Xbox One Major Update Revamps Home Page Design
Microsoft is gearing up for a major update for the Xbox One console, which will revamp the system's dashboard by introducing a new Fluent Design and making it more navigable.
The new home interface comes with a number of customization options. Through the new update, users will be able to pin things to their page such as games and favorite friends. The titles that are pinned will have an activity feed where players can monitor their friends, to see whether or not they are playing the pinned title.
In the new Home page, users will also find their recent activities. For instance, a link to the last game they played will appear on the display along with the monthly Games with Gold list.
To further reduce the clutter on the page, Microsoft added Content Blocks that players can, again, customize. Users can add whatever they want to the menu. These blocks can be accessed by scrolling down from the main screen.
"If you're a minimalist, you can have your Home and that's it," said Microsoft's Mike Ybarra. "Or your Home and your Pins, and that's your entire gaming service."
The tech giant is also done with the standard and taxing way of navigating through the console's home screen. In developing the newest update, the company took into consideration the speed of navigations.
In doing so, they removed the splash screens that appear when users switch from sections. In addition, tabs in the guide are now organized horizontally. Although it looks similar to the previous design, switching between sections is now easier and faster. Using the Quick Menu, gamers can simply browse through the sections using the Xbox controller bumpers.
Apart from the aforementioned changes, the new update will have Spotify for Xbox One gamers.
Microsoft is expected to drop the next major update sometime in the fall.