morph: Reimagining the TV Remote for the Smart Home Era

Presented with the possibility of a new technology, ID students explored applications. They considered the evolution of the traditional TV remote control in the context of modern smart homes. Recognizing that conventional remotes are often cluttered and not optimized for today’s interconnected devices, the project created a more intuitive and integrated control system. Through user-centered research, the team identified key pain points with existing remotes, such as complexity, lack of adaptability, and poor integration with other smart home devices.

Today, the TV can do much more—stream movies and shows on services like Netflix, play music or audiobooks on Spotify, and browse videos on YouTube. Some go even further, controlling smart devices across the home, checking weather, displaying art, or making video calls.

But can the TV remotes of today handle the expanded functionality that today’s TVs offer? Not even close.

Understanding User Needs

Through Marty Thaler’s Product Design Workshop, we worked with Fluid Reality to understand the problem space and explore applications of their haptic technology. We started with six weeks of intensive primary and secondary research. Our design process employed multiple methods, including:

• Digital ethnography to analyze online discussions about smart TV interactions
• User interviews and polling to identify pain points with current remotes
• Market analysis of existing solutions and emerging technologies
• “Franken-prototyping” to quickly test different form factors
• Iterative 3D modeling and physical prototyping
• User testing with eleven participants to refine ergonomics and interactions

Lessons from Smartphones

Our research revealed a number of pain points when interacting with remotes, including difficulty typing, too few or too many buttons, locating remotes, and the loss of tactility—the feel and responsivity of the device—both in newer touchscreen remotes and when smartphones are used as remote control replacements.

To expand our perspective, we explored a product with a similar evolution to the TV: cell phones.

Early cell phones consisted of a display screen and a “controller”—an area of the phone that included shortcut keys, trackballs, and the keyboard. The “modern” smartphone, however, brought a paradigm shift. The display and control became one—an innovation made possible by the touchscreen. And this technological advancement became even more powerful through a behavioral revelation. Touch navigation, designers discovered, is more intuitive and eliminates extra steps. Thus we have the phone as the smart device we know it to be today.

But while current smart TV interfaces are increasingly designed like touch-controlled apps, the TV remains stuck with the display + controller configuration—with the TV as the display and the remote as the controller. This disconnect is the source of our frustration with today’s TV remotes.

Of course, the solution isn’t as straightforward as converting the TV into a smartphone-like touchscreen. Viewers aren’t going to be touching their TVs to control them. And our research suggested that remote tactility matters for better experiences. Tactile remotes allow users to focus their gaze on the TV instead of the remote, enable better touch precision, and make for a more satisfying, multisensory interaction.

These insights informed our approach to possible solutions. With Fluid Reality’s haptic technology, we can design a tactile, dynamic “touch screen” remote that will allow users to better navigate their smart TVs.

Proposed Solution: morph

morph is the TV remote reimagined. morph mirrors the clickable parts of a TV’s interface using novel haptic technology provided by our workshop partner, Fluid Reality, creating a dynamic, tactile surface that acts as your TV remote, enabling more intuitive control and immersive experiences for consumers as well as entertainment creators.

morph is designed with the following design criteria in mind:

• Dynamic: Adapts to the smart TV interface
• Intuitive: Relies on existing behaviors to minimize the user’s learning curve
• Relevant: Only provides controls that are appropriate for a given screen
• Ergonomic: Easy and comfortable to hold
• Displayable: Intentionally existing in the environment

morph is composed of two main parts. The first part is a dynamic touch layer featuring a shape-shifting surface that creates raised buttons in real-time as different screens are displayed on the TV, creating tactile buttons for users to control the TV. The second part is a lightweight exterior with functions remaining as physical buttons: power, volume controls, home, and back controls.

The interface enables natural interactions. Users can feel and press dynamic buttons for selections—particularly useful when typing—while a dedicated scroll zone allows intuitive browsing through content. Touch control enables precise manipulation of features like media playback timelines.

morph also reimagines the remote’s role in the living room. Unlike traditional remotes that get lost between cushions or cluttered coffee tables, morph is designed as an intentional living room object, maintaining an elegant minimalist form when not in use.

The future of morph could be realized through several strategic partnerships:

• Smart TV manufacturers looking to upgrade their remote technology
• Platform providers (such as Roku, Google TV, or Amazon Fire TV) seeking enhanced user experiences
• Content services like Netflix, interested in creating immersive viewing experiences through haptic feedback, like feeling shockwaves during action sequences or enabling interactive storytelling.

These partnerships could help transform morph from a simple controller into a gateway for next-generation entertainment experiences.

morph is well-positioned for the future evolution of the smart TV. As demonstrated with smartphones, touchscreen technology can create new ways to interact with digital interfaces. morph unlocks possibilities for engaging, novel interactions with smart TVs, transforming the remote from a source of frustration to a digital companion.

Samantha Chandra (MDes 2025)
Michael George (MDes 2025)

Martin Thaler, ID Associate Professor
Joe Mullenbach, CEO + Founder, Fluid Reality
Gabriel Beutel, Mechanical Engineer, Fluid Reality