a new TV and have no clue where the on/off button on that thing is – all hidden. We have about 4 remotes for the one TV and luckily one for the other TV – just to watch a DVD have to do a juggling act with 3 different remotes and the 4th remote is if we want surround sound – FRUSTRATING. I can probably count on one hand the number of buttons we use on a daily basis on our remote – as to what the rest do simply have no clue and really afraid to push one to figure it out!
Personally, I love having a remote that turns on my TV, flushes my toilet, makes my coffee, flips my eggs, walks my dogs, turns up the volume, and has a button for each individual spring cleaning task…….what really pisses me off….no laundry button. Still looking for that one.
Great post! I can really identify with this since my 87 year old Mom calls me at least once a week to come over and fix her remote. Yes, she always hits that darn “source” button.
Thanks for giving me my laugh of the day.
Nancy
My 16 month old stays with his grandparents while I am at work. Inevitable, when I go to pick him up, he has gotten a hold of the remote and pressed the source key. The grandparent? Are devastated because this was at 10 am and they still have not been able to fix. No matter how many times I show them.
I’m older and have two remotes and pray every day that I don’t accidently hit a wrong button and render my TV to snow. My well-meaning kids bought me a universal remote figuring this would be the key to easier viewing and choosing. No way. I’m not learning a whole new remote again with a million buttons. Great post.
haha hilarious post, yet so true.
Today’s remotes are so complicated!! My situation is reverse– my parents have the latest LCD TV with the complex remote, while my husband and I have a box TV and remote with it’s simple PLAY-REWIND-FASTFORWARD–STOP–RECORD buttons….you know just the basics! 
Haha! Very good blog. Every time my parents come to my house to watch the kids…it’s not 5 minutes after I leave the house, they call me to ask how to work the ‘clicky thingy’.
I am into simplifying my life……….I only deal with two buttons: On and Off……..
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I sometimes just want to leave it on one channel and watch whatever is on at the time… Glad you stopped over!
Well you know the future is touch screen remotes. No buttons but one thousand times the complexity.
Welcome, maximsmadness! Now, I fear the future more than ever. All those damn fingerprints all over the TV …
Hahaha yesterday I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out my parents TV. They were both sleeping, so neither could help. I ended up throwing in the towel and setting for a good old fashioned book.. Much better choice anyway
I would have woken them up! But the book was a good choice, too. Sometimes I just want to tape a picture over the TV screen. Thanks for stopping by!
Oh, now you are both just talking crazy. You want sensible design *and* decent quality construction? Much more subversive talk like that and you will have large, humorless men in sunglasses and crewcuts parking their black SUVs in front of your doors very soon.
Oh, they’re here for me? I thought they were staking out my neighbor’s house. I guess my suggestion was a little out of control. ;^)
Seriously though, my husband has used duct tape to keep the batteries in the remote, which kinda freaked me out because using duct tape on things like that is my dad’s domain, or so I thought.
As long as those large, humorless men can work the remote and retrieve the show I taped, they can hang out as long as they want to.
Ha ha that’s hilarious! I’ll have to keep that in mind for my in-laws.
Just discovered your site this morning from a link here – http://acleansurface.com/page/2/. Really enjoyed your article. It hammers home the craziness of it all. There are people out there getting paid to continually make things up, just for the hell of it; not because it makes any sense – except maybe to those who are making money from it all.
My dear mum-in-law has dementia but lives in her own home with her beloved cat who is lucky enough to sometimes get instant coffee granules in his food bowl! I know … but I’m not in charge of things there. Anyway, a few times lately she has phoned her son to say that her tv isn’t working and if he can’t fix it, would he get her another. Turns out she’s trying to use the phone instead of the remote. I’m going to try the corn plaster idea – thanks.
Hi, Robin! Your mum-in-law, even with her dementia, is suffering the same thing we all do. Devices all start looking much the same after a while and they’re all too difficult to use. I’m still trying to figure out how to use my phone. I’m so glad you stopped over by happenstance!
I have been reading your blog all morning . . . make that day (how did it get to be 2:27). I was supposed to be reading about OWS (I decided to dedicate the day to reading), but when I looked for yesterday’s post and couldn’t find it, I ended up spending the day with your blog . . . I have thoroughly enjoyed every post, but I’m finally commenting because I read The Design of Everyday Things in 1995 when I was learning about how to design computer games. I thought it was a great book and I still think about it often (especially on freeway interchanges). I’ve never known anyone else who read it.
On to the next post. . . .
The Design of Everyday Things stands as one of the best and most enlightening books I’ve ever read. And, heck, thank you for doing all that reading of my posts! The Sunday post is gone; the explanation is in today’s.