Topic: what are your hopes for the wii u's ui and online system?

Simple question is what do you think the wii u online system and User interface should be like.  Its never been one of the big N's stony suits births 3ds is a step in tberight direction. Also what features do you want to see to give it that nintendo spin. My biggest worry os that they will just match what xbox liveand psn are offering and not really go above and beyond.  My short list would be

User accounts
Universal community system
Web broswer based eshop
voice chat mandatory as well as party chat.
Something similar to the psn pre-order system
achievments or whatever nintendo would call them (stars or stamps)
More visability of eshop games
Something like the xbox 360 beacons
using club nintendo from the system its self.

As far as UI the wii was really cool looking with its channels interface

And a pretty decent mock up of what a new one would look like.

I hope it has a proper hard drive for big retail size downloads or at least the option to add one, as for layout I mostly just want a simple straight forward easy to use type thing nothing too fancy, the idea of 3D characters moving around to interact with various options really wouldn't appeal to me for example and that's about it really.

^That looks awesome! But thats what worries me! The interface of the menu.And the online... Cuz Nintendo was never good at that stuff...(They got it alomst right with the 3DS)

One more that looks cool.

I like the 2nd mock up you posted Shingi/Sony. The channels displayed on the controller look cool and for some reason I like the idea of of using the screen to select a channel. I figure it is probably because I am so used to my cell phone touch screen now. The menu on the TV screen looks very clean and fresh in my opinion. I am not a big fan of Sony's XMB, its just sort of blah to me and I don't have a 360 so I can't compare that.

As for what I want for the online system? Not much, as I am not going to want to use this for everything and I don't play much online but your Nintendo network user account connected to your Club Nintendo would be good.

I think Nintendo stated it would not come with its own hard drive, but it would be compatible with USB hard drives. Take that with a grain of salt if you will

The second one looks better IMO

Like that second mock-up. That's ideal.

1st or second mock-up without the Mii standing aimlessly in the corner.

I hope it's at least decent to work with.

I'd like to see a more streamlined "desktop", in the sense that I don't think every single thing needs its own channel (as I think it looks/feels kind of cluttered). I think everything could be condensed onto one page and grouped into a few main channels/folders:

Game channel (the game disc that's currently in there)
eShop channel
Game Collection channel (all Virtual Console/eShop games stored in here)
Multimedia channel (all non-gaming apps; Internet browser, Netflix, messaging, etc. stored in here)
Mii channel (all Mii-related stuff stored in here)
Settings

I hope the UI is something fairly similar, but still different from the wii. As for the online service, it needs to have user accounts, it needs to be secure (cough cough PSN), and the friend code system must be abolished and replaced. I would also like to see downloadable retail games and it needs a Virtual Console that actually gets updated.

Something like PSN from where you can buy and download Wii and DS games, with extense use of prepaid cards commonly available in stores (I guess it will include a DS emulator same as PS3 or Vita with PSP).

Since the U in WiiU is supposed to mean 'You' I'm personally hoping that they'll have customization options for the interface. Would be nice. Other than that I'm not getting my hopes up. I do like the channel system of the Wii, so hopefully they'll expand on that.

That's a given as that was outlined in the last investor meeting and the wii/ds/3ds already have prepaid cards.

Might be they have, que question is where. While I can find PSN prepaids everywhere I cannot find any for Nintendo.

@Mandoble here in sweden Gamestop sales eshop cards(Prepaid nintendo cards)

A system where I dont have to change all my router settings just to get online......(mk7)

Same where I live. There's an overstock of PSN prepaid cards everywhere--nobody wants them. They're like pennies in the street.

Yeah I agree with this. The channel layout on Wii feels unnecessarily cluttered. As for the online system, I don't think there's much more to add other than what's currently offered by Microsoft and Sony. Online accounts (not Friend Codes, for the love of God), friend lists, voice chat and achievements.

Veering slightly off-topic, I also really hope it'll be able to play DVDs. Have we had any word on this yet?