Are gadgets too complex? No, says Charlie Brooker
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
Charlie Brooker’s in typically uncompromising mood in his latest outing for The Guardian. He reckons TV remotes should have more stuff on them: dials and joysticks and flashing lights. He dreams of a remote with its own mouse. And he doesn’t want a manual:
I love complex gadgets. What I can’t stand are idiots who don’t know which buttons to press
According to a survey, two-thirds of people think gadgets are becoming too complicated. They’re packed with features they don’t understand, and subsequently never use. One newspaper illustrated the story with a photograph of “a typical TV remote” featuring “43 baffling buttons”, annotated with captions telling you what each of these buttons did, just to make it look even more complex and bewildering: “cursor up”, “cursor down”, “a/v input connector 1″, “device mode”, and so on.
Thing is, there weren’t enough buttons for my liking. I love a complicated TV remote. They should have more stuff on them: dials and joysticks and flashing lights. I dream of a remote with its own mouse.
And I don’t want a manual. I like to work out what each nubbin does through trial and error, poking it and staring at the screen. Best of all is the “menu” button, which grants you access to a whole new array of on screen options, replete with little icons and sliding scales. Sit me in front of a brand-new telly and it’s the first thing I’ll reach for, because new tellies often come with surprising and exotic new features provided by the gods of technology. Read full article here…
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Tags: Charlie Brooker, complex gadgets, idiots, remotes