People just accept it; they think that's just the way it is and therefore never question alternatives.
Why are remotes so horribly ill-designed? Because they are designed by engineers, usually as an afterthought. The same is true for interfaces. I think most developers spend the majority of their time working on the hard part, making it work at all, and therefore don't concentrate much or at all on the user interface, simply because it's a patch job at the end that doesn't need much attention.
This by the way is also the fundamental flaw with open source applications as well. So much attention is paid to making things work, that every X11 app I've ever used is an interface nightmare. As much as I love open source software, its interfaces are organizational cluster fucks. Which is why I love the marriage of Apple and open source, and why I think claims that Apple is just putting "a pretty face" on tried and tested technology is a good thing.
Why are remotes so horribly ill-designed? Because they are designed by engineers, usually as an afterthought. The same is true for interfaces. I think most developers spend the majority of their time working on the hard part, making it work at all, and therefore don't concentrate much or at all on the user interface, simply because it's a patch job at the end that doesn't need much attention.
This by the way is also the fundamental flaw with open source applications as well. So much attention is paid to making things work, that every X11 app I've ever used is an interface nightmare. As much as I love open source software, its interfaces are organizational cluster fucks. Which is why I love the marriage of Apple and open source, and why I think claims that Apple is just putting "a pretty face" on tried and tested technology is a good thing.
I used to talk to Bruce Horn, who co-wrote the Finder, he stumbled upon my site one day. All cool guys.