The video cassette recorder has rightly been the example du jour of poor interface design and usability in consumer electronics. Critics such as Harold Thimbleby have regularly cited VCRs in evidence knowing that most people have suffered while fighting with them. According to now apocryphal research only 25% of owners program their VCR to record future shows, but the VCR earns its keep in the family home with its real-time recording capability and ability to play rental videos.

'Programming' is the appropriate verb to use when considering the VCR. It is the most complex device (other than a personal computer) typically found in the British home. Yet its user interface and remote control have always been an afterthought, combining a cheap display with controls determined by manufacturing constraints, and interaction shaped from an engineering perspective. More advanced VCRs use the television display for the visual elements of the interface but this has rarely exceeded the quality of experience of Windows 3.1.

In the last few years a new breed of device, the personal video recorder, has appeared on the market in the guise of SonicBlue's ReplayTV, TiVo, and Microsoft's UltimateTV (though as we go to press the latter looks likely to be abandoned). At heart these devices are a box with a large hard disk, computer intelligence, and a network connection. TiVo is the only PVR available in the UK, in the form of Thomson's Scenium, a silver box the size of a large-ish VCR with just two lights on the front showing the device's status and whether it is recording.

TiVo sells itself on its ability to pause live TV (by buffering a show to disk), its ease of use, and its ability to record shows based on a user's implicit preferences (what else they have chosen to record), and their explicit preferences (what shows they have given a 'thumbs up' to).

TiVo hails from Silicon Valley, not South East Asia nor the Netherlands, and user interface culture has thoroughly informed its design. Like modern VCRs it uses the television to display its interface, and it has a remote control that is a distinct pleasure to use. Created by renowned designers IDEO the remote control has tactile buttons that vary in size and action, is presented using carefully chosen colours and sports well-considered icons. Its shape and weight were determined by what is comfortable to hold, not what is easy to mould.

The TiVo graphical user interface doesn't have to support the wide range of functions demanded of a personal computer GUI and as a result is able to present a more satisfying experience. Screens slide gracefully from left to right; after selecting 'Back' the menu option that indicates that no action is to be taken is briefly highlighted, and selections made on previous screens remain selected.

Audio is also used well to indicate successful selection, or an action that can't be performed. Unlike personal computers where audio is often a distraction (to colleagues if not to the user) the TiVo sits in a sound-friendly environment and audio can be an integral part of the interface.

On the aesthetic side colour is used to create a feeling of solidity but also of relaxation. A sky-like pattern forms the background to the screens and a small TiVo icon dances in the top left corner, giving the device a distinct personality.

Of course the most gratifying aspect of the user interface is the ability to select by name programs to view or record (or delete) using the kind of electronic programming guide with which viewers of Sky and other enhanced TV services will be familiar. The TiVo's information design and typography are an improvement on most EPGs. An elegant progress bar shows the length of a show and the elapsed time, and when you fast forward which of the three speeds it is moving at. Recognising the time lag between seeing where you want to be and pressing the play button the TiVo steps back a given period when you stop fast forwarding.

Wonderful as the user interface is, a complex product also needs good customer support, and TiVo delivers this in partnership with Sky. Customer support staff actually know how the product works and can request that information patches be sent to your device.

There are some major user interface challenges that TiVo has not yet addressed. One such challenge is how to give users a sense of the way their implicit and explicit preferences are used in choosing what is automatically recorded, and how they might directly manipulate these preferences. Another is how multiple users with different preferences can be accommodated.

My major criticism of TiVo relate to its set-up procedure. The set-up interface is consistent with, and up to the standard of, the other elements of the product; however, the complexity of the process and the number of steps required (from indicating how you receive a TV signal to what provider you use and the RF number for each station) demands that the interface be even more robust. It took me a week to get the box working (admittedly with some of that time elapsing while waiting for information patches), and a typical family wanting to get the new gizmo working on a Saturday afternoon will have their patience severely tested by this process.

While it is fascinating to see a computer-derived GUI running on a task-driven consumer device this may not be the best or most appropriate way for 'real' people to interact with complex consumer devices. But for now it is a great step forward and may ameliorate the typical customer's experience of badly thought out, incompatible and inconsiderately designed home electronics.

TiVo screen shot