Building a better remote

There are few components of modern life more confusing than the television remote control. For our home TV, we have three remotes, each of which is required to do some arcane bit of trickery (cable, tv, dvd), and none of which are in the least intuitive. In a hotel room this weekend, I pushed the big green button at the top. Nothing. The orange button? Nothing. Turns out the power button was tiny and at the bottom, and the up, down, left, and right buttons didn’t change the channel or the volume.

On Core 77 this morning I came across one possible solution; the designers at Art Lebedev have posted their approach. I love the look of it, though I’m not sure it’s quite solved the essential problems involved. But, at 20″ long, at least you’re not going to misplace it.