Wishful tinkering: Redesigning the 360 Dashboard

by Randy Nelson on Jul 1st 2008 2:25PM

As Sony continues to evolve the PS3's user interface, is Microsoft resting on its laurels? After it nixed the expected spring Dashboard update, we began to suspect something was up. The gang at The Fanboys postulate that a refresh of the Dashboard could well be in the cards, and have produced a very compelling deconstruction / reconstruction of their own.

They reckon that only about 12% of the Dashboard's current screen real estate is devoted to actual user-specific content. Their speculative "dream" design addresses that, along with the still not-quite-there content location features. It's a really great read ... and hopefully something MS takes a look at.

Source

Tags: dashboard, microsoft, redesign, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (98)

Hey Obie,

The Wii user inteface is definitely the easiest to grasp right away and navigate through. What may be more limiting is how to scale to lots of channels to easily find what you are looking for.

I'm not a huge fan of their graphical design however. People compare them to Apple, but Apple's graphical designs are more elegant.

Don't mind me ... I deal a lot of the UIs, so tend to be pretty opinionated :).

Hey RC

On the PS3, things like having video clips of all the video's is interesting and certainly technically cool, there is just a ton of moving elements competing for your attention.

On top of that, as you select elements, previous menus will escape to the background creating residual noise that looks similar to what you are already looking at that.

Then, in cases where you have options you get this right-side panel that asks questions. The panel doesn't 'feel'/'flow', hard to describe.

On top of that is just the sheer amount of stuff you tend to see on the screen. Having lots of options to configure is great for the exploratory person, or the hardcore, but distracting for more users and that is worsened by seeing all the menu options that have nothing to do with what you are using still on the screen. I know they did it so that you can understand where you came from BUT it is just too much data.

Anyhow, it is the prettiest/sexiest of the UIs.

you said blunt

Joe, love the comments. I think you have a great grasp on what design elements are at issue and why. The XMB is great with the exception of the video/sound when you go over a game in the HD.

Thanks NATO, I've been running teams building a ton of software from client apps to mobile and computer web sites. Usability is more important than people think and sometimes you don't know how bad something is until you see the alternative. Part of that is because companies tend to put the emphasis on graphic design instead of usability.

Holy crap, that looks even worse than the current dash.
I want:
1.ALL ads gone ( It's a goddamn pay service!)
2. Access to all XBL and Demos from the game blade
no digging in submenus
3. 4 person private chat...come on..the old Xbox had it!

+ HANDFUCKING 1

why the FUCK don't we have 4+ person chat? Why can't we creat a room and invite any number of people? saaaad

This would be so awesome and i think that they can circumvent the HD SD issue being that if you have the settings for HD and you plu g into SD it should be able to determing what type of screen you have.

For the most part I like the dashboard when you go in deeper (without blades). Like when checking out your arcade games and seeing your friend leaderboards, achievement info, etc, that part seems perfect but I really don't like how the blades hog up so much space.

well if they redesign it like that, what would they do with the patented "whoosh"-ing noise that they probably spent 25K on lol

Wow that redesign looks cluttered and horrid. Maybe I'm crazy, but I like the 360 dash just the way it is. It's not exactly reinventing or pretty, but it's the informations is easy to find, easy to read, and it's easy and intuitive to find your way around.

I don't get what everyone's big deal is about the ads. The majority of them are ads for new content like trailers, DLC, or free picture packs and themes and stuff that's up on the marketplace to make you aware of it. It's not like they're advertising Big Macs.

I like some of the elements of this and I think a major refresh of the blades will happen this fall but I want to see them take some more queues from the media center team. the media center ui is one of the very best out there and could translate well to games.

And I for one actually like the ads.... they almost always show new stuff on the marketplace (which is what i want to find so it actually saves you button presses)

The word is "cue": take some more cues from the media center team

That interface is far too busy. I like the blades the way they are.

Very clunky and unappealing design, but some of the ideas on it are quite good. And now that Sony have basically stolen every feature that Live has, Microsoft are going to have to do something big and new to prove their still on top.

The reason we haven't had a Spring (or Summer?) update to the 360 is apparantly because they're planning something, so let's see what they announce at E3 :)

It would be amusing if they got a system just like Home out, before Sony managed it.

By the time Sony releases Home, Wii will be running at 1080p.

But yes, I believe it would be fair to have MS stealing Sony's ideas for a change.

that mockup looks terrible. way too busy.

Its ridiculous, they arent ads for Pepsi or Home Depot! For the last time THEY ARE ALL GAME RELATED!!! Example...new COD4 map pack that came out a while back, I go to my dash and instead of digging for it there was an "ad" saying 'the new map pack are out NOW!' and it takes me straight there. Same with demos and what not. Come to think of it PSN has this too. When teh maps finally hit for PS3 there was an "ad" for it. This is how I found the Battlefield BC demo, HUGE "ad" stating there was a demo. Also you can find "ads" littered on PSN Store for games like Flow or PJM. Same shit! Come off it already PSfangirls.

no sense in the world of sony. ran out last gen

i agree. there are plenty of ads when you go into the playstation store.

Except the PSN store ads are only in the store. There isn't a single one on the XMB. The ads on 360 are on my dashboard, there when I start it up. I have zero fucking interest in the Kung-Fu Panda licensed movie game, why do I have to see that AND pay?

I keep forgetting that.

exactly trev

Fine, they could put as many ads as they want in the marketplace blade...that makes sense.
But if I wanna play an XBL game I have to see a goddamn ad for Speed Racer, Kung Fu panda and FUCKING COD5!

I seem to recall there being game ads on the ticker on the top right of my screen when I'm using my PS.

Unfortunately we probably won't see a redesign for the 360 dash. Any major change would render any purchased themes useless and you'd havea ton of angry gamers on your hands.

unless they update the themes

Aren't themes mostly just background images and messing with the color selections some? I don't see why backgrounds would suddenly become incompatible. And if they are, an option to go back to the old dashboard for everything except Marketplace would work just fine.

They can redesign the dashboard BUT keep the blades. I don't think the blades are bad, it is just better managing the data within it and easing the ability to find content.

Xbox 360 Dashboard needs to be redesigned. I consider the current design to work a lot better in theory than in practice. It also needs some tweaks in terms of speed.

Advertisements? Xbox Live Gold members are paying money for the service, why are there ads in the first place?

That looks awesome!! I wish the dashboard looked that good.

looks like there site is down. The article is also here, http://www.platformnation.com/2008/07/01/dreaming-of-dashboard-20/

The Fanboys are part of the awesome PlatformNation.com family and they have a great podcast (you all should download it)

The site seems to be back up now.

this guy did a great job with his mock up,, it almost looks real !
He deletes the xbox live blade which is a good idea and leaves message info always in the corner.
but the only little mistake is that in the picture with the master chief, he wasnt in any "blade" the xbox dashboard is supposed to be in a blade...
by deleting the xbox live blade, this would cancel one of the pictures of multi-picture themes so he might as well keep that blade...
USEr ratings !!! GREAT !!!!!
Search bar... not sure about it,...
changing the inside xbox button into a "clickable ticker" is awesome, I wouldn't have to click on it to see if I saw the last page...

props again mr fanboy!!!

agreed... but i think most people forget here the search is/will be vastly more useful to those of us with chatpads. with a chatpad and a search that updates with each letter i can see myself never using anything but the search. (in the same way i never use the start menu in vista anymore). its quicker to just search for what i am looking for.

i completely agree with the user ratings.... even bring in a review section as well (like amazon) so you can get real opinions of the game. would also work with the download hd movie ratings/reviews.

i also like the ticker for inside xbox but dont know if its going to be needed.... been hearing they are going to start doing alot more with inside xbox and doing a whole section for it (since they are adding new things all the time)

Ew, thanks god MS didn't hire these guys to design. While I appreciate their attention to maximizing usable space it ends up being information overload. Oh and it's ugly as sin.

WAY too much stuff on screen, too colorful and the fonts are way too small.

That picture is making my eyes bleed. I realize and accept the need for diversity, but not everything needs to be rainbowland gay all the time.

I'm with the Media Center idea. I've never used it extensively, but I just watched a few videos of people demoing it and I'm quite impressed. At least the Vista edition, kinda has a nice XMB meets OS X Leopard Stacks idea. Some of the ideas in use seem to have already been implemented into the dashboard, I don't see why they can't go all the way.

These "Ads" aren't really a problem, they serve a great purpose allowing quick access to hot content. Only thing I don't like is their dominating presence. THe banners that are actually clickable are nice, but the larger boxed ones that take up the other half of the main menu are annoying... Often times they advertise theme's available on the Marketplace, which they only manage to block when you finally track down and install the theme. These "ads" should be kept in line with the content, at the top or bottom of the navigable area. They serve a worthwhile function, but their implementation is really awkward.

The dashboard itself doesn't need a redesign as much as the grey shelf that comes out when you hit the guide button (I don't know the name of it) it's just downright ugly and it doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the dashboard at all.

I can't believe all the fucking whining about dashboards, XMB's, interfaces, and whatnot. I have all three systems, and find all three interfaces easy to navigate. Yes they're all different, yes they take some getting used to, but they're all functional. Ugly? Who the hell cares? You're not framing them and putting them on your wall. Go work for one of these companies if you think you can do a better job.

Agreed. If you can't find your way around Xbox 360's dashboard or PSN's interface well enough to find the game, demo, skin, DLC, etc. that you're looking for, then I'm surprised that you've even figured out how to turn the machine on, much less hook it up to an internet connection.

I honestly don't get the complaining about the ads. I hardly ever even notice them. And when I do notice them, they're usually ads for games. We all like games, right?

The pic at the top u guys made of the dashboard is actually pretty good. I agree Microsoft should redesign it.

That design is horrible. Look at the way you navigate the blades. So bad.

I think there should be small subbtle changes to the interface. you dont want to change it too much cos it works well the way it is.

I'm not against the design but as I posted on that site:

"I love your design idea but one ting is that those blades actually matches the hardware design itself. I recommend you changing something to match that too and you might have a winning design.

I would also correct your design with:
15% user space
8% advertisement space
24% menu space
63% interactive space"

I notice too that it's too similar to PSN that I highly doubt xbox enthusiast would like a design without originality of sorts. Just my 2 cents. :-)

I predict the next version of Live will have a very web 2.0, module based interface that you can customize in many ways if you wish to.

heck, I'd be happy if they just added an in game option to return to the dashboard without relaunching the system...

Is that a difficult thing? I can' imagine...

its so fucking colorful that my eyes started bleeding immediatly

Previous 50 Comments

Wishful tinkering: Redesigning the 360 Dashboard

Reader Comments (98)

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:59PM Talvish said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:06PM Talvish said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:33PM kastonie said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 4:33PM Duke said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 5:03PM Talvish said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:47PM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:55PM arrrgh said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:48PM emirabal said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:49PM CB said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:52PM andyg8180 said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:50PM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:55PM jagowar said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:12PM In A World said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:55PM In A World said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 2:59PM Snowblind said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:07PM arrrgh said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:21PM jhowlett said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:29PM jhowlett said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 4:24PM Obienator said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 4:35PM Duke said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:06PM DigitalFirefly said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:09PM arrrgh said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:14PM John Z said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:19PM Talvish said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 6:53PM Sawawa said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:19PM charleytony said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:42PM jagowar said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:20PM dv8withn8 said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:22PM mnemo said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:36PM cuteSAVAGE said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 3:39PM Bizzll said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 5:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 5:43PM Domicinator said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 5:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 5:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 6:19PM fourblades said

Posted: Jul 1st 2008 7:19PM Deadmeat1240 said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2008 12:07AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 2nd 2008 5:23AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW