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Microsoft’s new Xbox Home UI is getting reworked after complaints over ‘crowded’ backgrounds

Topher

Gold Member
Microsoft started testing a new Xbox Home UI last year that will be released in 2023, but fans haven’t been impressed with the aging tiled interface that does nothing to show off the dynamic backgrounds and wallpapers available on the console. The new Xbox Home UI started to feel like a giant Xbox Game Pass ad, and now Microsoft is acknowledging that it feels a little crowded.

“We heard from you that the changes to the top of Home did not leave enough space for you to enjoy your backgrounds and that it felt crowded,” says Ivy Krislov, senior product manager lead of Xbox experiences, in a blog post today. “We’re working to balance the experience, accessibility, function, and the needs of our community and bring you a great and refreshed Home experience.”

Microsoft is now removing the new Xbox Home UI for testers and pausing the experiment to prepare for bigger changes that are on the way. Krislov says the Xbox team will share more on the new Xbox Home UI soon. “Thank you for all the feedback you’ve shared. It’s a key part of our process, and our team is working hard to incorporate it into the experience and get it to you to use,” says Krislov.

I wasn’t a fan of the new Xbox Home interface, and I’m hoping to see something like we’ve seen from many fan concepts that put the backgrounds at the center of the UI and offer much more customization.

It’s encouraging to see Microsoft respond to criticism and fan feedback around this part of the Xbox dashboard. Microsoft has redesigned the Xbox dashboard plenty of times over the past decade, but it now feels like it’s largely in a good spot and just needs a refreshed Xbox Home UI and some improvements to the Xbox DVR feature to feel more complete.

Microsoft has added some truly useful features to its Xbox dashboard over the past couple of years, including Discord integration, a night mode, a 4K dashboard, and some great energy-saving power options.

xboxhomeuilede.jpg




 

acm2000

Member
Whatever dashboard my series s has seems perfectly fine to me, no issues.

Have a group called playlist full of game pass games I want to play then below that I pin whatever games in playing currently.

Having said that thanks to quick resume I can jump back in to what I was playing in about 3 seconds flat (20 seconds from energy saving cold boot to gameplay) and start exactly where I left off, truly one of the best and underated features, if it was on Ps5 the forum would've errupted with fanfare and free blowjobs for all. 🤣
 
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Forsythia

Member
It was pretty shit, one big giant ad for Game Pass. I remember them previously removing all the crap from the home screen to speed it up, but now they added it back in, and even more!

So I'm glad they're rethinking this entirely.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
There was a questionnaire last week about this on the insider hub.

I use groups on the main menu. The UI is not terrible for usability but it is limiting. And the more you use it, the more you hit those limits which are a bit annoying.

The PS5 menu, by contrast, is a bit meh but it's more intuitive and I don't feel I need to move anything out the way if that makes sense. I have what I need in easy reach with the option to drill down if I want.

But let's see what they come up with. Surely they can figure out some AI that knows what I'm currently playing. Or is xx friend is on then I'm likely to fire up MCC etc
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
It's ok, nobody is planning to sue. People just pointed out the similarities.
They have been using a different variation of the Metro UI with tiles on a background since 2008. Heres the UI in 2017 during Xbox One X launch.


One row and you can see the background. The new UI adds some elements of the 2017 UI to the current UI to leave more space for wallpapers.
 

hrab

Member
Step in the right direction, the current one is simply inferior to PS4 (havent used ps5). I wish they would introduce the feature where after selecting the game you get a nice full screen artwork from the game with game music playing (i loved that in PS4) instead of pushing on the screen some crap community related stuff.
 
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Three

Member
They have been using a different variation of the Metro UI with tiles on a background since 2008. Heres the UI in 2017 during Xbox One X launch.


One row and you can see the background. The new UI adds some elements of the 2017 UI to the current UI to leave more space for wallpapers.

That's great and all but you're just getting triggered. Nobody said somebody was copying or unoriginal. They just pointed out the similarities of the concept posted.
 

Spyxos

Member
You should have a design for a console generation, I don't like that they are constantly changing it, because I always have to get used to it and look for things again where I knew exactly where they were before.
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
Hey look, tiles on a background!! Somehow reducing the tile rows in the existing UI to one row counts as "copying" to some people.
Chill, we are just stating the obvious.
They have been using a different variation of the Metro UI with tiles on a background since 2008. Heres the UI in 2017 during Xbox One X launch.


One row and you can see the background. The new UI adds some elements of the 2017 UI to the current UI to leave more space for wallpapers.


you see this vid, now this is a one-icon row design that looks very Xbox or you can see it's a variation of the current design.

The other one that we critiqued, however, looks very PS5ish.
 

drotahorror

Member
Maybe I’m just not used to it yet but I hate the Xbox UI. PS5s is much nicer and cleaner. I’ll take steam over any of them though, which isn’t saying much.
 
We should be able to set them up how we want and have no intrusive shit come through.

The Xbox one is so bad that I honestly sometimes think of getting rid of it and getting a PS5 instead. Surely it can’t be much worse?

The PS4 achieved perfection. That music. Sob.
 

dotnotbot

Member
I don't know how you can keep reworking something and make it worse every time. The focus on advertising Gamepass absolutely ruins it.

During first setup process of Windows 11 on my new laptop I was greeted with gamepass ad. I don't think they will get rid of that.
 

mdkirby

Member
It can't be worse than the PS5 UI where even after 2 months of use I still can't find what I'm looking for most of the time 😁
Whilst I found the ps5 interface “weird” following the ps4, I find it pretty clean and easy now.

Xbox tho…I remember loving the 360 interface. Skipped the xone, and got the seriesX when the ps5 was away for a week being replaced. The series X interface I find a confusing mess. Everything just seems one big loop back into gamespass. Why shove games pass down my throat when I already have it, it’s bizarre. Then even then I for the life of me can’t find a way to order releases on gamespass by date added. There’s “recent” which has like 10 things in it, but not “view all and sort by date”. So if you don’t check in for a couple of months stuff you might be interested in that released is a nightmare to find.

I know game sales are very low on xbox, but given the way they structure it I’m surprised anyone buys anything at all on it. Everything about it is “gamespass gamespass gamespass” with actual games you might buy bring mismanaged and lost.

Whole thing needs a rethink imo. If they sort out their ui and release a controller remotely as good as the dualsense then I’d use the seriesX much more than I do.
 

mdkirby

Member
Whilst I found the ps5 interface “weird” following the ps4, I find it pretty clean and easy now.

Xbox tho…I remember loving the 360 interface. Skipped the xone, and got the seriesX when the ps5 was away for a week being replaced. The series X interface I find a confusing mess. Everything just seems one big loop back into gamespass. Why shove games pass down my throat when I already have it, it’s bizarre. Then even then I for the life of me can’t find a way to order releases on gamespass by date added. There’s “recent” which has like 10 things in it, but not “view all and sort by date”. So if you don’t check in for a couple of months stuff you might be interested in that released is a nightmare to find.

I know game sales are very low on xbox, but given the way they structure it I’m surprised anyone buys anything at all on it. Everything about it is “gamespass gamespass gamespass” with actual games you might buy bring mismanaged and lost.

Whole thing needs a rethink imo. If they sort out their ui and release a controller remotely as good as the dualsense then I’d use the seriesX much more than I do.
The triggered emoji is right 🤣 Not a lot triggers me, but I’m a ui designer, and pretty adhd-y so get very confused and frustrated with storefronts…it’s definitely a touch point for me
 
So sick and tired of these new dashboards. Get it right the first time!

Or not giving people the choice which one to load. I loved the NXE of the Xbox 360, but it got continuously neutered as the years went by, and was finally replaced by the awful Metro interface. Let me use the dashboard style that I like the most (officially, at least).
 
I don't know how you can keep reworking something and make it worse every time. The focus on advertising Gamepass absolutely ruins it.

Because it’s not designed as a user experience, it’s designed as a marketing tool. They don’t get it mate.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
All those ads aren’t going away.
That's what always strikes me compared to the PS dashboards. On the Xbox even if you're a paying subscriber you still have the ads in your face on the main page when you launch the console.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
That's what always strikes me compared to the PS dashboards. On the Xbox even if you're a paying subscriber you still have the ads in your face on the main page when you launch the console.
I don't understand this because it comes up in every topic about the Xbox UI. When I turn on my PS5 it defaults to Explore tab and there are ads right there every time. This morning for me there ads for the Twisted Metal series on Peacock to get me to subscribe to that service and there's an ad for current sale on the PlayStation store. I'm currently subscribed to PS+ Deluxe so it's not because I don't pay.

These companies have ads on their dashboards and probably always will. They're easy enough to ignore.
 
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