Xbox One - User Design Flaws

Guys and Gals,

Having a frustrating evening in front of my Xbox (which is pretty typical for this thing) and thought I'd pen a forum letter to MS. Maybe someone will see it and brainstorm some ideas.

This Xbox One console seems like it isn't ready for prime time, some 36 months later. I have had it for three years and glitch filled games, crashes, and bugs have persisted since launch. The Xbox 360 was a sound, well built console. It had an easy to
use interface that was intuitive. From Day One 2013 my Xbox One experience has been pretty sub par. This Windows 8 feel to the OS is cumbersome and hard to navigate; updates have made this much easier than the first go around, where I was basically forced
to use the Kinect to navigate.

For instance, in the settings menu, there are separate sub menus in list format on the left pane. They are in random order that has no discernable rhyme or reason. Putting these options in alphabetical order would make a lot more sense. The tiles that
display under the text headers in the right hand pane are in random order also, and sometimes seem like they are broken into too many options, with abstract icons.

There are still issues with the storage area; it is not immediately easy to see what you are looking at. Why is there an insistence to use icons instead instead of text? Also, intuitive designs lead to ease of use. People scroll TOP TO BOTTOM every day
when perusing cell phones, internet browsers, news papers, magazines, etc. Why does every "list" in the Xbox One system insist on scrolling left to right? Also, there is a severe abuse of icons. Certain colors draw to much attention, and using them in an
area such as the storage makes my eyes tend to gravitate towards certain items. Also, I typically know I need to find, say Halo 5 in the storage menu, but I have no idea what the title art looks like. Rather than being able to recall information easily,
I have to look for something my brain cannot easily recall. (And often times the titles on the cover art or box art of a game are in hard to read format).

One of tech supports favorite methods of restoring order to the Xbox One in my living room is to have me clear a ton of caches (in random areas, such as DVD / Blu Ray, and network, and another settings menu) and then unplug the Xbox for at least 2 minutes.
How can this be an acceptable solution that needs to be preformed fairly routinely? Sure enough, if I don't do this I just get spinning wheels when I try to access store content, and a bevy of "Oops! Something went wrong there!" or "We're not quite sure what
happened!" error messages that leave me with a complex error code that leads me into a rabbit hole. Even more frustrating is when it happens while you're trying to sign in.

Blurgh. Maybe this doesn't happen to anyone's console buy mine, but I don't see how this Xbox One is an acceptable heir to the Xbox 360. My Nintendo WiiU doesn't crash on game load.

Anyone else see these issues? Or others? Just curious.

:)

 

**Biggest Design Flaws**

Omg haha I didn't even realize you were the OP Matt hahaha my bad! Damn these new forums and not telling us who the topic is by on the front page!

 

**Biggest Design Flaws**

Definitely, Great Ideas! I'd love to have be able to narrow down gametype choices, and get people to use weapons other than the default and power weapons. I gotta say though, These ideas do fit in the thread I made for Ideas for

updates/DLC/Halo4

 

I kept having Halo 5 server failing to connect issues, huge game breaking bugs while playing the campaign, an endless black screen while the game was running and the game crashed several times last night. I had to hard reset the console twice. Unrelated
but annoying as we were playing CO-OP a preview update came out so my friends had to update right in the middle of a hard part of the level we were playing.

The previous night I had to help a friend of mine open his Nat through team viewer so we could party chat on the Xbox One which took two hours getting it functional.

The Xbox 360 days were so much more easier the only thing you really had to worry about was the red ring of death or your DVD drive wearing out. Hardly any software or networking issues.

We spent the whole night cursing Microsoft and 343 industries.

 

Oh no, say it ain't so guys!

Well remember, the 360 had a rough couple of years as well. RROD etc. So somehow MS will figure out how to get the - Hard Reset Needed One - to function in all aspects (Hardware/software) like a Swiss Watch.

 

Came out 2013. 2013, 2014, 2015 I guess that's how he got 3 years. I didn't know November 22 2013 - November 2015 was 36 months, it's actually 24 months. Just kiddin'

I remember what Xbox 1 was like at launch too. I have the Xbox 1 Day 1 Edition console with Kinect. The UI when it launched was terribly slow compared to Xbox 360's UI where it took 30 seconds just to open one app like Messages. Now with Windows 10 finally
on Xbox 1 which released for everyone (the new UI is definetly Windows 10 like, it's too good to be a Windows 8 UI) it only takes 1 second roughly to open an app, like Messages/Achievements. Which proves UI performance is based on "how they make the software"
not solely your ISP. Xbox 1 has an 8 core processor/APU. AMD Jaguar 8 core APU. With 8GB RAM. So the hardware is capable of functioning well, even better, if the OS/UI is good. Also at Launch, It also had only Stereo Uncompressed, no Dolby support at Launch,
no external HDD support, no USB file support, couldn't change the dash background, no voice messages. But now it has all those Xbox Live Features back. I can honestly say Xbox 1 is A LOT better than what it was like at Launch.

I still play a lot more on Xbox 360, since Xbox 360 still has millions more (a higher population) active on it, than the some 12 million or slightly more, people on Xbox 1. Even 80% of my friends list doesn't have an Xbox 1 console.

 

Sounds like you have a console that needs repair as I have non of the technical issues you describe. As far as the UI goes, if you can't navigate the new one, I'm not sure what they can do to make it any simpler.

 

Sorry bud but Ive never had to do a hard reset or unplug it or any of those issues. I was just saying the other day how much better the console is now compared to when it was released.

 

No one remembers when the 360 had its big dash board change? I can remember the outrage people had... now it Is praised. I cant understand why people wont accept change and can make something so easy and user friendly so complicated? To squawk about colors
and nothing in alphabetical order? ......

 

It sounds like you might have a bad console and internet problems. I own a Day One console and never had any of the issues you have had, never had to hard reset, my games run fine the console UI runs fast for me ..... you can Pin everything you use to the
home page.

You might want to include some information with your post such as router model, ISP, location ........

Day One Console ........... ISP Time Warner Cable ....... Location NYC ............ Router Asus ........ Beta Preview ...... Xbox One all systems are go.

Make sure you quit Apps as you finish with them, Instant On mode can get glitchy ........ no device is flawless, things happen from time to time but your console or set up seems to be broken.

 

I have one console in "Energy Saver" that runs flawless, while the other in "Instant On" needs to be "Restarted" at least once a month; switched the roles of the consoles and it was always the one in instant on that had slight problems. As PreacherXWDSX
has mentioned, "Make sure you quit Apps as you finish with them...".

Peace, J.R.