5 Reasons Why the Xbox Series X|S Dashboard Needs to Improve
While Xbox Series X|S consoles pack a punch when it comes to next-generation specifications for gaming or even value for money with services like Xbox Game Pass, both consoles have one common and infuriating issue you can’t avoid.
Unfortunately, the Xbox Series X|S dashboard is simply not up to scratch when it comes to intuitive designs that are complimentary to your gaming experience. And with numerous issues, both through implementation and company marketing, the Xbox dashboard is in desperate need of improvements.
But what exactly are these issues with the Xbox Series X|S dashboard, and why does it need to improve? Let’s find out.
1. The Xbox Series X|S Dashboard Bombards You With Ads
The most intrusive issue with the Xbox Series X|S dashboard you may experience is the extreme emphasis the dashboard places on s.
Regardless of the games or apps you may have accessed on your Xbox Series X|S, what recently opened tiles are displayed through the dashboard, or even how you customize your Xbox, there will always be at least two s displayed on your home screen.
And while these adverts are often advertising things that are highly useful for Xbox gamers, like Xbox Game Pass releases or newly released content and deals, they are undeniably a distracting element of the entire dashboard. Especially when an ad covers a custom background or removes room for more practical features.
When it comes to ways that the Xbox Series X|S dashboard needs to improve, placing less priority on s and more priority on services Xbox users may require more often, like a messages tile, would be a great step towards improving the look and practicality of the overall dashboard.
2. A Cluttered Layout and Style Impairs Your Personalized Dashboard
While things like tiles take up space to lure you into spending money instead of emphasizing useful features, the overall design of the dashboard and its tiles are just as aggravating.
With Xbox offering younumerous ways to personalize and customize your Xbox Series X|S, your Xbox dashboard is no exception. Unfortunately, regardless of whether youset a dynamic background for your Xbox Series X|S, use achievement art, or upload your own backgrounds, blocky tiles and layouts hide your choices.
And with the layout and tile issues, a cluttered and bloated collection of options, game art, ads, apps, and even achievements are all confined to a single page, impairing your design choices further.
This is especially frustrating if you were a fan of Xbox during the Xbox 360 generation. The Xbox 360 dashboard, while still tile-based, was well spread out and allowed for a clearer view of features, as did the original Xbox Arcade.
For Xbox Series X|S and its dashboard, a definite way the dashboard requires improvement is through a tidying-up of the layout and enough tile opacity to allow you to actually see your custom backgrounds and personalizations.
3. Never-Ending Options Make Navigation a Chore
Aside from the style intention of the Xbox Series X|S dashboard, the actual options available to you are too vast and disorganized to be convenient for users.
By default, the Xbox Series X|S dashboard features seven main sections, with an option to add more. While this may not seem too ridiculous, these sections are all ordered vertically and are only accessible if you scroll downwards.
Unfortunately, this means that if you want to utilize the dashboard of your Xbox Series X|S, depending on the specific section and options you require, you may spend an unnecessary amount of time scrolling down lists of options you’re not interested in.
Luckily, unlike other aspects of your dashboard, you can alter this issue with a keen sense ofhow to navigate your Xbox Series X|S dashboardand how to customize your home screen. Still, the answer to a dashboard issue shouldn’t be to remove or limit an in-built feature.
Therefore, a further issue with the Xbox Series X|S dashboard is a restrictive and awkwardly orientated options display. Ironically, this issue would benefit from designs found in the Xbox 360 dashboard that looped available menus and options.
4. Tile Customization Does Little to Alter the Xbox Dashboard
Going off some of the flaws of the Xbox Series X|S dashboard that are actually customizable, like the overall layout of options, settings, and tiles, you may think that customization could help to ease some of the main flaws with the dashboard.
And with Xbox adding more and more options to tile customization, with the ability to hide game art for tiles to free up space for your custom background, you would think these potential fixes would be highly applicable.
Unfortunately, customizing your tiles and hiding game art is still restrictive and does little to alleviate issues. Hiding game art, for instance, only works for solid background colors and forces you to utilize a single color as a background, and tile customization only affects the tiles within the My Games & Apps section of your Xbox.
So while there are options available that can attempt to fix some of the issues with your Xbox Series X|S dashboard, they are often insufficient, and points towards a further dashboard issue: the customization and preferences available for the Xbox Series X|S dashboard are of no consequence.
5. Your Xbox Series X|S Dashboard Prioritizes Microsoft Services
A final way the Xbox Series X|S dashboard requires improvement, similar to how the dashboard prioritizes s, is through its emphasis on Microsoft services.
While services like Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Cloud Gaming are applicable to an Xbox dashboard, ensuring that they are on as many dashboard pages and screens as possible adds to the overall clutter of the dashboard and acts to make navigation a chore.
Xbox Game Pass, for instance, can be found as a dedicated dashboard page, through your My Games & Apps page, on the Xbox Store page, and on your home screen in the form of a nearly permanent advert. This barrage of dedication to Xbox Game Pass, while useful as a service, impairs and clutters the Xbox dashboard further.
And when you add services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and even Microsoft Edge into the issue, you have numerous Microsoft-based potential intrusions into what should be a clean and efficient dashboard for your Xbox Series X|S.
As an issue highlighting ways the Xbox Series X|S dashboard needs to improve, an already cluttered dashboard is made less accessible due to an over-emphasis on Microsoft-orientated tiles. If this was dialed back, it’s highly likely the Microsoft-based tiles would be more useful as a service and feature than detrimental to navigation.
While the Xbox Series X|S Dashboard Is Flawed, It May Improve Over Time
There are many ways the Xbox Series X|S dashboard is flawed, and these flaws are unfortunately symbolic of overall trends within gaming, with most triple AAA games, like Forza and Call of Duty, all focusing on tile-based dashboards and menu systems.
And while this interface method for your Xbox, and the games you play on it, is undeniably frustrating, there are at least ways the Xbox dashboard can be improved through slight customization options.
Luckily, with Xbox Insiders constantly receiving trial versions of new dashboard layouts for Xbox Series X|S, it’s highly likely that the Xbox Series X|S dashboard will eventually change for the better.
Want to try out upcoming Xbox features early? The Xbox Insider program lets you do just that. Here’s how.
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