Bad Design: Planar Projector Remote

What's wrong with this remote control?


The designer of this remote did not follow the common convention that power buttons on remote controls are generally the largest button, round, often red and generally located in the top left or right portion of the remote. Instead, the laser pointer button was designed in the fashion of common power buttons; I can only presume because lasers are red. The result is that every first-time user of this remote control whom I have witnessed (including myself) attempted to turn on the video projector it controls by blasting it with the laser pointer. After realizing their folly, they READ the remote and discover the power button is the green one in the middle. The mistake is sometimes repeated when turning the projector off only minutes or hours later.

Following common conventions (unless you've got a really good reason to break them) is one principal of good design. Users come to a design with knowledge about how the world works, and they use that knowledge to figure out new things when they encounter them for the first time. That can work to the designers advantage, simplifying the task and reducing or eliminating the need for labels, IF the designer learns and uses these common conventions.

What objects, devices or interactive media frustrate you?

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