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[Terrell]

But their menu/home music is God like.

Ehhh, I could have done without the music for the Wii and Wii U being as... peppy as it is.

Like the Wii U interface a lot. I don't ever want a Nintendo interface to look "realistic" or "serious".

So you hated the GameCube then?

What makes you think Nintendo will abandon skeumorphism?

It's part of their brand to represent functional UI elements as whimsical, physical 3D elements.

Think about stuff like Pikmin moving files from Wii to Wii U or the clothesline dripping coloured liquid into your gift box as you download a file from the 3DS eShop.... those are skeumorphic elements, albeit fantastic ones.

I think we'll continue to see Nintendo represent menus as physical tiles and such. Not only is it very on brand, but Nintendo is in a Kyoto bubble and is very resistant to outside trends.

I'm certainly not against skeumorphism. Pikmin replacing progress bars for the Wii transfer was a great first step to that, a step that they never actually went anywhere with, unfortunately, because they tried to look bubbly and fun while using the most bland design language imaginable, and it just fell flat.

Lots of wasted space.

Visually complex and too over-simplified in use simultaneously.

A UI element (WaraWara Plaza) that seems geared to the idea of selling you on a feature (Miiverse) that should be able to sell itself on its own merit.

The lack of app/game categorization so I have to MAKE an SNES folder to sort my VC content manually instead of allowing me to have the OS auto-sort it based on how it's categorized and presented in the eShop already, which makes things messier than they need to be.

NO look-and-feel customization whatsoever, to a degree that would make even Apple blush.

A TV button snd infrared sensor instead of using HDMI-CEC like sensible designers.

It's just all over the place, and not in a good way.

I have a preference for a particular UI design element that's rarely ever used effectively, and that's essentially where the primary element focused on "bleeds into" or "infests" other elements. As an example of what I mean, if NX had this design idea, if I tapped the button to highlight Pikmin 3 and it showed a splash screen, it would alter the UI to fit its design language: Pikmin would start wandering about the screen, possibly crawling out of the splash page and into the rest of the UI. I don't know if that sort of UI design has a name, but I think it works for Nintendo more than others... I mean, if you're going to try to seem "whimsical", actually TRY.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

I love Nintendo's UI's because they just scream video games to me. They're colorful, fun, and the music's always catchy and uplifting; it just makes you want to have fun. Those kinds of UI's are far more appealing to children as well, which is good for parent gamers. I hope we don't ever lose Nintendo's fun UI's in favor of the more sterile lifeless UI's that are more prevalent on the other platforms, but I know we probably will which kind of bums me out.

This, I think physics and animation have a lot to do with it, too, it's very tactile. Even in their games.

In Rhythm Heaven Wii's menu, each icon snaps onto your pointer when you go past it, wobbling about until you move the pointer enough to make it snap on to the next.

Funnily enough Apple adopted the exact same idea on the new Apple TV, which also uses a very fine-tuned input to navigate icons (the Siri Remote touchpad).

Likewise stuff like the eShop - when you reach the end of a row on 3DS, the icons bounce at varying degrees of force depending on how fast you were scrolling.

And Nintendo even got around the lack of "rubber banding" (Apple has a software patent on it, I believe, which Microsoft can also use but no one else) when you reach the end of a list: the scroll bar turns red and you get a satisfying "click" noise.

I think animation and physics go a long way towards making interfaces feel tactile both in apps *and* games, and Nintendo's own teams are some of the developers that do it best.

Apple also caught on to this, as iOS 7 introduced UIKitDynamics which makes it easier for developers to build in physics to their software without needing to be mathematics/physics geniuses themselves. And this stuff is prevalent throughout the OS itself, for example if you slam down the center from the top of the screen on any iOS device it will bounce off the bottom depending on how fast you did it. Or if you try and pull up the action center from the bottom of the screen it'll show elasticity and bounce back if you try and pull it up too much.

As an example of how third parties have implemented it, check out the bit at 18 seconds in this video of the third party app, Tweetbot 3, from 2013: https://vimeo.com/77626913

I hope Nintendo does the same with NX as they clearly understand the value of physics and animation in creating a fun and tactile experience.

 

[AzaK]

Whatever you call it, I hope they get rid of it. The Wii U UI looks like cheap toy. When I turn on my daughter's leap pad I get flashbacks to Wii U. I don't mind bright, interesting UI's but the Wii U one just spells cheap.

 

[ramparter]

I like the simplicity of Wii U menu but the 3d stuff is just not needed, they look cool at first but then you realize that anything not needed in a UI shouldn't be there. Flat all the way for me.

But I like how Nintendo likes white/light stuff can't wait to see a flat but bright menu from them.

 

[BGBW]

I don't know. The 3D helps emphasise they are object you can pick up and move around.

Regarding the Wii's TV channels look, I rather liked how they were animated. Made the menu feel alive. The static images for the Wii U look rather dead in comparison, but I suppose some may have found the former too busy.

 

[Jackano]

Regarding the Wii's TV channels look, I rather liked how they were animated. Made the menu feel alive. The static images for the Wii U look rather dead in comparison, but I suppose some may have found the former too busy.

Yeah Wii was definitely superior. Channels were widescreen (well, 4:3) rather than just squares. You said "alive" but that's beyond that, Wii Weather and News Channel, and Nintendo Channel, were able to display data from the app, like the Android widgets.

That's were they need to go. Faster, and android-like widgets (I assume iOS have the same thing) that developers can use in the SDK.

Regarding the UI, I don't really care. In general, I'm not a fan of the "trends". Years ago we made rounded corners everywhere, because it was new in CSS, and now everything is about flat design, because eventually people get tired of what they see the most on the web. Just don't follow the trend, because it will be dated at some point, and Nintendo isn't very good at maintaining its dashboard.

 

[Mista Koo]

Technically, I don't think the Wii U or Vita UIs qualify as skeuomorphic unless we're using a very generous definition of skeuomorph. Neither interface is really designed to mimic a pre-existing physical product; at best, you could maybe say the buttons kind of look like glass chiclets and that's vaguely skeuomorphic.

Yep.

And while flat is often better, it's not the only way.

 

[jroc74]

Skeu whatchamacallit lol

I havent really thought about a consoles UI on this level. I didnt like the change on smartphones to a flatter design but it grew on me. On consoles it never really mattered to me.

Nintendo's UI is a differentiator so maybe they will stick with it for the unique angle.

For current gen consoles I prefer the PS4 UI the most tho. After playing around on an XBO for the past few weeks...I do appreciate when UI's arent confusing. So whatever Nintendo do I hope they dont make changes that confuse ppl.

Looking at the Wii and Wii U ...I like the UI on the Wii more

 

[djtiesto]

I'm 33 years old and this is the first time I've seen the word " skeuomorphic"

I'm your age and the only reason I know it is because I'm dating a graphic designer.

Anyways, I'm quite sick of 'flat' styles, the Metro look, what have you. It may work for a corporate product but games are about having fun and I prefer if the UI 'pops' a bit more. With little subtle touches and such.

 

[ZeroMaverick]

I was so glad when Apple finally ditched this. It just looks outdated now.