Xbox Product Manager Ivy Krislov recently joined Larry Hryb on the Official Xbox Podcast to talk about the new Xbox Home experience tested by Xbox Insiders, and saw Hryb close the door on the return of Codec UI.
Microsoft launched a file The first iteration of the all-new Xbox home screen recently to select Xbox Insiders, though it won’t be fully implemented until 2023. Xbox Product Manager Ever Krislov joins Larry Harib aka Major Nelson to discuss the new “Home” experience The Official Xbox Podcast. If you’re not a fan of the currently tested UI, you may be happy to know that there are a few other versions that haven’t been tried, but it looks like only the bottom part of the screen will be changed – and we’ll definitely never see Blade again.
Microsoft has two additional Xbox Dashboard skins for testing
“No, you can’t get the blade back,” Harib said. “They were nice, they were nice, but you can’t take them back because they don’t fit what we say we want to do in business.” Dashboard “blades” were originally introduced with the first Xbox 360 that shipped in 2005, and feature console menus in separate tabs bordered by a pair of silver blades that make a “snap” sound when flipped over. To this day, it’s one of the most distinctive things that made the console great.
The new home experience, while Uncoded, is designed to give you everything you need on a single screen when you turn on the console, scrolling down to reveal a list of Xbox Game Pass titles and other games to play with purchases. The idea is to simplify your browsing experience by, for example, dragging the Store, Settings, and Search pages to the front and center of the dashboard. “We really see it as an evolution of the existing house,” Krislov said. “We take a lot of things that we’ve done well before and build on that.”
Microsoft’s engineering team has been laying the groundwork for this update for the past year, simplifying feedback processes for Xbox Insiders “There’s something that many Xbox fans may not know; It usually takes us three months to test really small features,” says Krislov. “Hopefully by building this infrastructure we can test things and get your feedback and iterate and come back to you with something better.”
The current build tested by Insiders is the first of three planned versions for the dashboard, and the Krislov team doesn’t expect the final version to be ready until “the end of this calendar year,” so it can change a lot depending on feedback — Krislov says, “Now The feedback we received after testing so far is that the top row blocks out dynamic backgrounds a bit more than some customers would prefer.” A meeting has been scheduled to consider all these comments.”
Discussing what’s shown when you scroll down the homepage, Krislov notes that “most customers today have their own default content block, e.g. play roometc., and then they install a game or two that they really care about. “Other content blocks like Clubs and Friends are much less used, and since most people don’t use the bottom part of the dashboard, Microsoft is trying to make better use of the space.
“People don’t scroll down as much because they just jump right into games from the top of the homepage, which makes perfect sense,” Krislov said. “We have started building the infrastructure where we can offer different game channels to customers with organization, customization and personalization. We are going through this test, we are in the first phase now, but we have two more plans, [we’ll be] By adding different types of content, such as for customers who use their consoles to watch TV, we’ll add a media experience – one of the most popular install groups on the homepage is those who install apps they want to use to watch TV. “
The next Dashboard test is scheduled to roll out to Xbox Insiders in October, so we’ll see what changes the team implements next based on Insider Program feedback. We’ve written about a few recently A fan made concept cut from other dashboard variants And I did a poll to see what you think about what Microsoft is currently testing. Of the 1,156 votes we received, 482 (41.7%) of you voted “Throw it in the bin”, while 25% of voters said it was “OK”.
Are you looking forward to seeing the project grow by the end of the year? Leave a comment below and let us know!
