When I came home with my shiny new Xbox 360 waaaaaay back in 2005, one of my favorite features of the console was the dashboard. The blades were an amazing leap from the clumsy interface of the original Xbox, offering all sorts of expanded control, options, and content that I didn’t even imagine in the previous generation’s hardware.
But nothing lasts forever, and after a few years of noble service, the Xbox 360 dashboard is really starting to show its age and, worse, its limitations. You can find hints of these shortcomings in Microsoft’s recent actions. The back-to-back May announcements of no Spring update and the delisting of selected Xbox Live Arcade titles suggested larger issues. Even the comments made by Microsoft executives on the topic were telling—like when Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten said of the decision not to offer a Spring dashboard update that they were instead:
“building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service.”
Or when Aaron Greenberg commented on the delisting of Xbox Live Arcade games:
“I think that we are not, I would say…happy with the ability to find and discover content as easily as we’d like for consumers to be able to do that.”
So, Microsoft acknowledges the problem. Is there a solution? I think so. Lots of them, actually. We’ve spent some time on our recent podcasts talking about the need for a dashboard 2.0. I decided to take it a step further, look at what exists currently, and suggest some ways to improve things—yes, for Microsoft—but primarily for Xbox 360 users.
*note: I’m in no way imagining that what I propose below is the solution, or even necessarily a solution. My point, instead, is that solutions exist—and we need ‘em.*
Examining the 360 dashboard as it looks today
I started by dissecting the current dashboard, breaking it down into four main color-coded components: gold user space (your gamercard, messages, etc.), blue interactive space (menus, buttons, and the like), red advertising space (the real estate Microsoft is using to ply their wares), and purple unused space. Chopping it up that way looked something like this (click any screen below for the 720p version):
Rearranging those fields demonstrates one of the dashboard’s chief problems for an Xbox 360 user:
When I fire up my console, I don’t want to be greeted by the Xbox 360 dashboard. I want to be greeted by my dashboard. So why is my share of the screen the smallest by far? I suppose you could argue that you can buy themes to adorn the blades as well, but they get completely obscured by both the interface and, more egregiously, the advertising. I’d rather not see advertising on my dashboard at all, but I’ll address that later.
The amount of unused space is alarming as well. As a graphic designer, I fully understand the importance and function of white space, but what exists in the current dashboard isn’t really that. It’s just . . . dead. Those pixels could be put to much better use. I’m certain that some measure of this is due to their desire to create an interface that is 4:3 SDTV-friendly—and that’s an admirable concern. But I think it’s a bad idea to hinder the experience of a high-def owner. If anything, the interface should be designed for widescreen HD and scaled down to accommodate those poor, unfortunate 480i souls.
So, what would you do, smartypants?
Acknowledging that I’m not a particularly technical person (I’m sure all this is a real pain to implement in reality), it still occurs to me that there are some relatively simple fixes that could result in a much better user experience from the dashboard. So I pulled the existing dashboard apart and reassembled it—while trying to maintain the look and feel of the 360 dash—to reflect some of the features I think are must-haves in a revised console interface. Here’s a look at a possible redesigned dashboard:
Some of the added features you’ll notice right off the bat include
- a search function—both to search what’s on your console and on the Marketplace. I know it’s a pain to type with the controller, but I’d still wager I can fumble around the d-pad to spell “Precipice” before I can navigate to Penny Arcade Adventures using the blades.
- hot keys—navigating the dashboard uses primarily the A, B, LT, and RT buttons. It would be nice to be able to assign X, Y, LB, and RB to specific functions in the dashboard or Marketplace, like bookmarks in a web browser. For example, if I like to check what’s new in the Marketplace every week, I could map that to the X button and jump right to it. Or if I want to go straight to my XBLA games, I could map that to the Y button and forget about moving through a number of screens to find them. As shown in this example, I’ve just mapped them to the other blades on the main dashboard.
- disc tray detail—the PS3 lets you see a nifty little video icon to show what’s in the system. I’d settle for some box art or one screen, along with some details on my progress in the game.
- reversal of ad and user space—in this example, the dashboard would be dominated by my content with a larger, clearly visible wallpaper or theme, and a bigger gamerpic. I’ll relent and say that there could be some advertising on the dashboard, but I’d limit it to a standard web-size banner ad and the Inside Xbox feature with rolling updated headlines, because I’d hate to miss out on Major Nelson awkwardly staring into the camera.
This division of space makes more sense to me. It feels more like my dashboard and less like an advertising platform I have to wade through to play my games. Mapped out as previously done with the existing dash, it looks like this:
Again, rearranging those fields yields this:
A much better, and more appropriate balance. It’s worth mentioning that this approach also yields basically no wasted space—it’s all been reclaimed for the user. ¡Viva la revolución!
Is that all you got?
Not exactly. I haven’t given extensive thought to every blade (I question my sanity for doing this much mucking about, fer chrissakes), but I did also spend some time thinking about what features the Marketplace needs to serve me better. Here’s a peek:
Some of the added elements here that would make shopping much more handy are
- user ratings—Microsoft has often talked about XBLA (and XNA) becoming “the YouTube of gaming.” Content on YouTube lives or dies based on user ratings. That same law should be applied to XBLA—anyone who has purchased the full game should have the chance to rate it. Frankly, I’d be more comfortable seeing a game get delisted as a result of lousy user ratings than I would as a result of lousy Metacritic scores.
- better sorting—I think a number of sorting options would aid my shopping experience immensely. Let me sort by date, user rating, alphabetically, etc. Also, make it easy for me to see what’s free on the Marketplace.
- show me the money—I want to know what a game costs without clicking to its page to find out. Similarly, I’d like to have my points balance on the screen at all times, not just when I’m preparing to buy something.
- ok, NOW advertise—once I’m in the store, I’m fair game. You wanna load up the Marketplace with a wall of ads? Do your worst. Just keep it away from the other blades.
With E3 only a couple weeks away, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll see a revamped dashboard from Microsoft for the Xbox 360—one that is more focused on me, and less on them. What would you want from “dashboard 2.0″? Drop us a comment and let us know. And if you want to spread the word (and the love), digg it.
I always get a little bit sad inside when people in the target audience know and understand more about the product than the people designing it. This was an expert piece of work here Mik, and will likely only serve as disappointment when we actually get an updated dashboard. Why don’t they get it!??!
[...] Long time Mormon, smartass and podcaster Mik from The fanboys has written (with pictures) a very honest and smart post about the shortcomings of the current Xbox 360 dashboard and what he hopes Microsoft will do with it in the [...]
I have to agree, the reason behind your design choices are sound. And it will be only that much more crippling when the update doesn’t make any of the changes you delineated.
I think your final choice of asthetic was excellent, but doesn’t fit the theme Microsoft has with the 360. They are really attached to the “blades” concept. Not that your redesign couldn’t be altered to fit that style.
Great read, makes me wish I had more graphic design talent. Now we know where all the cool show banners come from.
VERY nicely done – and I agree with all of it. M$ should be paying you for this analysis and vision. And screw the blades concept – it’s a waste of space and a burden to navigate.
2-thumbs up! M$ ARE YOU READING THIS???
I have to agree. I had a 360, but sold it to get my PS3. One of my biggest annoyances was paying to play online and then when I went online being bombarded with ads. It has always seemed like the dashboard was designed to maximize advertising space and not to be easy to use or user centric. I really think that Sony hit some design gold with the Cross Media Bar. Microsoft should look at the Wii and PS3 interfaces and take note.
I hate to play this card again, but we’re all paying for this service. So, it would make sense to see a change like this.
Since I am paying for Live, I would love to see this implemented, or at the very least, more customization.
If I want to rearrange the dashboard and put my own graphics for backgrounds, icons and such, I should be able to.
Microsoft, TAKE HEED!
You call it “Unused Space”, others call it “Formatting”. The fact of the matter is, your dashboard is very cluttered and complicated when compared to the current dashboard.
As a side note, I’d like to see what percentage of the PS3′s XMB is userspace vs. “Unused space”…
I like the others fully agree with your visionary take on how Microsoft should update the Dashboard to make better use of space. Xbox Live is a service we all pay $50 a year for, and though I haven’t really ever gave it focus before this article, it does have more advertising space on it, then any thing else. If we pay for it, we should have the choice on what it looks like, how it acts, and if we want to see advertising or not.
I love your outline, and design on how it could look and function better, and I only hope that either Microsoft has something like it in mind for the future, or they see your vision and take it to heart so they can give the customer what they want, and that is a much better, far easier to use Dashboard.
Great job
[...] For the full story and other Xbox 360 dashboard recommendations, visit the Platform Nation or The Fanboys. [...]
[...] 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. [...]
[...] 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 [...]
Brilliant! And though I would love to redesign everything to reduce the advertising space by 1/5th, I’m sure your page would need more than just a tiny banner ad at the bottom.
I am not sure but it looks like you haven’t considered the 10% safe zone on the borders of the screen or widescreen versus a 4:3 aspect ratio.
I just wanted to let you know that the screenshot you have of the original dashboard has overscan. Here is a picture of the dashboard on my tv which does not have overscan, and as you can see there is even more wasted space because Microsoft has to support the tvs like yours that have overscan.
http://hawuvq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p0O-ouC18WqK-jVgP7b2_9RC5lm_8okwFjqTYw7DzbrzX4XmWhNMgd-SMwvpTyThTA3IGDf6Q8Os/my%20tv.JPG
For comparison, here is another picture of my tv when used in overscan mode:
http://hawuvq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pOWMig3Q-7tCF-6PWnJ8Pp4Q7Wt21tp6g6e2_QcwQlpCjrJWuo4H-XO_q2lp0w0fcAVi88oi44CDfd8_jR4HbUw/your%20tv.JPG
Why don’t they get rid of Microsoft points or make them equivalent to real dollars like the Wii Points? If I show anyone that doesn’t play games they think its completely deceptive.
[...] 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. [...]
While this theme look good, it’s very crowded and won’t look well on none widescreen TV. Navigation look like a pain as well.
I like the blades as well, but do see the need for updating the dashboard.
It would be nice to have different templates that we could choose and then be able to set colors as we like.
The $50 a year is for playing online. It has nothing to do with the dashboard. Every one gets the same Dashboard whether they pay or not.
Mik, great article! I love the way your designed dashboard looks and i really would want MS to take notice of this because something really needs done. The current dashboard just isn’t cutting it.
BTW your designs are HAWT!
Not everyone has a high-resolution widescreen display. Many of the elements and text sizes in your mockup would be virtually unrecognizable/unreadable on a 4:3 SD TV. In fact, it wouldn’t even fit on a 4:3 TV.
UI design is a lot tougher than most people think.
It’s also very crowded and would intimidate most people.
The reason why the PS3 UI is so much friendlier is that it is anything but overwhelming. Both the current dashboard and the mock-up that you made are mind-numbingly overstated and your mock-up furthers the problem by removing any and all white space.
I think your article hits a lot of key points of the dashboard that I too am tired, bothered or irritated with. I only hope that MS listens/reads about what the consumer wants and not what they want for the consumer. Then take that information and make a more flowing and useful dashboard.
The look and feel could stay the same if the function was over hauled. Drill down and backup is getting way to deep. Insufficient information on content.
Example: I have every single arcade game on my console but I have only purchased 10. Takes for ever to reach the game I own. When I highlight a game I want to know if it is a demo or full version I want to know the last time I played the date it was released. I even would like a function when leaving a game to give it a rating. I should be able to mark as one of five favorites and have favorites show at top level on arcade blade.
I could go on for pages but that is enough for comment.
They should take a look at the PS3′s XMB, graceful, elegant and (post recent update) easy to find the content you desire. Sony have a strong history of expert U.I. design while Microsoft have a strong history of trying to do what Apple does best – only MS rarely if ever achieves the delightful heights of user interaction ease that Apple are so expert at.
The bottom line is that the U.I. design of the Xbox 360 is an absolute travisty, it fights against the user and places what they thought was ‘visual flair’ over interactivity – a failure on every level. They need to reset the information architecture entirely, once they have a functional navigation and placement of information in place then they should ‘design’ around that.
Sorry, but there really is not anything positive I can say about the current U.I. design, each and every time I have used it there has been frustration, obviously rushed out the door under the direction of amateur designers.
[...] good people over at TheFanboys.com came up with this draft of what they feel the new dashboard update should look like. Man, somebody [...]
I’m sorry guys, but your redesign is horrid. It is ugly, way too cluttered and looks less than functional. It hurts my eyes to look at.
The last screen for the redesign is horrible. Not only ugly, but simply overwhelming for users, definitely not an improvement on the current design AT ALL.
Great article…
Famousmortimer said it best… and summed up my thoughts in a blurb for me:
I always get a little bit sad inside when people in the target audience know and understand more about the product than the people designing it. This was an expert piece of work here Mik, and will likely only serve as disappointment when we actually get an updated dashboard. Why don’t they get it!??!
Superb work!
Umm, in your first version, you call the Master Chief photo “user content”. If you do that, then the background on the current dashboard is also user content as it is configured by the user.
Your redesign is marvelous. I have grown to abhor the blade interface, especially in the face of the PS3′s minimalist, but horribly named, Xross Media Bar(which, to be fair, has plenty of its own problems).
It’s too bad the 360 doesn’t take any sort of interface mods. I’d be using yours in a heartbeat.
[...] Dreaming of Dashboard 2.0 [...]
I enjoyed your article and the break down of space according to design. One detail DID perk my interest from the rest:
” This division of space makes more sense to me. It feels more like my dashboard and less like an advertising platform ”
I humbly agree that the dashboard should be user defined, although I find it funny how noting it could look ‘less like an advertising platform’ reveals that the existing Dashboard could have been designed for just that.
The business of advertising and user driven content is such a staple in our mainstream experiences that it’s as though we should expect this regardless of our needs & wants now, and in the future.
I guess some things just have to get paid for :\
Great article, Cheers!
Just like to point out that you listed “disc tray details” as something you’d like to see. Well, the Xbox Live blade already has that. By selecting the tray, the advertising space is replaced with details about the game you have inserted. Including a graphic for the game, your gamerscore for the game, and recent achievements within the game.
I applaud your effort but your seem to be over simplifying. You didn’t take into account things like internationalization. Lots of little complications like that can add up. It is easy to mock up one screen and say “this is how it should be” and another thing entirely to actually make that work on a global product with audiences ranging from casual gamers to hard core gamers.
For example, I think casual gamers would be much more like to “understand” hitting left and right to navigate between blades than they would to hit “RB” to get to the marketplace. I think I lot of people would spend time thinking to themselves “what button takes me to the media blade again?” versus just shuffling left and right until they get there.
Microsoft has an interesting start with the “twist” interface used on the Zune and in some areas of the marketplace. I’d like to see that become more prominent in the dashboard myself.
Again, I think you have some good ideas and put in a solid effort. But to those that are saying “Why doesn’t Microsoft get off their butts and just do this?”… it is a lot more complicated than that.
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 love it!!
But I think it wont happen, ever.
As usual, people who doesn’t get paid comes up with better things than the a holes getting paid.
I don’t think that yours is the most practical design in a lot of ways but it sure looks nice, also I appreciate the effort in getting the dialogue going…this feature sure beats another “top ten game manuals” feature…I’m looking at you, 1UP.
Wow. That’s a whole mess of comments. Thanks very much for taking the time to read what I wrote and share your thoughts. Too many good points brought up to address them all. But I will reiterate a few things I may not have made clear enough:
1. I don’t consider my pair of mocked-up screens to be the answer to what ails the blade interface, by any means. Microsoft has plenty of talented designers, great agency partners, and a slew of UI experts that could put their heads together and really make big improvements to the interface. My intent was really to point out some issues that I think are holding the dashboard back, offer some possible solutions, and, most importantly, spark some discussion. I’m frankly most satisfied that I accomplished that last point. The fact that we’ve received so many page views, links, and comments on this article demonstrates that Xbox 360 owners largely feel some of the same frustrations.
2. I took the approach of evolving the look of the dashboard, so you’ll see the signs of vestigial colors, shapes, and stylistic conventions. It would be interesting to consider scuttling the entire thing and starting from scratch, but that seems even more unlikely than the pipedream presented.
3. I had no intention of creating any sort of System Warz™ with this (to be fair, this really happened on other sites that picked this up—y’all were perfectly well-behaved). Just because it’s pointing out areas for improvements in the 360, don’t take that as tacit approval of all things Sony. They have their own issues that aren’t related to this discussion. I love the 360—just check my embarrassing gamerscore.
Looks fantastic, Definitely an excellent solution to the mess that is the current Dashboard. I’m not sold on the idea of having certain buttons go to certain panels, to me it would be more functional to arrow and select what you want and then get locked into that area until you hit back, but the organization and layout are wonderful. You and the commenters are totally right, there’s way too much of the Dashboard space dedicated to making money for Microsoft and cross-promoting with their other products and services, such as when their Sync technology first hit Ford family vehicles, they had those ads all over. With how much of the space is there for advertising revenue and how they own the company that’s bringing in the ads, they’re probably making enough money to easily make the service free.
I agree with others, I’m sure they’re way too tied to the blades concept to give it up for a more functional UI, but there’s no doubt they can actually make it work if they’d just lighten up on ads and give the player more space for content that’s relevant.
I put down a disagreement card, however, to your comment about there being talented folk who could make it work. I’m sure they’re talented, but seeing as how they’ve been injecting more and more crap into the UI and making slight tweaks here and there that are more like band-aids than actual fixes, it seems they either don’t have the talent to make it work or there are forces that simply won’t let them take away their advertising $$$$.
Here’s hoping, though.
Your design is excellent. I purchased the 360 for its controller, in-game guide, integration with my MSN account, friends list and downloadable content. What I was unaware apon purchase that I would get bored with the dashboard very quickly. Wallpapers don’t have any affect on the current dashboard except making it hard to read. The advertising is crap, but if you are under 18 years old you get a bunch of fugly grey squares scattered all over your dashboard. I am not impressed with their design now. Your design features visual appeal and good field arrangement. It is a bit cluttered but the way it is designed you can find what you want instantly with ease and the clutter is not a problem. I’d rather it be cluttered with information that is easy to pick out of all the different items rather than unused. Great Job.
I love the current 360 dashboard, it’s so much nicer than the original XBox interface. I like your suggestions for an updated interface, it’ll be interesting to see how close Microsoft makes the 360 to your ideas.
I wish Microsoft was putting the same foresight into what they are doing in their UI today. I get the feeling that initially they laid the groundwork based on existing market conditions, the situation changed, and now they spend their time shoehorning everything they can into the existing architecture rather than fixing it.
It’s some really great work, and more importantly, great information on your thought process to the UI design and functionality!
Bravo! I loved this article. Perhaps the newly appointed CXO (Chief Experience Officer) J. Allard will give you a job? You seem to have a better grasp on the user experience than they do.
I will give MS credit. The blade system is brilliant and intuitive. Unfortunately, it has outgrown itself and that is apparent in your outstanding analysis. That said, I think there is a consideration problem.
You are assuming a 16:9 HDTV is being used. What are the percentage calculations for a 4:3 SDTV? The blade system has to be scalable to fit the different TV’s. Yours doesn’t seem quite as scalable.
Nonetheless, excellent work!
I’m sorry, but I viewed this mockup yesterday via Joystiq, and I think it sucks. It’s a complete mess, and as I commented at Joystiq, I would probably have an aneurysm if I booted up my Xbox and had to stare at it for any amount of time.
There’s a reason why over half of the screen’s surface is “unused,” as you put it. Look at your computer screen, right now. I’d wager that if you broke it down into used and unused space, you’d find that well over half the screen is empty. If it weren’t like this, and followed the principles of design you put forth above, it’d be too busy for anyone to actually use in a productive way.
It was with good intentions, but your vision is terrible – you’re obviously not a UI designer. Even looking at this website, you’ve not covered up obvious problems with the WordPress template’s CSS (see the white bar underneath the footer?).
How can anyone think this silly mockup is a good idea?
I’m a graphic designer as well and I actually think the current blade interface is excellent. I do think it should be refined and a lot of the advertising should disappear, but I don’t think it should lose the so called “dead space.”
You make valid points for the direction MS should look into going, but your mock up looks too much like a web site design and that is not appropriate for televisions IMO.
To everyone saying the PS3 has a better interface, I can’t say it’s better at all. I do like how the XMB organizes movies, photos, and games, but finding system settings is more difficult than it should be since it just throws everything into one gigantic line of icons.
Really love the re-design, nicely done sir. Great article. Please notice this MS!
[...] The Fanboys: Dreaming of Dashboard 2.0 [...]
I like where this is headed.com But consider how much space you have wasted, for example; do I need to see my gamercard all the time? Also, the current dashboard is easier to navigate then the way to my kitchen. I can just hold down and know I`ll have the tray selected, regardless of what blade I`m on. I think it is possible your redesign, while on the whole brilliant poses as many problems as it does solutions. You have provided evidence that what we have could be better, now we just have to hope Microsoft listen.