What's wrong with Metro?

Time flies. It's been a full 12 months since the Metro Dashboard arrived on Xbox 360. There was an update this October, but it didn't fix the same problems many CVG readers, Redditors and Xbox.com forumites have had with Microsoft's next-generation user interface. One year since its release, and the Metro experiment is regarded by many as a failure.
Xbox 360 originally launched with the famous 'blades' Dashboard with individual pages for System, Media, Games, Xbox Live and, later, the Marketplace. It was neat on the surface but did a pretty lousy job of presenting the information players needed, and buried DLC and Live Arcade stuff beneath layer after layer of obfuscating menus.
http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideo...mb_wide620.jpgMicrosoft's New Xbox Experience Dashboard fixed all those problems in 2008 with an interface styled after Windows Media Center, but fixed yet another 'problem' by freeing up space for advertising and promotion. When people fondly recall the old blades it's usually because it was so free of advertising.They forget that downloadable content was ordered alongside everything else in one giant alphabetised list and that the 360 had no support for Kinect, streaming TV or any of the 360's modern media functions. NXE fixed that, then fixed it again with Kinect support which never quite worked, but all of it was merely a stop-gap for Metro, which everybody hoped would provide the ultimate home media centre for Xbox owners.
Officially, it's not 'Metro' any more. Microsoft has been advising developers against using the Metro name since July with rumours of a trademark dispute with German wholesalers Metro AG. It's now 'Microsoft Design Language', and is used on Windows Phone, Windows 8, Surface and 360.
METRO-FLEXIBLE

MDL works well on Windows-powered phones and on Microsoft's new Surface tablet where the bold panels display information simply and can be activated with a touch. Windows 8 users have their own problems with the interface, mostly tied to the accessibility of the classic Windows desktop and how it's designed more for fingers than a mouse, but those problems pale in comparison to 360's.
http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideo...93924_orig.jpgOn Windows Phone, Surface or Windows 8 you can build your own homepage with the apps you most commonly use. On 360, the Dashboard is laid out by Microsoft. It's not your UI; it's theirs - how else could it turn Xbox into an ad delivery machine? The latest version of MDL adds a search panel to every page but misuses a colossal amount of screen space.The three left-hand squares are the only practical panels on each page. Less than 15% of the screen is available for things you use regularly; the rest is reserved for advertising. It's a fundamental component of Microsoft's modern business strategy. Even Windows 8's default apps are ad-supported. Delta Airlines appear in the News app and Pantene intrudes on the Weather app, but on PC you can dump Microsoft's apps for third-party equivalents.
The same isn't true on 360's closed system where you're stuck with what Microsoft gives you. In a Facebook poll, 70% of Xbox World magazine readers said they 'hate' the modern 360 Dashboard. "It's good on touch screens, mediocre at best for Kinect, and useless for mouse or controller," says XBW reader Steve Abramo. Ryan Clayton agrees: "It looks cool but it's a pain to navigate with a pad.
"Games are buried under menus too, but the thing I hate most is the advertising for Nike trainers over the thing people use their console for most: games." So how can it be fixed? "Get rid of the ads," says Chris Wells. "On every other online service, Premium = no ads. Reduce the number of pages and leave it at Home - Profile - Apps - Settings. Has anyone ever used the Bing bar?"
Phillip McLean agrees: "I'd remove all the freaking ads for paid users, first off, then I'd make everything on the one home hub: games, music, movies, apps etc." MDL isn't bad in its concept, the problem is Microsoft's handling of the user interface and their insistence on making Xbox an advertising platform.
"Anyone who owns a Windows Phone knows how customisable the tiles are," says Jamie Jones. "Just give us a 'my page' option where you can place game shortcuts, apps, even a direct link to a friend's Gamertag."
"The interface itself is nice," says Mark Marling from the XBW Facebook group. "The problem on Xbox lies in how it's been implemented. There are too many layers and ads cluttering the dash, but dismissing Metro as a UI is throwing the baby out with the bath water."
SQUARE-PUSHER

The perfect 360 Dashboard? A simple homepage with nine bold panels, easily 'touchable' with Kinect or controller - we've mocked up our own version, stripping the 360's UI down to bare essentials and making everything accessible on one page. Games, video, music, friends, apps and system settings are instantly available, and online friends are visible from the minute you boot up.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...tro-dashboard/