The Wii is launching in a little more than a month, and for all the system’s polish it features a front-end design which looks juvenile at best.
Nintendo’s choice of interface for the Wii is an expandable page of options called “Wii Channels.” On a gray/silver background, rounded rectangles display different “channels” which the user can move to. These include the standard Wii menu options: Wii/Gamecube Game, Mii, Photos, Wii Shop, Weather, and News. Along the bottom, the menu also displays the date, and icons for accessing mail and system options.
This menu is expandable, however. For each purchase the user makes in the Wii Shop, a new channel will be displayed on the screen, with up to twelve per page. Photos of this interface “show off” what a full page of channels looks like. In addition to the six standard channels listed above, the screen also displays the Internet channel, and five virtual console games. In total, 12 icons fill the cluttered menu screen, with an arrow on the right indicating that there are channels available that are not being displayed.
Given all of the attention paid to the aesthetic appeal of the Wii, it is astonishing that Nintendo could allow the system’s interface to become such a cluttered mess.
Slick, intuitive interface design is only becoming more important in our modern technology, and the upcoming generation of consoles rely on much more than their game discs to win appeal. This lack of sheen is especially surprising, given the attention Nintendo put into the front-ends for both the Gamecube and the DS.
In its current state, the Wii’s front-end menu is far too cluttered, and gives the system the appearance of a hokey “do-all gadget” rather than a confident gaming console. Word on the street is that Nintendo plans on releasing OS firmware updates over their WiiConnect24 service. Here’s hoping an early patch includes a more presentable menu system.
» Wii menu photo from Yahoo Games, UK & Ireland. Thanks!