Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie is one of the most active members of the development team on Twitter, but she's had to issue a warning about "annoyance campaigns", using a request to overhaul the current Xbox UI as an example.
Yesterday, she shared an image of a couple of direct messages she received about this (the one you see above), asking fans to "please not do this", and then going on to explain why it's not a good idea to spam her with requests:
"For the record, I'm fine with people DMing me with feature requests (as long as you don't expect an answer). I actually love it. But annoyance campaigns will get you blocked, unless you happen to be extraordinarily lucky (or extraordinarily right).
By the way, this isn't about the substance of the post. It's fine to have an opinion on the UI, and it's fine to tell me about it. I'm still not going to comment on any plans, and spamming me every day about it isn't going to get me to do that. Especially for an area I don't own."
"The absolute best place to make feature suggestions is the weekly "Xbox Requests" thread [on the Xbox Insiders Reddit page] — that way you're not depending on just me to get the right eyes on things."
Despite Marie acknowledging that her concerns weren't "about the substance of the post", her comments drummed up quite the conversation amongst fans in the replies, with many suggesting the current Xbox user interface is great as it is, while others agreed that it could do with an overhaul.
In any case though, this wasn't the way to go about asking for a change. Xbox's employees can be very engaging on social media, and the last thing we want is for them to be forced away due to so-called "annoyance campaigns".
What do you make of this? Give us your thoughts down in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 27
Why should they change it? The only annoying thing is the advertisement tile. The rest is better than on Switch and PS. Just pressing the home menu presents lots of options. You can filter games, create groups of games, see all the games you own, that are on Game Pass... You can even create groups with downloaded and not downloaded games that will have the cloud tag if you have Ultimate. The settings are very comprehensive and you can customise the dashboard with a wallpaper, remove sounds, change the vertical order of the contents...
The only thing I'd like is the first screen to be more editable/remove the Ads-able, otherwise I like how customizable it is
@BlueOcean there’s always room for improvement but I agree with you. Outta the 3 machines I like the Xbox UI the most. I think the PS5 UI is a bit rubbish, a step backwards from the PS4 imo, but I still don’t care enough to go online and tell a dev about it. Obviously a lot of people like to do that and this poor lady is sick of it haha.
The Ads thing luckily I rather enjoy. It does remind me of things like games forgot about/coming out or when This Week in Xbox is out.
Just little things like that very beneficial to me at least.
@Fenbops I agree. I would like the option to make the 5 big tiles smaller and remove the ads tile but I believe that it's the best UI and the settings have everything a player would hope for after the recent additions. The PS5 is worse than PS4 in that regard and the Switch UI is also a step backwards from Wii U and 3DS.
It’s always subjective, some like it others don’t.
I’m on the don’t side. Haven’t liked it since Xbox One. But it is functional, fast (finally) and customisable… even if all the customisation options are fugly imo.
Personally prefer the elegant minimalism on Switch and PS5 because opinions.
Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with the UI anyway.
I don't see the UI most of the time because of quick resume and the SSD 🤣 But when I do, I think it's at least functional. People like to complain about everything these days.
Wish I could get salespeople to quit spamming my email at work. Doesn’t work like that though, you ignore it by moving it to the trash can and move on.
@aj102404 but these aren't emails, they're direct messages. So she probably gets dings and alerts, every min asking for stupid shyte. That can get tiring. With emails, unless notifications is turned on, you can check at your leisure. Yeah, she could turn off notifications for her dms, as well, but she might miss something important, amongst the detritus.
While I agree it's not cool to spam the devs, the devs need to realize that Twitter and other social media are most of the times the only way to get ahold of someone from a corporate stand point.
There have been times when I have had problems and tried to contact an email or a phone number and got no results but I did get results by hitting the place up on social media.
Also if devs don't want to be spammed on social media keep some from of open communication with the players. Either a dev blog or statement on what's going on the the game once a week or something. Players don't like feeling like they are being ignored especially if there's something wrong/broken with a game. They need to acknowledge that they heard the people. You can't say stop spamming me because I am not answering you.
The third thing is then maybe these devs need to not be on social media if it's such a nuisance. One reason I don't have a Facebook account is because I don't want people to be bothering me.
In my opinion there's nothing wrong with the UI per se: it works and it's responsive. However, I do wish I could get rid of some of the clutter. Do you guys remember the PSP dashboard? That was perfection for minimalist guys like me!
@PhhhCough @PhhhCough
Honestly still, get over it. Asking for them to be reduced or go away will probably have the opposite effect. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do this or encourage it at all and it annoys the heck out of me when I get them.
@SplooshDmg I second that: smaller icons would definitely make the background more visible!
@gollumb82 Yeah, you're right: quick resuming stuff is so fast that sometimes I barely look at the UI!
I think the UI is mostly fine but it is very clicky. A lot of menus within menus. Personally I prefer the PS5 one but even that one can be jarring at the best of times
The only reason I prefer the PS5 is the level of simplicity it brings but the Xbox UI doesn't need any major improvements and its consistent if anything. The PS3 interface still makes me sick today... You can't please everyone and everyone will want something that improves it for them personally.
I think the only time I really look at any UI is when I switch games. This is really a complaining for complaining sakes thing.
@PhhhCough you can disable notifications on pretty much any app. So this doesn't hold any water.
Fact of the matter is when you're working for a company and have a customer facing interaction platform, IE social media, that you use for business purposes, you cannot reasonably expect to not have people communicating with you. This is exactly why only a small subset of people are generally allowed to "represent" the company on SOCMED.
I personally prefer the PS5 UI. It’s simply focused on games. It only shows me what I need to see at any given time. On my Xbox I have no idea where to even look at, everything looks so chaotic and unorganized.
The Xbox UI is the best of the 3, I can organise my games exactly how I want to which is the most important aspect for me. I can easily find all my digitally owned games and don't have to worry about save files as that's taken care of for me. Plus if I move to another Xbox, everything is exactly as I set it up
The PS5 UI is pretty but a bit rubbish and the worst I've used on a console, for a while it couldn't tell the difference between a PS4 or PS5 game, my library included every game I've ever played disc or otherwise and then I had to dig through menu's to find my save files
Then the Switch is fine due to it being functional and simplistic, I'd still prefer a way to sort my games properly though
@BlueOcean Coming from Switch to Xbox, UI was and still is biggest pain for me. Thanks to Game Pass, I regularly install and remove games, but I don't know how to make a section on main dashboard to show all currently installed titles other than managing each of them manually. I once spend couple of minutes looking for button that will get me to gallery with all my captures and honestly I can't now remember where it was.
Switch might not have the customisation options but I personally don't miss them as everything is neatly organised and simple to reach. With Xbox, it feels like a constant struggle.
Coming from the PS4 and its folders (which I adore), I was confused, at first, when I discovered the UI of my brand new Xbox One X.
But then, I learned not only to like it, but to love it.
The games folder, my collection, the ability to create groups (which immediatly made me create groups like "Halo Saga" or "Sega Collection")...
I think it's quite perfect as it is. Except, yes... except this add tile on the main screen.
That really annoys me.
@doomista I recommend you creating groups. I have groups sorted by genre and I include my favourite games in alphabetical order, whether they're downloaded or not, it doesn't matter. If you remove games from the memory, you will be asked if you want to keep the shortcut. When you want to see your games, press the Xbox button on your controller (or right trigger to find the Groups section below) and find your groups and everything will be there. The main dashboard is not really relevant on Xbox but it kind of works like Switch or PS4, showing 5 recent games on top.
@carlos82 Yes, you can erase games and keep the tiles and you don't even have to worry about save files. Unlike on PS5, you can find anything that you're looking for.
People have little to be complaining about in life if this is their biggest gripe.
I find the UI a bit overwhelming coming from a PS4 Pro. Also disappointed that the UI has no 4K support on my brand new Series S, something that my older Pro does.
I loved the original Xbox One dashboard so to have the choice to go back to that would be cool. People that do these “Day one asking for…” have nothing better to do with their lives.
Coming from a PS4 and Switch, the XBOX UI is a big plus for me. It's clean, enough pop without overdoing it, and pretty easy to customize.
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