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Am I crazy or does the Xbox one have the worst menu layout ever?
- Thread starter TI82
- Start date
The Pet of the Month
Member
It might have looked nice, but it was a major pain in the patooey to use. Here's some beef I had with it:
- Do you not remember how the old UX was? The background was black, the store was black, the "my games and apps" launcher is dark grey, and system apps varied from black to white colours with little consistency.
- The UX was designed around an always on microphone, so parties, settings, and a lot of other options were buried in random places or a lot harder to use with just a controller.
- Most system level apps would snap, causing the game to slowdown and the entire UX to become unresponsive.
This is just a tidbit of what I disliked about the old UI. The current interface we have now is a lot, and I mean a lot better than what we had 4 years ago.
brokenbeans
Banned
It was good years ago but it's been shit for some time now like 5-6 years.
ROUGE_BLOCK
Member
This is an actual interesting topic is it really the learning curve to figuring out the UI that's the hard part or are most people resistant to learning it?
Like I still agree what I said back on the first page with the launch dashboard being a human failure, and this one is still cumbersome mainly it's awful store layout but after a good week of playing around with it the XB1 is not hard to use. Especially with the new blade menu which just takes you anywhere.
My main concern with is the god damn input delay for certain actions, especially if you are in the preview everything freezes sometimes and then goes through all the commands you just have it through super fast before you get control of it. That's maddening but I half blame that on preview alpha builds and the other half leaving it on standby mode seems degrade it's functionality over time. At that point a good hard reset is required.
Like I still agree what I said back on the first page with the launch dashboard being a human failure, and this one is still cumbersome mainly it's awful store layout but after a good week of playing around with it the XB1 is not hard to use. Especially with the new blade menu which just takes you anywhere.
My main concern with is the god damn input delay for certain actions, especially if you are in the preview everything freezes sometimes and then goes through all the commands you just have it through super fast before you get control of it. That's maddening but I half blame that on preview alpha builds and the other half leaving it on standby mode seems degrade it's functionality over time. At that point a good hard reset is required.
I'm a big fan
*Please Wait*
Of how snappy
*Please Wait*
The PS4 UI
*Please Wait*
Is compared to the Xbox One.
*Please Wait*
There's no loading screens
*Please Wait*
Whenever you press a button
*Please Wait*
I find it to be the most pleasant to use and the most feature packed. I mean I do everything from the pop in menu, brilliant idea by MS for consoles.
It was a mess initially and the store is still bad but for core gaming (friends, invites, notification, chat, games manager, storage manager, achievement, overlays) ? It's the best.
It was a mess initially and the store is still bad but for core gaming (friends, invites, notification, chat, games manager, storage manager, achievement, overlays) ? It's the best.
Final Verdict
Member
It is better at some things than it is at others. Easy to find all your games (for me at least) and start a party with friends. One thing is suffers from though is that they have added so much functionality that they really need to redesign the UI from the ground up to make everything much more accessible.
Think of it like a room that has a few things in it and is really easy to walk around in. Well you add more things in there it becomes increasingly difficult to walk around or find a specific thing and so it needs to be re-arranged to accommodate all the new additions.
Think of it like a room that has a few things in it and is really easy to walk around in. Well you add more things in there it becomes increasingly difficult to walk around or find a specific thing and so it needs to be re-arranged to accommodate all the new additions.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
Thats not launch OS. Did you own an Xbox back then?
For starters, launch OS didn't have custom backgrounds. Secondly you couldn't change tile colors. Hell, when custom backgrounds and tile colors finally came much later, selecting transparencies like that wasn't even one of the options until an even later date.
Well there's that. After reading years of people crapping on Xbox OS being slow and unresponsive or whatever, I was pretty shocked people never mention it after seeing it for myself when I finally bought a PS4.
Yeah, that UI was very handy to:
-> Create parties
-> Read direct messages
-> Access to achievements
-> Read system notifications
I mean, things gamers use daily basis. And that not to not talk about the messy store, which not even included an offer section, and game details page did not include videos, streams or related offers, just to say something.
Or the disgusting games and apps app, where you were not able to even sort games.
Let alone thing like broadcasting, profile customization, sound profiling, or the terrible overall performance.
And that color thing argument, jesus, you can be as colorful as you want with NXOE:
The level of trolling with the xbox ui is no sense at this point.
OrbitalBeard
Member
It's fine. It used to be a lot worse.
HF2014
Member
When the 360 came out, that interface was the shit.
Nowadays? Yeah. It's pretty bad.
Agree. Those past menu were simple. I tried to find some options with a 360, and also with the xbox one, these menu suck big time. Just trying to find something you previsouly download, changing user is just damn complicated.
anothertech
Member
Yes, everything I listed was exactly as described. What would you call those three square advertisements on the right of the screen if they are not ads?"...turning my Xbone on I immediately see large ads...." -> Not true
"I press to the left to select my Netflix app and a whole other menus pops up with shit all over the place" -> Not true
"Press right three times on accident cause I button mash and suddenly I'm in mixer menu" -> That combination makes no sense. Even you are not describing what you made accurately, or not true.
"I press to the right to get to 'my games and apps' and a whole different section of the menu is up"-> Not true. Just tested a moment ago on my Xbox.
"I press the guide button and I'm at a different menu again from all three directions. " -> Not true, that never happened, not even in the original UI.
"Some places if you press b it takes you back to the main screen. Most places, pressing b does fuck all to go back where you were. " -> True, but only on store (at least, couldnt verify this on other sections).
"It's fine if you like to memorize direction presses for everything you do in sequence, as gamers we do that, but for most ppl this ui is a clusterfuck"-> My wife (non gamer) has zero issues with UI. My brother (no gamer at all) no issues. My 6yo, also, never had an issue to find things on the UI. 6yo, yes. Think about that
Pressing left absolutely brings up the Xbox sub menu
Pressing right three times absolutely brings you to the second tab (mixer) on the Xbox main screen and it's jarring as fuck
Pressing giude takes you once againn to the Xbox sub menu which is not my home screen which again is fucking jarring
Pressing b is absolutely inconsistent on getting you back to where you were in the multitudes of sub menus
Whether your 6yo can navigate this clisterfuck of a ui or not has no bearing on how bad this ui design is. Saying it's the best ever isn't helping anyone with this shit design.
Yes the ps4 menu is not perfect either, I can't even put my Netflix or plex apps on the main xbar but at least it's consistent and simple and pressing left or right do what I expect
ethomaz
Banned
Maybe it is because everything you choose in PS4 happens in less than one second?
Night.Ninja
Banned
Threads like these are the reason why developers are not consistently on these forums. Why would you want to want to post here consistently with people who lie like it's their day job, well I'm sure some are get to paid for the outrageous comments.
This forum is made out like it's some high echelon gaming forum but it really isn't is it
This forum is made out like it's some high echelon gaming forum but it really isn't is it
Matrix XII
Member
It's pretty bad, yes.
Since the latest update it's much better now, but I still like the PS4 menus best. They still leave a lot to be desired too sadly.
Since the latest update it's much better now, but I still like the PS4 menus best. They still leave a lot to be desired too sadly.
I have a question for people who think one button click is too difficult for finding their games...
How did you play through Final Fantasy XV?
Or The Witcher 3?
Or Fallout 4?
Or Battlefield 1?
Or Rocket League?
Well, we were trained by the Xbox One UI...
I'm looking at my home screen and all I see are quick links for the store which you could technically call ads but I think it's useful to see when sales are on.
Why are you pressing left to bring up Netflix? Why would
You ever do that. There's literally no situation on the home scren where pressing left would take you to Netflix. Literally ever.
But why did you press roght three time? Pressing right three times took you three things to the right. That's the UI working as intended and you getting upset because you put in the wrong input.
As someone who came back to the Xbox one after a long time off the guide being the thing that pops up when you press home is super jarring and I hate it, but honestly you can get anywhere you'd want to get to from the home menu faster from there anyway.
Pressing b takes you to the last thing you were on. It's absurd and jarring when it starts launching apps, but it's not some mysticism.
Trade me PS4s dude. I get told to wait all the fucking time.
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
lmao wow, look at this defensiveness.. So terrible UI design never existed before Xbox ruined gaming, huh? Interesting.
TroicaBlur
Member
Xbox UI is a failure at another level. What sane human interface guidelines would allow any of that I don't know.
MarineMountie
Member
I hate it. I can't find anything. On PS4 I go to the TV icon, and Netflix and all other apps are right there underneath for me to scroll to and start up. On Xbox I couldn't even find Hulu. I had to search for it in the search bar. After I installed it I couldn't find the app. Had to search and search between different tabs.
Luckily Xbox is just my Forza machine these days so I don't have to mess around with that UI much at all.
Luckily Xbox is just my Forza machine these days so I don't have to mess around with that UI much at all.
Colossal Moo
Member
Unfortunately, software has bugs and memory leaks are hard to track down and fix. For example, I have had to restart (as in close the game and start it again) Far Cry 4 and Final Fantasy 15. In Far Cry 4, the game would crash if it ran too long. Some monsters wouldn't span in FF15 unless I restarted it.
Also, I get the feeling the Xbox dashboard team isn't the best team. The dashboard basically works and the usability isn't bad but the dashboard's design and quality is mediocre. Here are some comments about the dashboard:
A) The start screen isn't very useful. I like the fact that I can press one button and start the last game I played. I also like the fact it shows me the last 4 games/apps I opened.
The rest of the information on the start screen isn't really relevant to me. I hate the ad block and everything is way too big. I would like the recently started list to be expanded to 10 items and each item be shrunk down to one icon.
I would also like console to start up and show me my pins. The pins list is a lot more useful to me than the current start screen. Pins are basically game and app icons.
B) I hate three middle tabs and I should be able to hide them. I don't use Mixer, the social tab (barf) and the One Guide.
C) I really like the quick guide (the menu which pops out when you press the Xbox button). It's fast and it makes it easy for me to start games/apps and get to the store. In a lot of ways, the quick guide is actually better than the main dashboard.
D) The store needs to be broken up into 4 stores. One for games, one for movies and TV, one for music and one for apps. The reason is I always start the store and go to the games section. Waiting for the opening screen to load and then go to the games section is a waste of time.
E) The store's performance needs to improve. If Amazon can display a super complicated web page in less than a second, the Xbox store should be able to load and display each page in less than a second. Right now, the load times are between 2-5 seconds.
F) I think the Xbox team could take a page from Apple and redesign their store. Their store should help people find games they will like. Right now, it basically is a front end for a bunch of easy to implement database queries (i.e. recently released games in reverse order, top rated games, games coming soon, Xbox 360 games, etc.).
Overall, the Xbox dashboard gets the job done but it could be better. I think saying the Xbox One's dashboard has "the worst menu layout ever" is bullshit. There is a lot of software which is much worse than it. At the same time, it could be a lot better.
Goalus
Member
I have seen threads in this forum that say otherwise. My impression (I don't own a PS4) so far is that its UI is slow as fuck and once a week you have to manually rebuild some database if you do not want to drown in lag.
These are only jarring if you have no idea what's going and and are randomly pressing buttons.
Do you follow the indicator at all when navigating a UI? It's quite a useful tool actually, pretty much telegraphs exactly what you're next input will do.
Also the Xbox button opening the guide instead of the home screen was jarring for all of about 5 minutes after they changed it. It's a far simpler and better solution than what they used to have.
Night Angel
Member
It's pretty damn bad. I don't like navigating to anything not on my recent apps. I'd rather shout Xbox go to Hulu 4 times than try to figure out what kind of interdimensional hellscape my apps go to after I neglect them for a few days.
The tile which says "My Games and Apps" is a big clue.
Night Angel
Member
Is it cold there?
Leyasu
Banned
Threads like these are the reason why developers are not consistently on these forums. Why would you want to want to post here consistently with people who lie like it's their day job, well I'm sure some are get to paid for the outrageous comments.
This forum is made out like it's some high echelon gaming forum but it really isn't is it
I doubt that they are even getting paid.
This forum would be like n4g, gamefaqs, YouTube comment section if it wasn't for the mods
Liliana Eileen
Member
Seriously. The straight up lies and hyperbole ITT has been reaching astronomical levels. Kinda makes me miss Bish.
Caayn
Member
I remember being able to select tile colors from day one in 2013. Transparency and background updates didn't come that long after launch.
The home screen looked clean but that was due to it being menu on top of menu.
michaelius
Banned
The x360 current menu is ridiculous - when I'm troubleshooting my neighbours console I can't even distinguish which game is on the hdd and what is link to the store...
Dreadnought
Member
Hyperbole: the thread. The Xbox UI is fine I don't know how it could be any simpler. If gaf can navigate the dark souls menus then surely they can understand the Xbox menu. If anything the PS4 has a worse UI. I have to go through too many steps to do simple tasks.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
https://majornelson.com/2014/10/22/heres-make-xbox-one-background/
A full year later. Transparencies came after that IIRC. I might've gotten tile color mixed up with background color, which came along with Custom Backgrounds.
Transparent Tiles coming to Xbox One
anothertech
Member
lol I've been using my Xbone since launch. I know what the indicator is, thank you. I'm just pointing out the flaws and why people hate it.
Also, just turned my Xbone on again to play with the ui in response to this thread. Realized another reason the ui is such shit: holy hell is it slow as fuck in response time. A good 10 seconds in before it would even register my controller inputs. No wonder it gets confusing as all hell when you try to move the indicator and it doesn't move for who knows how long then suddenly your two steps into a sub menu you didn't want.
And the full resets every other week are so tiring. Just about every time they release an update even things get screwed up so bad I have to full out unplug the dam thing for thirty seconds and replug the thing so it fully resets, since doing the 'restart console' doesn't fix the issues most of the time. Been this way since launch.
Pretty much. These threads always turn out the same though. There is just a large combination of Sony fanboys, trolls that haven't used the system more than a few minutes, and those that rarely use the system so they don't learn the layout. Any UI with a meaningful feature set requires some time to learn. I have used both the PS4 and XBO UIs extensively, and I greatly prefer the Xbox UI. It has more features, it has a functional and fantastic library, it has pins that make finding favorite games and apps a breeze, it has an easy to use store that has a much better layout, and's faster at nearly every single task outside of sharing. I can understand someone not liking the visual design, as it's rather plain, but there is nothing messy about it.
I expect a lot of praise of the UI after the 1X comes out and it's more common for it to be people's primary console.
anothertech
Member
Honestly, it seems like some of you posting haven't had your Xbone very long or are posting out of ignorance or naivety, and I mean no disrespect here. But did you really miss the weeks of Doritos/mtDew ads all over our console home screen the last couple years?? So fucking shitty to see on the front page of your game screen.
10 seconds before it registers controller inputs? Something's wrong there. I've moved into a new house and I'm currently tethering with poor 3G signal and the UI is still responsive. The guide is blistering fast these days.
woodsey1982
Member
Finding it hard to believe some of these stories are true.
Go to store, go to applications - download Hulu.
Go to My Games and Apps, look in applications, there's Hulu.
If it's going to be used a lot, set it as a pin and it will stay on your homepage.
It's really not rocket science.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
I don't get Doritos or Dew ads at all. The last thing I saw that wasn't a game or gaming related ad was for a movie or something that had either just come out in theaters and had related movies on sale in the Xbox Store.
Maybe it's targeted ads or something?
I know I'm going to say this now and then tomorrow my shit is going to be covered in dew, lol.
edit: For instance, right now in the 4 tiles I see:
-Game of Thrones coming ad, which is console related as I'll be watching that shit on the HBO app as soon as it comes on.
-Games with Gold Tile
-Forza 7 advert (mentioning the 'play 4 days early thing'
-------------------------------------------
Thats the top of the Home Screen.
-Fourth tile down below is "This Week on Xbox".
Thats pretty fucking typical, though the one none-gaming ad isn't often. Those are literally the only spots with "ads" on the entire console. Saying it's all over is just loose hyperbole.
I'm not sure about it being the worst layout ever but I do think it's often counter productive.
Having said that, I don't think the UI is perfect on any of the current machines, they all have their own issues and strengths but I would have to agree that the Xbox One system is by far the worst in comparison to the PlayStation 4 and Switch.
I think the thing that bugged me the most about the Xbox One system is that you can't choose to put it in standby or to power it off completely without going through the settings menu and flicking a switch between one or the other and then going back and switching off as standard.
As I said though, none of the systems are perfect and it's not as if I struggle with any of them, it's just that sometimes there is a lack of efficiency in the designs.
Having said that, I don't think the UI is perfect on any of the current machines, they all have their own issues and strengths but I would have to agree that the Xbox One system is by far the worst in comparison to the PlayStation 4 and Switch.
I think the thing that bugged me the most about the Xbox One system is that you can't choose to put it in standby or to power it off completely without going through the settings menu and flicking a switch between one or the other and then going back and switching off as standard.
As I said though, none of the systems are perfect and it's not as if I struggle with any of them, it's just that sometimes there is a lack of efficiency in the designs.
What you're describing are only issues if you randomly mash buttons in the hope that the console understands what you want.
As you've already been told, nothing you're complaining about actually makes any sense. In no scenario are you going to want to press left to get to Netflix after turning on your console. Clearly you're ignoring the highlight and just hoping the console magically guesses what you want.
Asherdude
Member
I'd be exceedingly happy if they would roll it back to blades. That menu system was lightning fast and more importantly, it made sense.
Video: Xbox 360 "Blade" Dashboard Overview
What we have now is just a lame attempt to look like Windows while supporting Kinect.
Video: Xbox 360 "Blade" Dashboard Overview
What we have now is just a lame attempt to look like Windows while supporting Kinect.
Agreed completely with this post. PS4 is functional but the customization is what gives Xbox the edge for me.
At any rate the hyperbole is out of this world in this thread.