One Remote to Rule Them All (or maybe 2 or 3 or 4)
One Remote to Rule Them All (or maybe 2, 3, or 4…)
Today I had the pleasure of visiting my client, Elaine, who was recently persuaded by her family to purchase a large-screen smart TV and a loud soundbar (a device used to amplify audio). She called me over to assist her to navigate through her new plethora of remote controls.
A problem in need of a solution
The problem Elaine faced was that she had already become comfortable using her TV for cable and watching on-demand shows on her iPad. She was struggling to make sense of how a soundbar + smart tv + multiple remotes could equal a comfortable and easy-to-use experience.
Pieces of the puzzle
(1) 50" Samsung smart TV
(1) Samsung remote for 50" smart TV
(1) Bose soundbar
(1) Remote for Bose soundbar
(1) Cable Box
(1) New remote for cable box
(1) Older remote for cable box
(1) DVD player
(1) DVD player remote
To give you an idea of her current TV setup:
Elaine has a large 50" Samsung TV mounted on an extendable arm in her living room. This TV faces out to a pair of couches in an L shape, with a coffee table in the middle.
Underneath the TV is a piece of furniture with electronics stacked atop each other like a pyramid: the bottom device is her DVD player, followed by her cable box, and on top is her Bose soundbar.
Laid out in the front of the pyramid were the 4 remotes that I was tasked with managing...
Learning more about the audience
The first step I always take is to learn more about the user's current habits. Just because I have a potential solution in mind, does not mean that it will be valid for the user's reality.
I asked Elaine about her normal protocol when it's time to watch TV. She told me that she used her old cable remote to control her TV's power, volume, and channels. This was a very simple operation for her.
Her old TV was not a smart TV. She relied on her considerably smaller-screened iPad to deliver each episode of 'The Marvelous Ms. Maisel' from the Amazon app.
With this information, I was able to better understand that a solution must balance her ease of use with the desire to adapt to her new technology.
Solution time
The first item I addressed was the soundbar. I knew that no other remote would allow her soundbar features to be integrated, so we must keep that remote for sound only. We put the remote on the coffee table with the understanding that it was only to be used for volume control.
While deciding between the newer and older cable remotes, Elaine let me know that she had an affinity for the larger print on the older remote; this made my decision easy. I programmed her older remote to allow her to control TV power and select the cable channels, and we labeled the back of it 'cable remote'.
Now on to the smart TV portion. In order to make the interactions with the Samsung smart TV menu very straightforward, we would use the smart TV remote but narrow down our usage to the essential buttons.
We practiced using the smart TV remote to log into Netflix and Amazon video with great success. In order to solidify the process, we created a step-by-step visual aid in the form of a paper guide.