As is usually the case with Microsoft, we get one step ahead and two steps again.
At this time, a brand new dashboard design hit the Xbox Insider Program on the Alpha Skip Forward ring, and it form of ignores a lot of the standard suggestions revolving across the dashboard as of late.
Final 12 months, we put out a survey asking Microsoft and Xbox followers what their high suggestions for the Xbox platform is, and lo and behold, dashboard design was one of many high complaints. Customers have been clamoring for extra of a minimalistic design that reduces the footprint of “advertisements” and “dynamic content material” in favor of showcasing the dynamic background themes Xbox followers lastly gained after years of requests. Microsoft appears intent on hiding these backgrounds, nonetheless, with this newest “improve” to the Xbox dashboard.
The brand new Xbox dashboard on the Alpha Skip Forward principally seems like a mirror of the Sport Move app for TVs. Does Microsoft NOT LISTEN to suggestions right here? What is the level of dynamic backgrounds with this design?Microsoft: There exists an Xbox exterior of Xbox Sport Move. pic.twitter.com/Y6Q4vqpiY5October 27, 2022
The brand new design pushes up the tiles structure additional to the highest of the web page, obscuring view of no matter theme you’ve got opted for. If that wasn’t annoying sufficient, slightly below the fold, we have now rows upon rows upon rows of Xbox Sport Move content material, which can’t be personalized in any manner.
In earlier variations of the Xbox dashboard, we have been capable of faucet “X” to interchange blocks of content material under the principle dashboard. You could possibly pin a buddy to see their newest exercise, or pin a recreation to see updates from the builders. It appears all of these options have been stripped out in favor of turning the dashboard right into a second storefront.
Microsoft has been listening to consumer suggestions very progressively over the previous 12 months. Final week, we acquired a new Captures app which has vastly improved the Xbox Sport DVR each by way of efficiency and usefulness. Microsoft has additionally continued so as to add different refinements right here and there, together with packet tagging for contemporary routers, improved bitrate on Sport DVR clips, and a refreshed design on the ability states menu to offer you a greater concept of how a lot electrical energy it can save you.
Regardless of all of those enhancements, Microsoft appears surprisingly proof against fan suggestions that requests a extra minimalistic dashboard design that prioritizes our content material and our themes in favor of enormous promoting blocks, and now rows and rows of “prompt” content material.
Quite a lot of the fan-made dashboard ideas think about a world the place there’s just one row of content material, the place dynamic themes and consumer customization get a possibility to shine. I am undecided why Microsoft feels the necessity to push Xbox Sport Move so laborious on customers who have already got it, and I sympathize with the truth that the dashboard has to subsidize the platform in a roundabout way. The console enterprise is all about software program gross sales slightly than {hardware} gross sales, in any case. And I’ve usually been instructed by Microsoft’s companions that the connect fee (and thus, profitability) on Xbox punches above its weight, owing partially to the supply of retailer content material within the dashboard. That being mentioned, there should be some type of compromise that may be reached right here.
The above dashboard idea from @Souls_Ninja on Twitter is among the many hottest redesign concepts floating across the internet, with many different customers constructing comparable concepts in Photoshop and different platforms.
This dashboard design is at the moment within the Xbox Insider Program on the Skip Forward Ring, and I believe that its design shall be tweaked earlier than it goes dwell within the coming months. Nevertheless, more and more it looks as if the whole Xbox operation is skewing in direction of Xbox Sport Move over all the things else from a platform perspective. It took months for the Xbox Sport DVR to begin getting the enhancements it wanted, regardless of being plagued with numerous points for an extremely very long time.
As at all times, if you’re within the Xbox Insider Program, you’ll be able to go away (respectful, constructive) suggestions through the Xbox Insider Hub app in your Xbox console.
