If you've ever owned a Nintendo Switch, you'll no doubt know what the system's menu looks like. However, a prototype Switch NAND that's been discovered shows that Nintendo had a much grander home menu for the Switch, in the early days of the system's development. The UI images are taken from a mockup that was found on the NAND of a prototype Nintendo Switch unit. The user who shared the images notes that they must be moderately early on in the Switch's planning cycle, as the final UI style was locked in around late 2016. The early menu images are dated 2015, though it's uncertain if the album date is correct.

In the images, you can see a large banner would have been displayed for each game, with the game icons shown at the bottom, as well as the battery for individual JoyCons, the Switch itself, and the internet connection all being shown in the bottom right corner of the screen, instead of the top. The mockups also show 3DS and Wii U titles being used as placeholder images.

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[M7L7NK7]

Who cares about the UI, do you really all sit on the main screen for longer than it takes to start a game?

 

[wolf-snake]

I never understood why people hated the Switch UI, it does what its supposed to do. Click game to start, nothing more nothing else. Does everyone in the internet has ADHD or something that yall need to constantly be estimulated with pretty lights? even my modded Play Station 3 has the stock UI because you don't really need more.

 

[mondo530]

Its fine i guess

 

[frozencat]

I never understood why people hated the Switch UI, it does what its supposed to do. Click game to start, nothing more nothing else. Does everyone in the internet has ADHD or something that yall need to constantly be estimulated with pretty lights? even my modded Play Station 3 has the stock UI because you don't really need more.

it just can be so much more

 

[wolf-snake]

it just can be so much more

But does it needs to be more than what it is when it already does its job well?

 

[Demis23]

Me too, oh don’t get me wrong, I don’t object to some eye candy for those who prefer it. But for me the menu is just a means to an end. Get in, get to game as quickly as possible, start playing.

I sometimes find that the busier the screen, the more distracted I am, the menu we have is nice and clean, so I can rattle through it without my eye being distracted by pretty pictures.

It’s why I’ve still never really gelled with my Xbox One/series X menus, too much faff going on. Even my PS4/PS5 can be annoying at times, though I prefer them to my Xboxes.

I loved the PS3 menu, even though there were several sections and background images, I could rattle through that thing without looking, until it got to picking a game of course, unless I was jumping into the last one I played.

I could rant on for hours about the many, many irrational things that bug me about menu design but judging from the majority of responses to this article I’d be thoroughly bashed ;-)

Agree with you!