Even Apple didn't bother to put in any thought into their remote control design. They ship the Apple TV with an IR remote (in the era of Bluetooth LE!) which is too painful to operate. Luckily, the Remote App works pretty well.
On the one hand it's simple, it's sleek, and it works.
On the other hand it's so small it gets lost all the time, typing is awful, and for a while when I was getting used to it I'd hit the arrows when I was trying to click the center button.