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The PS Vita UI is so awful

mogster7777

mogster7777

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,980
Like why does the UI home screen with those bubbles look like it's made for a 5yr old on their new Fisher Price toy?

Why will it start downloading a game from the store again even if it's already on the vita memeory stick? It won't even say this is already downloaded or already installed it will just download. It won't install it but still it's so silly. I believe the PS3 did this too.

Speaking of the store why can't I actually see the latest deals on it. This option is seemingly missing. The only options are latest games and searching for a game A-Z. If there's a sale going on like the Golden Sale this month, you can forget seeing it on the Vita lol.

Downloading is also confusing and annoying. You click on something to download and for some reason it gives this generic "icon unavailable" image for it. It will download fine but every single time it gives this weird non-game icon for the game you're downloading. It also queues up a ton of stuff and it's often confusing what it's actually queued up as it looks like it's queued the same game again to download but it's probably just DLC for it. Why not just bundle the whole thing together?

Also the whole download list is strange as there two different ones but they show the same thing. One in the store and one outside it.

This is probably more of a hardware limitation but sometimes it can take 2-3 minutes to delete something off the home screen making the system unusable while it does it.

I love the system, form factor, screen, portability and the games themselves but everything else about it sucks lol.
 
Gnorman

Gnorman

Banned
Jan 14, 2018
2,945
I haven't been able to see sale stuff on my vita for months now. I actually thought they had stopped updating the store.
 
Metalmurphy

Metalmurphy

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
542
You're talking about a almost 9 year old device...

I have no issues with the UI it self, is great if you are using the touch screen, but the store and download management is a bit of a pita. Just use the web browser on a pc or phone
 
LuigiV

LuigiV

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,686
Perth, Australia
The bubbles are pretty ugly and I'm not a huge fan of the live areas (they rarely contain anything useful and just add an extra delay to starting the game/app) but overall I find the functionality of the UI to be fine. Not great but fine.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,426
It's fast and responsive, and looks fine with a good theme. The whole bubble concept is just weird though - I wonder how they settled on that.
 
Imran

Imran

Member
Oct 24, 2017
6,592
They wanted to mimic smartphones but in a "fun" way and came up with this.
 
Trisc

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,489
It's better than the XMB in that you can actually move stuff around and organize the UI to your preferences, but good lord is it a fucking mess otherwise.
 
newmoneytrash

newmoneytrash

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,981
Melbourne, Australia
The bubble concept is incredibly bad

The store was always the biggest let down to me on the Vita. It was truly unpleasant to use (idk if they have updated it, though, i haven't used my vita in a very long time)
 

Deleted member 16876

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
39,148
I feel it was just "fine". Not good, not bad but it did it's job.

Now the PS Store, that's a trash fire. The download list system is so bad that I hate downloading games from it.
 
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VodkaFX

VodkaFX

Member
May 31, 2018
930
The UI was probably intended for ease of use when using the touch screen.

I do agree it looks awful though. At least it does work.

Still think its a missed opportunity by Sony for going with overpriced proprietary memory cards, and for not pushing cross-buy with PS3. If I remember, I think only a handful of games had cross-buy (buy PS3 version, get digital Vita version). In other cases you have to buy the game twice if you want to play it both at home and on the go.
 
KORNdog

KORNdog

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,001
i've always liked it tbh. it's just a wobblier version of any other mobile device imo. you scroll, and you press on the apps. what more do people want?
 
Zool

Zool

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,233
Strings said:
It's fast and responsive, and looks fine with a good theme. The whole bubble concept is just weird though - I wonder how they settled on that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This. When Vita was released it was the fastest OS on the market (and was til the Switch was released). The store though.. that thing is terrible.
 
Camisado

Camisado

Member
Nov 3, 2017
1,388
Gnorman said:
I haven't been able to see sale stuff on my vita for months now. I actually thought they had stopped updating the store.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I assumed the same thing, are they still updating it then? o.O

Also I don't mind the UI. It was designed for touch and the bubbles are perfect finger sized icons, I also like the swiping away to close things.
 

Deleted member 22585

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,519
EU
I think the UI is fine. It's snappy and streamlined. Also, great relaxing music. The store though, is pretty bad.
 
Tibarn

Tibarn

Member
Oct 31, 2017
13,370
Barcelona
Yep, the bubble thing is really annoying. Good luck scrolling some pages to find a game (well, as the system has a really low amount of games is not that big of a problem tbh..)
 

Imitatio

Member
Feb 19, 2018
14,560
Personally don't mind the UI itself all that much. It's more intuitive when using the touchscreen compared to using buttons. Guess they went the Smartphone UI way when designing this.

The store though... Ugh. It's a mess.
 
RestEerie

RestEerie

Banned
Aug 20, 2018
13,618
its UI is kinda misguided as it seems to cater to touch only...

but most of the games are not touch-based.
 
Springy

Springy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,213
I kind of like the UI, but downloading stuff on the Vita has always been a pain in the butt. I feel like downloads would stop if I manually put it to sleep but would continue if I let it go to sleep by itself. Also, navigating that download list? Fuck that. I remember it took forever to download all the individual parts of the Ridge Racer ultimate pack, selecting one then having the list disappear and then having to open the list, scroll to the next thing and do it all over again. Ugh.
 
ffvorax

ffvorax

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,855
I understand some of your concerns, but always find it so fast and easy to manage... to me it's the best portable UI.
Only problem I have sometimes is that download decide to go on pause without a reason and you have to manually start them again... Never understood why... :\
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,304
I think it's fine. The bubbles are a bit lame, but it's functional and I can always find what I want. It's pretty much the same as the 3DS UI.
 
Fliesen

Fliesen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,254
Metalmurphy said:
You're talking about a almost 9 year old device...

I have no issues with the UI it self, is great if you are using the touch screen, but the store and download management is a bit of a pita. Just use the web browser on a pc or phone
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I disagree with "it's great".
It's certainly less shit if you are using the touch screen. It still looks and feels like hot garbage. The M&M shaped buttons that cut off what are obviously square icons.
iu


The bubble-like folders that - once again due to the round shape - make it hard to identify what apps are inside.

iu


It's an ugly design, it's a huge mess, a 'boring' grid of icons would have been so much better.

There's nothing "great" about it. It's functional, serviceable, but none of the things it does differently than more "conservative" touch device UIs (i.e. phones) is anything but detrimental to the experience.

edit: sorry, the vertical scrolling - that's a neat idea, given that you might be scrolling through your homescreen pages with your thumb.
 

adinsx

Member
Oct 30, 2017
203
It's an outdated design, but I don't feel it is that bad.
It's easy to organize so yeah, if I had the same amount of games I have on my vita on my iphone or android it would also be messy.
 
tulpa

tulpa

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,878
it's fine. it's definitely ugly, although custom themes you can get from hacking it are nice and help alleviate the aesthetic weirdness. the XMB is definitely prettier, although it's less customizable and not well-suited to a touch display. it's serviceable. feels snappy and smooth to navigate, which is good.
 
Tibarn

Tibarn

Member
Oct 31, 2017
13,370
Barcelona
BradGrenz said:
My 64gb card is full of games, and they all fit organized into folders on a single page.
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I should have specified: the system has a really low amount of games I can't play on another system. I prefer playing on TV than handheld almost always personally. And as others said, the bubble design means that you lose a lot of useful space on the screen. Squares/rectangles are space-efficient, while circles aren't. Even with my really small library, I always need to scroll a page or two because of that.
 

Deleted member 2474

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,318
If you've seen the prototype Vita units that were more PSP Go-like (with the slider mechanism), a touch-centric UI makes slightly more sense as the UI would've been usable with just the screen when the unit was closed. But it should've never made it to the final unit.
 
Metalmurphy

Metalmurphy

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
542
Fliesen said:
I disagree with "it's great".
It's certainly less shit if you are using the touch screen. It still looks and feels like hot garbage. The M&M shaped buttons that cut off what are obviously square icons.
iu


The bubble-like folders that - once again due to the round shape - make it hard to identify what apps are inside.

iu


It's an ugly design, it's a huge mess, a 'boring' grid of icons would have been so much better.

There's nothing "great" about it. It's functional, serviceable, but none of the things it does differently than more "conservative" touch device UIs (i.e. phones) is anything but detrimental to the experience.

edit: sorry, the vertical scrolling - that's a neat idea, given that you might be scrolling through your homescreen pages with your thumb.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well yeah, I agree that it isn't pretty to look at, (and even that dumb intro video/music) are terrible, but as far as usability goes I never had any issues with it. Browsing games, swiping through cards, etc.

It never felt cumbersome to use, just not very pretty to look at.
 
Razlo

Razlo

Member
Oct 31, 2017
229
There are so many UI that you can't customize, or organize. I'll hate on those first before I trash on Vita.
 
fiendcode

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,927
It's ugly and dated and was at launch really. They should've left XMB as an option at least.
 
Croc Man

Croc Man

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,546
I think it's fine.

The store though is crap. Especially the download list showing everything you've ever bought on a Sony system rather than what works in vita.
On the plus side at least it's not like my PS4 asking for my card details for things that are free or I've already paid for.
 
SwampBastard

SwampBastard

The Fallen
Nov 1, 2017
11,040
I haven't had my Vita in years, so I don't really remember, but Sony just seems to be terrible at interface design. The PS4 UI is unbelievably slow.
 
rochellepaws

rochellepaws

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,452
Ireland
It's a touch screen UI so icons need to be spread out, it's also fully customisable which is rare for most gaming systems. Personally, I like it a lot.
 
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