The title says it all.
What are your thoughts about the Switch's User Interface and User eXperience?
While I enjoy and even prefer it's minimalistic approach there's no denying that a thorough upgrade of the UI is long overdue. The Switch is in its 5th year on the market and hasn't seen it's UI hasn't seen any signficant changes since release. There have been (minor) improvements and while these are definetly welcome, they in my mind underscore just how much there's still missing.
No folder, no way to organize the Switch's software in any order you want, no activity log, only two themes etc.
Aside from those obvious points, I also think that the UX needs to improve. Many helpfull features that have been added since launch are buried whitin menus, put in places were they are difficult to find and many people don't even know they exist (look at you button remapping).
I think a fresh, new and improved Switch UI & UX can go far in improving the overall quality of the system and give it a fresh breath of air.
These are my thoughts on the state of Switch's UI & UX. What are yours? How would you improve it?
By all means, share them!
Has been playing Nintendo games near-exclusively since early 2007. On his blog, he writes articles and reviews about gaming, comics, TV & Movies. Has the odd goal of reviewing every single videogame in his collection; present & future. Don't ask why.
I love the switch UI and to be frank i would only remove the latest online icon that every week gets an anoying notification. Compared to 3ds is fantasticly snappy and to the point with no fluff
It's my favourite UI of any console. Clean, fast, and easy to navigate. IMO a good UI is one that you don't pay any attention to because it works so well - and the Switch does just that.
One improvement I'd like to see is a way to separate downloaded games from the rest of your archived collection. I believe both PS and XBox do this so it would be nice to see on Switch.
I appreciate how minimalist the Switch's UI is. The time from booting the system up to being in and playing a game is rather short. Although I'd appreciate the addition of folders and themes, I'm not sure if or how those additions might negatively impact how the UI currently operates. I'm not a programmer, but I assume they'd slightly bog things down a tad.
Switch Physical Collection - 1,473 games (as of July 4th, 2025)
Switch 2 Physical Collection - 2 games (as of June 9th, 2025)
They should implement folders creation for those who own many games and maybe have more precise playtime statistics, not the one in 5 hours increments.
I like it. It is simple and intuitive. I do not care about customizing the look with themes etc. I would hate to have a bad, confusing and terrible UI like the Xbox One/Series.
@Zuljaras@Magician@timleon
The minimalistic, clean and straight to the point aspects of the UI is indeed its greatest asset and what makes me still prefer it even with its shortcomings.
But just like I tried to convey, it's still missing a lot of features that I feel should have been included by now. Allow us to customize the UI more is at the top of the list. Themes for us who wants something different to look at, folders for better organization of the software etc.
Has been playing Nintendo games near-exclusively since early 2007. On his blog, he writes articles and reviews about gaming, comics, TV & Movies. Has the odd goal of reviewing every single videogame in his collection; present & future. Don't ask why.
My thoughts are that it's boring and it sucks. I get the argument that complex themes with background and music could slow it down, but there's no reason not to have folders and at least let us choose from colours other than black and white. I do miss the more detailed play-count from previous consoles too.
As for all the missing features my theory is Nintendo made the UI boring on purpose so people spend more time in the shop buying games... ditto why there's no Netflix, Mii features or non-gaming apps in general. It probably works to be fair. I definitely spent more time faffing around on the 3DS menu while I'm more likely to check out the shop between gaming and download demos etc on Switch.
@Clyde_Radcliffe
I hadn't even thought about the fact that unlike the 3DS and Wii, the Switch doesn't have any tune playing untill you mentioned it! I think that does show you that it's not something I really miss.
The more detailed play count on the other hand I do really miss. The fact that they cut the activity log is baffling to me. I mean, the Switcs IS keeping track of this data, so what gives?
Has been playing Nintendo games near-exclusively since early 2007. On his blog, he writes articles and reviews about gaming, comics, TV & Movies. Has the odd goal of reviewing every single videogame in his collection; present & future. Don't ask why.
I think the main reason why we haven't seen many changes over the years is because it's completely fine as it is. Themes would only be a good addition if they don't slow the UI down at all and I think folders are completely unnecessary.
A proper activity log would have been nice but I think that ship probably sailed when it wasn't included at launch as I'm not sure that it's been keeping track of those statistics with enough detail to add it after the fact. It's not even keeping proper track of my Splatoon 2 playtime anymore, seems to be going down every time it reenters my recently played list now and it'd probably be the same for my other older games from 3+ years ago I'd guess.
Yeah, home screen is a huge mess with all the game tiles. With eshop's cheap download games, or eshop games hitting sale prices of $1 or less, this is a real problem. We shouldn't have to delete the games to de-clutter the home screen.
Custom genre sorting/dividing would be great. I'd like one for "family muliplayer games", "racing". If Nintendo truly hates folders, I wouldn't mind having a divider gaps, or secondary home screens like andoid has; you swipe up,down, left right for secondary home screens.
And I still hate opening eshop on a tv at night. That white background is too bright & harsh. I always change my tv screen setting to a lower brightness profile (also has greatly reduced blue color).
And I still hate opening eshop on a tv at night. That white background is too bright & harsh - seriously. I always change my tv screen setting to a lower brightness profile (also has greatly reduced blue color).
You know you can change it to a black theme in settings, right? That's what I did for the same reason. That white is blinding!
I like the Switch's UI, it's straightforward, clean, and easy to understand. Like the other Nintendo consoles' home menus, I have no issues with navigating through it. The only things I could think of to improve it is to have folders, themes, and the ability to message people on your friend list.
@MarioLover92 Oh, god. Messaging people. YES. I think they could at least add some basic quick messages.
I wish I could send a switch message, "anyone want to play Mario Kart 8?", rather than sending an invite to one player at a time. Actually the other problem is, you can't say what game mode you want to play in Splatoon, Rocket League, Mario Kart.
@WoomyNNYes Yeah absolutely. I just came up with an idea, you know how Mario Kart 8 has these preset messages you can send to other players in the lobby? Maybe they could have something like that, have messages like "Let's play battle mode in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!" or another variant of that message for racing. The receiver could have messages like "Sounds good" or "I can't, sorry." Something like that. Probably not the best idea I had, but it's better than having nothing.
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Topic: What are your thoughts on the Switch's UI & UX?
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