MC360 UI rant

[exobyte]

I decided to try MC360, and while the UI was very pretty, there were a few problems I had with it.

I don't use Xlink Kai or Xbox Live. Blades should be changable by the user; don't force users to use/see some features you like. It's a media center; addons are nice, but don't make them practially mandatory.

Take out the Reputation/Gamer score for Blackbolt 360. Maybe it's customizable, but it has no place in media:

You're basing a UI off an existing UI, that's fine, but there's no need to obtrusively brand it.

Replace the MC360 logo with the XBMC logo. It's consistant with the entire project, and again, no need to follow the Xbox 360 UI at every detail. It's an XBMC skin based on Xbox 360, not the Xbox360 UI with minimal changes.

Finding Shutdown and Reboot is fun. It's in something like System, Other, Shutdown, Reboot. That's not very intuitive for such a basic operation.


Don't get me wrong; it's great work, but the UI itself needs some fixes. Don't worry about being absolutely loyal to Xbox 360. The UIs serve different purposes, so making a few changes is fine.

[mbit]

Are the source images available, i.e. not locked and compressed?

[xboxbox451]

Originally Posted by exobyte

I don't use Xlink Kai or Xbox Live. Blades should be changable by the user; don't force users to use/see some features you like. It's a media center; addons are nice, but don't make them practially mandatory.

First off, what version of MC360 are you using? The latest version from Blackbolt's website doesn't have a KAI blade. Download the latest version here --> LINK

You can mod the skin to your hearts content, there may even be existing mods to accomplish what you want. Check out the MC360's forums for more information --> LINK

You talk like this skin should have been designed with only you in mind.

Originally Posted by exobyte

It's a media center; addons are nice, but don't make them practically mandatory.

The skin was created to closely, if not exactly match the original Xbox 360 skin, hence why the "add-ons" are there. If you don't like it, don't use it.

Originally Posted by exobyte

Take out the Reputation/Gamer score for Blackbolt 360. Maybe it's customizable, but it has no place in media:

AGAIN, the skin was created to closely, if not exactly match the original Xbox 360 skin. Stop referring to "Media", this skin was mainly designed with gamers in mind. Yet, it still includes all the functions of XBMC media capabilities.

Originally Posted by exobyte

You're basing a UI off an existing UI, that's fine, but there's no need to obtrusively brand it.

Replace the MC360 logo with the XBMC logo. It's consistant with the entire project, and again, no need to follow the Xbox 360 UI at every detail. It's an XBMC skin based on Xbox 360, not the Xbox360 UI with minimal changes.

Wow, your comments just keep getting more moronic. With the time and dedication that went into this skin, having it's own brand (logo) is well justified.

Originally Posted by exobyte

Finding Shutdown and Reboot is fun. It's in something like System, Other, Shutdown, Reboot. That's not very intuitive for such a basic operation.

What is so hard about pressing down the right-thumbstick?? Thats right, just press the right thumbstick, and there's shutdown, reboot, etc...

Originally Posted by exobyte

Don't get me wrong; it's great work, but the UI itself needs some fixes. Don't worry about being absolutely loyal to Xbox 360. The UIs serve different purposes, so making a few changes is fine.

[Jezz_X]

Ok as the probably the lead coder of the mc360 xml skins I have this to say
If you don't like it then don't use or change it to suit how you like
You honestly have no idea how many hours went into making this I've lost coun't and I don't get paid a penny for it :\

It is and always was designed to be a very close replica of the xbox 360 skin hell we even had microsoft asking for proof we made the images

[exobyte]

Jezz_X:

I have a pretty good idea how long it takes; a single good image in photoshop takes long enough to make.

My critisism is that while you (the team) spent a lot of time on getting it to look right (which it mostly does), aspects of the interface, itself seem to have taken a back seat.

xboxbox451:
I thought I had the official version. Maybe I should double check.

You talk like this skin should have been designed with only you in mind.

No. I talk like it should start out with minimal features/blades, then you add on new ones. Make all the Media features optional; that's fine. I just think that it should start with a minimal feature set, then you add on what you want.

It's an XBMC skin based on Xbox 360, not the Xbox360 UI with minimal changes.

The skin was created to closely, if not exactly match the original Xbox 360 skin, hence why the "add-ons" are there. If you don't like it, don't use it.

We differ on opinions, here. I think it was meant to use the same UI style as Xbox 360, you think it was supposed to be the same UI with a XBMC specific blades. xboxbox451 confirmed neither design strategy.

Wow, your comments just keep getting more moronic. With the time and dedication that went into this skin, having it's own brand (logo) is well justified.

The logo on the right bugs me less. The gamer stats, though, shouldn't be there. I know, it's nice to get credit when it's due, but think of it as a UI, not an about screen. Look at Windows, OS X, KDE, or Gnome. All limit their non-splashscreen branding to a single, functional button.


About the thumbstick button, thanks, I didn't think to try that, but it isn't very intuitive.

[jmarshall]

The Gamecard is fully customizable I believe (as are other aspects of the interface). It's not "branding" at all - it's a feature of the xbox 360 UI. That's the reason it's there.

The skinners have done a fantastic job IMO. It's the result of many, many (we're talking thousands here) hours of work.

If you want to offer criticism, I suggest doing so in a more constructive way, and doing it on their forums.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[methix]

Yeah I don't know much about previous versions of the skin (only been using it for 2 days) but with the latest version you can pick from the gamer card, weather info, or hdd info to display per blade. You could even design your own 'gamercard' and put whatever (logo??) you want in that spot. Don't like the blade names....then change them.

This skin is highly customizable and there are some really awesome mods available for it to that give you more control over the interface.

Perhaps you should try reading up on its features and how to edit/controll them before you start complaining about what the skin CAN'T do!

[anywonder]

I think mc360 rocks and is a really attractive skin---yes the shutdown, weather, scripts etc is in the mc360 guide extras which is a little sucky, but the rationale for that was so that people can lock down the skin for kids. I changed the "0" button on my remote to shutdown and I was happy..

Changing the gamercard to weather and hardrive info wasn't apparent to me at first but that helped alleviate my biggest issue.

[Blackbolt]

Wow, exobyte, while I understand where your comments are coming from, let me explain something.

MC360, as Jonathan stated, took THOUSANDS of man hours to complete, it wasn't easy and the reason it took so long was because no skin was that complicated to create. The main reason that it was so complicated was that we didn't want to screw the user over by letting our vision of a 360 replica push functionality to the back of the queue.

As project leader, every second of my time making decisions, much the same with Jezz_X, was thinking "will this kill the skin?..will this piss the user off?.....how can we make this more accessible?...etc". Alot of your comments (as well as the screenshot you've chosen) are old as ass! I suggest you do some homework, read feature lists, read the readme file and just plain have a play around with it. Most of your comments are about things you haven't figured out, for instance the gamerscard is optional and can be changed to any information or even weather info, hdd info etc. By all means its not a perfect skin, but it is damn good skin and some of your comments are just plain silly and frankly I can imagine annoying to the others on the team who spent A LOT of their own time working on it.

I won't trail off into a rant here, so I'll end with this, the skin is optional, you CHOOSE to use it, if you have ideas, by all means put them forward, but don't be a dick about it.

[Jezz_X]

hahaha way to bring up a 2 year old post blackbolt I'm sure this is long forgotten about now