Posted Mon Nov 2, 2015 at 08:49 AM PST by Brian Hoss
A new dashboard, with an important left screen menu.
Come November 12th, both the new UI and 360 backwards compatibility (however limited) will be released to all Xbox One users. If you've been previewing the new dashboard, then you should already know how to get around. For everyone else, get ready for a different Xbox One UI.
The original Xbox One UI was a bit too metro for me. Several pages of big squares and stark backgrounds. As Microsoft added functionality this interface became even clunkier.
The new UI and dashboard is still growing on me. but in concept, Microsoft has a better battle plan. The focus today is the home screen. With its vertical space (a no-no in old design), it's much easier to use pins, and getting to those pins quickly can be done with a pull of the right trigger.
The left side of the screen now houses the guide, which takes some inspiration from the 360's UI. The guide has things that you need quickly such as friends, messages, notifications, settings, parties and more. It can be a little jarring at first, but because the guide is always there, it quickly becomes a familiar way to use those frequently needed features. (Press the Xbox button during play, and the guide will be there on the left or else just double tap the Xbox button.)
Here's a brief breakdown from Microsoft on what the guide can do:
Profile: You can add and manage profiles on your console, switch users, view your profile, and view your achievements here.
Friends: You can easily see which friends are online, see the games they are playing, and invite them to join your game. This is the default section of guide that first opens. In game, you will be able to check your friends’ status up to 10x faster.
Party: You can easily start or manage a Party, which can now include 12 active participants, making it 3x as fast to start a party and 6x faster to join a party while playing a game.
Messages: Easily access all of your messages and group text chats via the new guide – starting November 12.
Notifications: Your Notifications will also be included in the guide and we made improvements to group your Notifications together by type, separating social notifications from game-related notifications from the developers.
Settings: We’ve redesigned Settings based on feedback to make the most commonly used items easy to access.
Snap: Easily snap an application, like achievements, from the guide.
As I said before, the guide is really growing on me. I think for anyone that hasn't really used a Xbox One before, this new UI will be much quicker to learn than the former design.
Here's another explanatory video. This one is on Game Hubs. Game Hubs pull together an activity feed about the game, and this feed includes developer comments and posts. In the theory the Game Hubs will mix multiplayer and streaming communities in one place.
Source: Xbox Wire
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