Helping Viewers Press the Right Buttons: Generating Intuitive Labels for Digital Terrestrial TV remote controls

This paper describes a four phase research study into the ease of use of DTT (digital terrestrial television) remote controls, focusing on button labelling. The aim was to identify intuitive remote control button labels, thereby enhancing the ease of use of DTT remote controls. In phase 1, a series of brainstorming (discussion) groups was run involving members of the British public to generate intuitive button labels for a variety of DTT functions. The second phase involved expert screening of these labels. The revised lists of labels for the functions tested were then compiled into a questionnaire and distributed to members of the general public in phase 3. Respondents were asked to rank order their favourite labels for each function. The final phase involved exploring the extent to which the subjective preferences derived from the results of phase 3 mapped onto viewers’ behavioural responses. Key measures explored included the speed and accuracy of correct button label identification. Generally, the results revealed close correspondence between the subjective preference data and behavioural responses. Whilst these results suggest that subjective preferences for labels are reasonable indicators of behavioural proficiency, we recommend that behavioural measures also be collected where possible. The approach reported here with reference to remote control button labels can be applied to a wide range of interactive media products and services