Poor interface design
Jun. 23rd, 2016 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrI've got an older neighbor who isn't that tech savvy. She also had bad hand tremors and (due to a combo of meds and health issues) thinks a bit slower than she used to.
Having been called over to help her with her TVs many a time, I have a few "suggestions" for the folks designing TVs and their remotes.
1. when selecting between the different inputs to the TV, leave the list of choices up until one is actually *selected*. Don't have a time-out. Especially not one that's less than 5 seconds long! *I* have trouble selecting the input on her tv. For her, it's almost impossible.
2. do *not* have buttons *assume* things. On her remote, if you hit channel up or down, it switches from whatever input you were on to over-the-air TV. Since she's got cable, this means that if she forgets and hits the channel button on the wrong remote, she winds up somewhere she doesn't want to be and has to fight that [censored] input select to get back to cable.
3. Allow changing the names on the input select menu. If I could, I'd change here from
TV
AV
HDMI 1
etc
to
Antenna
Cable box
blue ray player
That'd save her having to remember which is what.
Another issue I've ruin into is on the shared computers in the community room. If you are setting up computers to be used by folks who may have disabilities, don't just have mice. Also have at least one computer with a (large) trackball.
Watching someone with hand tremors trying to use a mouse is acutely painful. it takes them forever to get the cursor in the right spot, and it jumps to someplace else when they try to click. With a trackball (should be fairly heavy so it stays put) they can nudge the ball until it is in the right place. Then they can press the button without fear of it moving the cursor.
Come to think of it, I may request a chance to talk with the guy who sets up the computers. I think we could use a seperate login that has a bunch of the accessibilty features turned on.
Having been called over to help her with her TVs many a time, I have a few "suggestions" for the folks designing TVs and their remotes.
1. when selecting between the different inputs to the TV, leave the list of choices up until one is actually *selected*. Don't have a time-out. Especially not one that's less than 5 seconds long! *I* have trouble selecting the input on her tv. For her, it's almost impossible.
2. do *not* have buttons *assume* things. On her remote, if you hit channel up or down, it switches from whatever input you were on to over-the-air TV. Since she's got cable, this means that if she forgets and hits the channel button on the wrong remote, she winds up somewhere she doesn't want to be and has to fight that [censored] input select to get back to cable.
3. Allow changing the names on the input select menu. If I could, I'd change here from
TV
AV
HDMI 1
etc
to
Antenna
Cable box
blue ray player
That'd save her having to remember which is what.
Another issue I've ruin into is on the shared computers in the community room. If you are setting up computers to be used by folks who may have disabilities, don't just have mice. Also have at least one computer with a (large) trackball.
Watching someone with hand tremors trying to use a mouse is acutely painful. it takes them forever to get the cursor in the right spot, and it jumps to someplace else when they try to click. With a trackball (should be fairly heavy so it stays put) they can nudge the ball until it is in the right place. Then they can press the button without fear of it moving the cursor.
Come to think of it, I may request a chance to talk with the guy who sets up the computers. I think we could use a seperate login that has a bunch of the accessibilty features turned on.
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no subject
Date: 2016-06-24 01:35 pm (UTC)My Mother used to have a DVD recorder with a remote which was meant for several models from the same company. Unfortunately, one of the functions did not exist on her unit. Pushing that button locked up the machine so solidly that even holding the power button down wouldn't turn it off. I had to unplug it, wait a few seconds, plug it back in then go through setup and programming again.
Naturally, my Mother is of the "I've pushed every button on this thing and it still won't work!" school of tech use.
Fortunately, both that recorder and her old TV got hit by lightning. :-)