I’ve noticed an interesting issue with the use of Comcast’s onscreen guide, related to the fact that the channels move from low to high on the screen. To some extent, this makes sense, because we read content from top to bottom. On the other hand, when I scroll “down” through the guide, I am actually scrolling “up” through the channels, creating a visual mismatch.

For example, in the screenshot below, as I scroll through the guide I notice that the “Daily Show” is below “Dead Like Me”. If I were to want to check out both of these shows, I’d click on the first one and then click “down” on the channel button. Only problem is, if I’m on channel 59, clicking “down” will bring me to channel 58. Though it is certainly logical that when on channel 59, clicking down will bring me to 58, the visual display on the screen tricks the mind into thinking otherwise.

As I mentioned before, humans read from top to bottom, so switching the guide to read bottom to top — while solving this problem — would create another one. So, I guess I’m not really sure what the answer is here, but it is an interesting issue nonetheless.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 10:00 pm and is filed under interactive TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.