Xbox360 Dashboard is fugly!

I dont see how your pic is any different other then its on a different blade and has no wallpaper.

 

stick a garish wallpaper behind your ps3 shot and see how it looks

 

I put one with a wallpaper to be fair because nothing looks worse imo even if you dont like the pic.

 

personally i think the xb360 dashboard looks nicer
though ild give the upperhand to the ps3 due to its 1080p vs the xb360's 720p
with the preferlence of text this is one place where higher res makes a huge difference

 

With or without garish backgrounds, the layout of that Media blade isn't swish IMO. There's a lot of unnecessary visual 'junk' : the eject disk icon is a huge graphic; there's the gamercard at the top that has no relevance to media playback; add to that a big XB360 logo to remind you what console your running in case you forget...; the four controller buttons on the bottom are spread which isn't so convenient for quick reference; and the highlight for the selected item is a bit extreme. Furthermore from what I've seen of the dashboard, it's not particularly consistent. Some options menus have stonking big background icons, and some have small icons. Of cause pretty much all aesthetics comes down to personal preference, but I was surprised MS didn't go with the contemporary clean 'minimalist' style of the more praised UIs. Media Centre, Wii, XMB, iPhone, etc. all go for a more structure, streamlined UI with less stuff happening on screen, and are much better for it. I'm bemused why the dashboard wasn't based on the Media Centre look for uniformity across platforms. Its as though MS wanted to distance themselves from prior MS creations - "make sure it looks nothing like Media Centre, XP or Vista!"

 

I had a look the other night by doing a theme change in your personal settings - there's no option there to get an external photo (which is where you would think it would be).

I've found an old Major Nelson post that says you can just press the X button when viewing an image in the media blade.

 

Thats consistent through the blades (bar system / setup). You may also have different privs dependant on who is logged in (especially with parental control elements), so its kinda necessary to have there.

 

It doesn't need a full gamercard though. I'd have gone with a name and icon myself to differentiate users.

 

A video showing how to use custom backgrounds on the 360.

 

I don't understand how you can say the dashboard isn't clean and minimalist. But you're comparisons are laughable since the Xbox 360 shipped in Novemember 05 before the Wii and iPhone even shipped. And yes, the reason why they didn't make it look like other MS creations is they wanted to make sure it distanced itself from past UI. This thing is first and foremost a game console. So they felt there was no need to make it look like a media center or a portable device.

The idea behind the gamercard is that it's a badge of honor, like a baseball card. Gamertag, Gamerscore, rep, etc. go to idea of personalization, accomplishment and community. It's no wonder they felt it necessary to include it throughout the dashboard and personally I like it myself. Considering you don't have or use a 360, I can understand why you don't get it.

Tommy McClain

 

And that would be inconsistent with the other blades (you were moaning about inconsistencies earlier! ). Through these blades the layout doesn't change that much, just the options and what they do.

 

Ahh, I thought you were talking about the trim, not the background. Yes, view a picture on the media and press X to make it your background. Sorry.

Tommy McClain

 

That was a lengthy way of saying "press X on a picture"!

 

Aesthetics aren't about use. I don't use a *insert expensive car name here* but can appreciate the design. And even though I don't use an XB360 for media stuff, I get to use one every Tuesday and some Fridays and have seen enough to know I personally don't like it. Even then, discussion of layout on screenshots doesn't need experience.

The badge of honour just doesn't make sense to me from a design POV, taking up a third of your UI real-estate for something that has no relevance to the function of the page you're on. On startup as the default page it makes sense, but not outside of gaming related functions. It's also not a matter of consistency. By consistency I meant size and layout of options and icons. Having the same info on all pages may be consistent but it's pretty daft when the whole UI design is about compartmentalising information to simplify it!

Anyway, there's no point discussing it really. As I've said before, aesthetics are very subjective. One man's beauty is another's beast. The blades obviously are functional enough to do their job without driving the users crazy with weirdness, which is about as much as you can ask from any UI.

 

When you think about it, in practical use the blades are not that different from the XMB. With the XMB you move left and right to get the categorty you're after and you move up and down to to drill down the options (speaking from PSP experience) - that, in effect, is no different from the blades. The main difference is that rather than the main options being presented as a line in the center of the screen they are tabs at the side of the screen, leaving the majority of the screen as an interface to that specific category.

 

It looks like shit using the supplied componant cable....Im using hdmi and it looks fine (my monitor is native 1920x1080)

I agree, I like the look of PS3 XMB more....

 

As it happens, under the current Dash implementation at least, it is the Y button that does this. X changes the picture source.

 

Is it possible to set unique backgrounds for each blade?

 

Seperate pics only works for themes I think.

 

So that's why themes cost $2+ Ah well.