Televisions are traditionally pretty straightforward. They serve as a medium between streaming information from a cable provider, and you- the person that would like to absorb some of it. Usually, you do this by two easy interactions: manipulating some control that tunes into a particular channel so that the information you want is displayed on the screen, and by manipulating some control that puts the auditory volume at some level that is preferred.
Well of course, our interactions these days are slightly more complex, allowing for much more features and preferences to be accounted for. However, for the most part- our most common usage of our television is really those same basic features that it all started with; channel and volume. Therefore, these basic interactions should be protected and maintained in their usability.
One common feature you might find in your television interface, your cable provider, your DVR/Tivo (or all three!) is a channel guide. What this usually consists of is some navigational or scrolling table that lists the channels and the programs on them for some window of time, in a descending direction. It is a great feature, but one I feel confuses the consistent navigation of your television UI.
The channel button on your remote control is mapped so that it matches up with our conventional number system. Up = channel up, Down = channel down. Makes sense, right? Well, remote controls often make the channel buttons left and right, so that they can make use of a cross-shape where the volume is up and down- but remote controls in general are a whole different story!
The problem is that when you enter the channel guide, suddenly the up and down buttons switch! Now, when you press up, the channels available to you decrease in their number. When you press down, the channels increase. I noticed this because whenever I entered the channel guide, I began to realize that I always felt a little bit of uncertainty about what to press.
My suggestion: List the channels in an ascending direction. The only reason that the channel button is reversed is because the channels are listed downwards, thereby requiring your to navigate downwards to access the next set of channels. There is nothing inherently useful for descending the numbers on a television. We don't expect to read a television screen like a paper or computer screen- reading top-to-bottom. Channel guides aren't documents. I can see how this notion came to form the way channel guides are implemented today- but it is not worth destroying the consistent navigation. Besides, these guides usually lie at the bottom of the screen anyway! If the numbers are listed upwards, the channel button maintains its mapping. Your mental model for using your remote is not constantly being switched on you like a TV with split-personality disorder...
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