Member-only story
3 Lessons The New Consoles Should Take From the Nintendo Switch
Nintendo’s hybrid machine has the smallest barrier between users and their games
Nintendo’s popular Switch and Switch Lite aren’t the most powerful consoles on the market today, but their smart and simple user experience design offers some clear improvements over Microsoft and Sony’s hardware. With the PS5 and Xbox Series X set to launch later this year, here are three things I’m hoping Nintendo’s rivals will steal from the Switch.
User Interface Speed
Both the PS4 and the Xbox One have much faster processors than the mobile hardware inside the Nintendo Switch…yet their cumbersome UI’s can often slow to a crawl. The “bigger” consoles put too many clicks between gamers and the settings they want to change or the games they want to play.
In stark contrast, the Switch’s interface is built for speed. It’s zippy and responsive and isn’t filled with extra animations or slowly opening panels. You can hop in and out of games faster than on any other console. You can close a game and be looking at the featured sale in the store in just a few seconds. You can change all of your settings in a simply laid-out menu and then never worry about them again. And you can quickly connect and disconnect whatever…
