History of the Button

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Bill DeRouchey

Inventor of remote control, dies

On February 15th, a man Robert Adler died at the age of 93 in a nursing home in Boise Idaho. This inventor and engineer was at the center of a key development in the history of the button. He co-invented the remote control. In his six decades working for Zenith,

Teapacks, Eurovision, "Push the Button"

Via BBC News: Israelis have voted overwhelmingly for a song about nuclear annihilation as their country’s entry in this year’s Eurovision Song contest. Push the Button is widely thought to be a response to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Islamic republic’s fiery president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The

The great glass elevator

My favorite movie as a kid was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (IMDB). Surreal, funny, deliciously visual, sweet, with some life lessons not too subtly woven in. The other day, I laughed upon realizing that buttons play a significant role in the final pivotal scene. Pushing the button represents

Push-button cooking still works

Back in December, I posted on pushbutton cooking, including the following ad from 1950 for a GE pushbutton oven. Reader Rob then realized that was his grandmother’s oven, and it’s been working fine for over fifty years! He promised to take pictures the next time he visited, and

Play Pause icon merges, evolves, migrates

Play and Pause icons are virtually universal now. In fact, they’re so universal, they’re migrating to other products outside the audio video world. I spotted this while walking through a major consumer electronics retailer the other day. Check out the new washing machine from LG. Look closely in

Stop icon: a question answered

Following up from yesterday’s post on printer icons… Reader Altissima provided a key answer for understanding the Stop icon used on printers and copiers. According to this Wikipedia entry, this variation of the Stop sign was used for decades in Europe before the red octagon became an international standard.

Printer icons: Design by habit

I really enjoy confusing icons. Not in the sense of “Hey Britney Spears, if I say all interaction designers are liars, and I’m an interaction designer, am I telling the truth or lying?”, but in the sense of noticing icons that communicate absolutely nothing of what they intend to

The Conversation

Last week, Steve Portigal posted a series of wonderful technology images from the movie The Conversation. Oddly enough, this appears to be nearly the exact same reel-to-reel recorder I posted on last year. The controls are the same, but the product model is different. Thanks Steve.

Industrial buttons: Jetways

After traveling on my third round-trip flight in less than a month, it seems like a good time to feature some unsung buttons, the industrial-strength buttons that maneuver jetways to and from airplanes. And it’s about time: Industrial buttons have been severely underrepresented on this site. Each flight I

What's a Navi button?

Some buttons are brilliant. Some buttons are dumb. This one is definitely not brilliant. What’s a Navi? Any guesses on what type of device this is on? Any guesses on what it does? Go ahead, take a second. Maybe the icon will help you. Looks like a signpost, pointing