Project Manager: Seems like a a lot of the components could be off the shelf , so I don't exactly what cost would be incurred . Um I can see your point about the number keypad , but I've I would say that we can probably incorporate it into the menu system if you need to do traversal of a large number of channels .
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
User Interface: Mm-hmm .
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: My feeling would be that even if at a later date this was to be taking control of um boxes as well um having the use of the L_C_D_ and the joystick would probably allow you to manipulate enough channel numbers for you to be User Interface: Yeah , actually if you've got a lot of channels , the number keypad can be quite annoying as well , becau  it's you know if you're trying to remember what uh , you know , what number's the discovery channel or whatever . It's just irritating .
Marketing: That's a good point .
User Interface: But if you h but but but if you have a me but if you have a menu structure , then you can sub-group them .
Project Manager: Mm-hmm .
Marketing: You can incorporate names into the menu . Okay .
User Interface: So you  Project Manager: Okay .
Marketing: Even news , music . Like they do on uh sky digital kinda .
User Interface: Yeah .
Marketing: Yeah .
Project Manager: So what it looks like to me is we'll use a large number of standard components , um , say something like um lithium ion battery , the kind that you find in most um small hand held devices now . Um Looks like we going for a double curved design . Um I don't know what cost implications there are in that . Um , looks like we're pretty much decided on some kind of flexible rubber . Though I'd have to say depending on how flexible it is , we might need to have some kind of inner frame .
User Interface: Yeah , I I would say definitely , I mean I mean I mean the the idea of having it sort of articulated i th there would be basically two points of articulation . W um one below and one above the m the uh the main sort of grip . So Project Manager: Do you think there's any way we could maybe remove the articulation ? I can see why it looks appealing , but it could be a weak point in um the structure , do you think ?
User Interface: Mm .
Project Manager: That would be a worry of mine .
Industrial Designer: If you're going with the fruit and veg thing , looks like a banana .
User Interface:  I d I don't thi I don't think that it would be a a structural weakness ,
Marketing: . Industrial Designer: F if you wanna design it that way . Marketing: User Interface: I mean if you have a firm s sub-structure , you can then incorporate articulation into that . If you then have a sort of outer skin of mm flexible , spongy rubber then you have something that is you know very much you know organic , and I think would look rather co I mean mi rather cool . I mean my drawing there doesn't doesn't do it justice , it makes it makes it look more a little bit more like a vibrator than a than a uh than a remote control ,
Project Manager: User Interface: but uh .
Project Manager: Yeah , we won't add that functionality .
User Interface: Marketing: Okay . Course not .
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: However , one interesting point is , I don't know how serious you were there , but we if we take some of the ideas why don't we make the damn thing yellow to incorporate the des the colour of the logo ?
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
Marketing: Sure , yeah .
Industrial Designer: Okay .
Project Manager: I dunno .
User Interface: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: It's an certainly a different colour from your average um User Interface: Make it harder to lose , as well .
Industrial Designer: Yeah .
Project Manager: That's true . Marketing: Sure .
Project Manager: Was there anything in your research Marketing: The noise for when you lose the banana , um f yeah , for when you lose the remote control , it could be like a a monkey noise or something like that , rather than a standard beep beep .
Industrial Designer: Project Manager: Marketing: Y you know , you lose the monkey the banana ,
Industrial Designer:  monkey .
Project Manager: Marketing: y you lose the banana , you press a button , and you hear like monkey screams or something like that to direct you towards the banana .
User Interface: I th uh I mean if it I think that's something that could perhaps be programmable , though maybe have monkey as default . Um .
Marketing: S oh , I was gonna talk about the programmable remote control . Now I think it'd be cool if you had one remote control that could work with all T_V_s , you know you s you click a button and it finds the frequency that works with your particular television .
User Interface: Mm-hmm .
Marketing: But why you'd need to program it like as as a standard feature , I I don't know .
User Interface: Well basi basically the um for f for uh I mean e each manufacturer will have a partic will have a particular command set that uh the T_V_ responds to .
Project Manager: Mm-hmm .
User Interface: It's not simply a matter of frequency .
Marketing: Yeah .
User Interface: So um usually what's done is you have this big booklet full of different possi you'll have all of them sort of programmed in to the uh remote , and you'll have this little booklet of codes you then find your um ma uh find your manufacturer
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
User Interface: and try the different codes that
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
User Interface: come under that manufacturer's name 'til you find the right one .
Marketing: That's because televisions , they don't give the remote control any type of feedback when you send it .
User Interface: Yeah , that's right .
Marketing: Okay .
User Interface: So that's that's quite annoying and we probably would still have to do that . But if we had um some sort of hook-up to your computer as an option , then if you've got a computer you can avoid that rather irritating thing .
Project Manager: An interesting point is that if the person doesn't have the computer , we can still make the process easier because instead of having to look up codes , maybe we can have it that one of the options they have is that they look up the name of the company on the L_C_D_
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: and then they maybe look up different names of um different actual units that have been produced .
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: Or we have the remote control just go through them until it's like does this do the correct function , and such .
Marketing: Is it is it actually a book of names to digits , or is it like a few pages ?
User Interface: Um booklet . Some pages .
Marketing: I was just thinking , if we were to store this information , some type of mapping . This person probably need to use this feature like once , you know , when you first buy the remote control , or whenever they buy a new television , so
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: Doesn't have to be used very often
Marketing: once every s
Project Manager: that's right , yeah .
Marketing: Yeah ,
User Interface: Yeah . But it's a but it's a nuisance .
Marketing: and it's User Interface: And it's a nuisance very close to the to um to actually purchasing it , so it's something that you're likely to be thinking about .
Marketing: Mm .
User Interface: If you if there's w i if there's one in the shop that's that says it can avoid much of that nuisance , you might be favourably inclined towards it . Um mm .
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: Okay , this  just to give us a rough idea of what we're meant to be doing for the next stage .
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: I'm pretty sure that you got that anyway . This is the conceptual one . Um . I think we've come up I think we've covered everything we need to here . Um I think we've decided on what , you know , decided on standard items for most of um rubber and such , so we're now looking at the detailed design and what we need to be doing for the next meeting . Um So for example , um I'll just start at the top , you've got yourself and the Industrial Designer gonna be working quite closely at this stage 'cause it'll be hard not to , obviously . Um looking from  prototyping of some des description using clay . Um I suppose you'll be told a lot more about that as uh progress . Um The user interface design , They're kind of it looks they're the idea I've pushed forward so far is maybe more of a physical one there , whereas possibly be more interested in maybe how the L_C_D_'s going to incorporate , do you think ?
User Interface: Mm .
Project Manager: Or do you s perceive that most the design design decisions still need to be based on the physical layout ?
User Interface: Um well I I think other than ge getting a sort of more aesthetically pleasing form for it , um mo most of the sort of layout design decisions are are made , I would say . Um but then again , the um the menu structure to to a considerable extent that's gonna vary according to the model of television , and also any customisations that the user might wish to incorporate . So um and one of the nice things about having an L_C_D_ and a menu structure is that there is that flexibility to it .
Project Manager: Mm-hmm , that's very true . Um . Okay . Um got product evaluation as well . Um .
Marketing: Yeah , you see I don't some of these things kinda logically follow the others . How can t product evaluation , doesn't that come after actually seen a product prototype .
Project Manager: I I think we'd be yeah , no , it'd be more a case of how do we envisage us performing the product evaluation once we have a model to test with .
Marketing: Oh , that's the okay , sure sure sure .
Project Manager: Um so it'd be a case of do you think that just bringing users in to have them test it out , uh maybe putting a certain number of products into the field in certain places which I suppose is quite similar .
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: Or just kind of hitting the streets and you know saying this is a new remote control , what do you think of the look of it ? Um Marketing: Okay , sure . At this stage we still have no no target audience or Project Manager: I think the target audience is pretty much anybody under the age of say maybe sixty or something ludicrous .
Marketing: 'Kay .
Project Manager: Um the reason I'm saying that is we're just looking at a a replacement remote control , something that's stylish , so maybe you're even just maybe you're narrowing down your target audience simply by saying
Marketing: And it's stylish .
Project Manager: if they're buying it that often or they're maybe looking to replace something then , they've got a bit of free cash , so that puts them potentially in the younger age bracket .
Marketing: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: Maybe even single , just for the reasons of um uh excess cash flow .
Marketing: Mm .
Project Manager: Although of course I mean at twenty five Euros , I don't think we're looking at charging the earth for the uh device .
Marketing: Yep . Okay .
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: Think that's well within the normal bracket . Um your idea of the U_S_B_ would I think would largely depend on the cost . U_S_B_'s definitely one of the cheapest interfaces out there , but it might push the cost of the overall unit up 'cause it would require not just the connection but the chip for communicating with the rest of the system . That one might have to be based on Marketing: Programmable memory as well .
Industrial Designer: The U_S_B_ for which ?
Marketing: For the remote control .
Project Manager: The the idea was that maybe it could connect up for um allowing a software interface on the P_C_ for a larger programming
Industrial Designer: Oh right , okay .
Project Manager: due to the fact that we've gone for such a nice , easy minimal design , normally . Um .
Marketing: We've w definitely talking some type of Industrial Designer: But didn't they just say it's just for T_V_ , or are we gonna Project Manager: It's just for T_V_ , but for
Marketing: Different .
Project Manager: programming it to use your T_V_ , you might hook it up to the P_C_ .
Industrial Designer: Okay , yeah .
Project Manager: I'm not sure , but I'm thinking maybe that the additional cost of the U_S_B_ might be prohibitive .
User Interface: Mm .
Project Manager: We don't know unless it would make sense to .
User Interface: Yeah ,
Marketing: But you're gonna need some type of flash memory or something .
User Interface: I mean it's Marketing: Well something that doesn't User Interface: Yeah .
Marketing: you wouldn't have to redo the whole thing once the batteries are changed , you know , once you turn off the power .
User Interface: Yeah . The other thing I mean it I mean it would need to ha it would need to have um some sort of on board memory anyway .
Marketing: Yeah .
User Interface: Um f for one for one thing because I do think that the menu system should be um uh I mean although you know , it's not going to be terribly complicated if it's just controlling one device , the menu system ought to be um o ought to be customisable and uh Marketing: Different languages , uh different skins and stuff like that .
Project Manager: Mm-hmm . W
User Interface: Mm-hmm . How uh how uh how you want say the um the the menu structure for flicking through channels if you've got lots of channels . That sort of thing .
Marketing: Sure . I if it was customisable as in different languages and stuff , that does open it is supposed to be international , right ? So .
Project Manager: It would make sense to . I would say to .
Marketing: It would make sense if you could Project Manager: Um and we'd better be careful about the time as well . We've already had the five minute warning ,
Marketing: Okay .
Project Manager: so . Um . I would say yeah . International would make sense . Um you're gonna look at product evaluation . I'm I'd better start writing up a hell of a lot of crap . Um you're gonna look a bit more at the kind of the physical make up you say .
User Interface: Yeah .
Project Manager: Um looks like we're gonna need a maybe a kind of prototype in clay . Uh we'll see how that goes . Um .
User Interface: Are we going to be supplied with the clay is what I want to know .
Project Manager: So um
User Interface: Where is the clay ?
Marketing: Project Manager: do I think we've got an idea of where we need to go for the next meeting , would you say ?
Marketing: Yeah .
User Interface: Mm-hmm .
Industrial Designer: they're going with the fashion thing , like the design , spongy rubber .
Marketing: The fruit and veg . This one .
User Interface: Mm . I th I think I would largely want to actually steer clear of the whole sort of fruit and veg thing .
Project Manager: Yeah , I would s that would be my my feeling .
Industrial Designer: Yeah . Marketing: User Interface: Bu but um but the spongy idea I like . I like it a lot .
Project Manager: We seem to have quite a general consensus that the idea of the the r rubber could be quite Marketing: Yeah .
User Interface: Marketing: Yeah .
User Interface: I having it i having it sort of br bright yellow I think that's quite a good idea , though maybe we could have options for colours as well . Marketing: Yeah .
User Interface: and again this has the advantage of being harder to lose .
Marketing: Sure . I mean we are trying to promote a remote control , but we wanna keep the company brand as well ,
User Interface: Mm-hmm .
Project Manager: Yeah .
Marketing: so .
Project Manager: So we always need to remember that somewhere we're meant to be getting the slogan on . Possibly I'm think I'm not sure but I'm seeing a little bit of space around maybe the joystick area which could be used . Um .
User Interface: Mm . Yeah . I was like like I said before I I think we should have the R_R_ on the uh on the top function button .
Project Manager: Okay . And I think that says it all really .
Marketing: I think so too .
Project Manager: Right .
Marketing: Sa
Project Manager: See everybody in a half hour .

Summary: The team made some decisions on the remote control design for the present stage. The keypad was given up, for a menu display could better classify channels into subgroups. Standard components such as the conventional battery were the final choices for the remote control. The team would adopt a double-curved design and rubber material. A corporate logo would be incorporated. There would be a special beeping sound for the location function. The new remote control could be programmed on the LCD screen as well as using software on the computer. In the next meeting, Industrial Designer and User Interface would present a prototype of the remote control. The team would also make a product evaluation.