Usability for non-techies - DVD Players, Remote & Menu
I have noticed the menu structures of many multi-movie DVDs and how it pose a steep learning curve to watch a movie. It starts with the movie selection usually.
The menu is simple, “n” movie names will be displayed in the first screen. Then you need to select a movie. Once a movie is selected, the next screen displays options where in, you can select to play the movie, or start with a particular chapter (Chapter search) or watch “goodies” (Behind the screen, directors cut) that are usually packed with movies.
Ok the process looks simple. Where do the problem start? It starts with the DVD Remote control and understanding the navigation procedure. Many consumers who are not techies.. say women of the household (geographically, women who are not that exposed to using tech products) are the sufferers.
I watched a real example, when my sister had trouble understanding how a multi-movie CD to be played. I observed that she simply inserted the DVD and pressed the play button in the remote. Oops nothing played. Instead the menu was still displaying intact. Then I told her.. to use the up/down/left/right arrows to move the “visual selector/cursor”. She then asked “wont the movie play if i press “Play” button”? I told her that, since the DVD has multiple movies in it, she need to select a movie first in order to play. She then spent some 10 to 20 secs to practice scrolling with the arrow keys and selected the first movie. Then appeared the movie options. Play - Chapters - Trailers - Goodies. But all options are arranged like a sci-fi terminal operation. The cursor has now changed to a “surrounding-oval”. She then had some difficulties in understanding whether there is a cursor or not. Finally she somehow managed to scroll the cursor and selected the “play” option.
I then spent some 10 minutes explaining her the basics of DVD Movie organization correlating it to a book. DVDs and books share the “Contents” section, the “Chapters”, the “Goodies/ Extras”.
Later she said, she still finds DVD navigation is little cumbersome.. as every movie uses its own style of navigation. I told her theres nothing could be done for that. And it really raised a question in me.. “Are there any standards for DVD Movie menu navigation?”
Also, is there a good Tv/DVD player remote controller? Most of them have buttons arranged in a regular matrix style. Only a few offer some intuitive finger-reach navigation. Let me know if you come across any good remote controllers.