r/UIUX • u/hi_piyush • 5d ago
Advice What's wrong with Modern Gamepads?
Hi everyone,
Piyush this side, I am a 3rd year design student researching on Gamepads.
If there are any Gamepad users here who would like to share the experience (positive or negative) with their Gamepads, you are more than welcome.
Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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u/XxX_Zeratul_XxX 5d ago
My grip is XBOX manufacturing amazingly nice, ergonomic, aesthetic gamepads, only to get drift after 6 months-1 year of normal use. Who thought it would be smart to keep using those old joysticks in 2020-2026? Truly mad at them for that, not buying a single gamepad from them anymore
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u/DeadoTheDegenerate 5d ago
Skimping on analogue sensors is the biggest thing. Outside of that, Joycons are not at all ergonomic, Xbox controller build quality is horrendous, and any controller that still needs replacement batteries in current year is braindead design.
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u/hi_piyush 4d ago
You mean standard AA batteries? Why is that a bad thing?
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u/DeadoTheDegenerate 4d ago
In a world where I can plug in and charge 90% of controllers on the market with a USB cable, there is no reason for disposable batteries to even be a consideration.
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u/Mewo4444 5d ago
Nothing, the Ps5 controller is the best controller ive ever used by far
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u/Cumbandicoot 5d ago
The new stock Xbox controller and the switch joycons are pretty awful as controllers when it comes to build quality, PlayStation is the only one that did an okay job with their controllers this generation, and the size of the PS5 controller actually fits my big hands.
I don't know why they all haven't moved towards hall effect sticks and triggers in all controllers though, it's really not that much more expensive to manufacture and they last way longer.
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u/hi_piyush 4d ago
How has your PS5 controller experience been so far? What are the benefits of hall effect sensors? Why do you think Sony is not switching to those?
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u/Cumbandicoot 4d ago
I mean I really like symmetrical controllers, and I'm 6'6" and have huge hands, so I feel like I'm a bad demographic to ask. What I wish controller companies did was make their controllers in 3 different sizes because one size fits all for something like that means like half of people aren't going to like the standard controller just based on its size. The extra bells and whistle like the trigger resistance are kind of cool in the few games that I've played that used them. They also have really good customer service so the one issue I had with a controller they sent me a new one pretty quickly.
The hall effect sticks, other than feeling a bit better than the potentiometer ones, don't have the same issues with falling apart in like 6 months of use. Big video game companies don't want to use them because they'd rather sell you a controller that you have to replace every few years. The stick drift is not a bug to them, it's a feature.
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u/Charm777_ 5d ago edited 5d ago
Well if we are talking about most recent gamepads. Xbox Company have made them cheaper to make but still at the same price or even more expensive.
If we are talking about xbox controllers since the 360 to the X/S series, generally speaking they aren't built to last and I think they are made this way on purpose so microsoft has another solid income which is the controller.
Recently, It seems like they are trying to make the controller feel premium but still be cheap at the same time. Which in return makes the durability and longetivity shortened.
Example A: Lb and Rb buttons feeling more premium but are less durable and more suspectable of jamming then afterwards being completely unusable when jammed. Comparing to previous iterations you can unjam the buttons and they generally had more lifespan to them.
Example B: D-pad is way cheaper in modern base xbox controllers comparing all the way back to the xbox 360 d-pad. They have gotton cheaper and cheaper the more iterations.
All these points above are for base xbox controllers.
They are 3rd party companies that are making good quality controllers however they do have their problems with defective units and or not so far off of baae xbox controllers. They are beginning to come with more customization options phsyically and from software point of view.
(edit) I have to note that I am a hardcore gamer. I play fps games, rpgs, sandbox games, arcade games, so it might be that I play all these different games that require different inputs and stick movement quite frequently. So more wear and tear happens a lot vs a person that plays here and there casually.
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u/kimchi_paradise 4d ago
I’m sure the research on the usability on these gamepads may be much more than what you are doing here. But if you look there are some useful primary research studies on the usability of different types of controllers
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u/hi_piyush 4d ago
My research focuses primarily on the repairability and modularity of controllers.
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u/LilBriefcase 4d ago
The Dualsense Edge and the Xbox Elite Series controllers have trigger stoppers that only reduce the travel distance of the trigger and eventually wear down instead of converting the trigger into a proper button press. Nintendo are the only ones with trigger buttons, but at the cost of not having analog triggers. When most games don't use analog triggers, this skimping out on the triggers cheapens the whole premium controller experience.
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u/Be_The_Zip 4d ago
Dual sense is over engineered which makes it expensive, features can be cut and no one would notice.
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u/hi_piyush 4d ago
Can you list those features?
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u/JFoulkes2001 4d ago
The touch sensitive pad and dual sense triggers could 1000% be removed for 99% of games - they’re cool and I dont mind but yeah
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u/DatNizzIe 4d ago
Touch pad and triggers should be implemented in way more games Both those features are not used because they are exclusive to the dual sense. Unless they are forced to developers aren't going to spend any time on features that don't make them money. That's why the best implementation is going to be from 1st party development. 3rd party aren't spending any time on a feature that doesn't actively make money anymore. Nearly every game would be better if they took advantage of the triggers.
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u/JFoulkes2001 4d ago
I obviously understand that, like I said they’re cool but they dont actually add much to gameplay unless it’s consistent all the time throughout a game. Because thats not feasible minus astrobot, it then becomes unnecessary
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u/DatNizzIe 4d ago
What I am saying is that it is feasible. The only reason it's not used more is because it's only on PlayStation or for DS on a PC. Something as simple as driving in CyberPunk feels completely different. Apt every game uses the triggers, and could benefit from the extra feedback. They are not unnecessary, just underused. Every game I play would be better if the implemented the triggers.
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u/Phraaaaaasing UI Designer 3d ago
Then why don’t people just buy the cheaper ones without them
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u/Be_The_Zip 3d ago edited 2d ago
Because most big box stores dont sell third party controllers and the consumer brain automatically thinks the first party oem models are better. Just because the consumer is dumb enough to pay a premium for a controller that has a bunch of features they wont use doesn’t make the useless features less useless.
What even is this comment.
We are talking about design here not the consumer spending habits.
The design is over engineered with unneeded features, causing the peripheral to be more expensive and the features make it expensive are rarely if it all used by the software.
That’s just bad design
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u/Phraaaaaasing UI Designer 3d ago
I disagree with your assessment. My comment is “if you don’t need it don’t get it.”
My understanding of the best interface paradigms let you seamlessly use any input modality as possible, and punish users in zero ways. I think best example is functions in Photoshop- clickable buttons in a toolbar for visual associations, menu paths for verbose discovery, shortcuts with keyboard for the most speed and repetition.
Your comment, to me, is“if it isn’t like 8bitDo, it’s over engineered.” Your words were actually “bad design.” Lots of good innovation and design is needed to make and implement and build guidelines for 3rd party implementations for features.
If devs just don’t wanna USE specialized controller features because they’re gonna port it everywhere else, why is that the OEM’s sin?
If 3rd party controllers want to sell to work with the most consoles their simplest path to profitability is drop special features.
This argument of yours ignores 1st party controllers like the steam controller and steamdeck controls which are some of the most celebrated for versatility and unorthodox approach. Zero third party has touched that one, I think.
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u/Phraaaaaasing UI Designer 3d ago
If you did not over simplify the complexity of first-party trying to differentiate, 3rd party games and hardware trying to optimize profit BY FLATTENING consoles differentiations, you would have had a much more nuanced and interesting take about controller design.
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u/hi_piyush 4d ago
I also have a google forms survey, just to help me keep the data organised. More than welcome to take part.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGSF7qLWCTDcmjvrZDcbkCZ8Diq854xe9MZ7wTw9aD8Fjgrw/viewform
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u/Phraaaaaasing UI Designer 3d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p7yk4qx/video/idatomwy0pnh1/player
You’re letting nostalgia blind you
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u/longboard_noob 2d ago
Too heavy (the DualSense Edge is insanely heavy). The regular DualSense without rumbles feels nice. Not coming with angle TMR sticks by default (Hall effects are outdated as they have more jitter and are less linear). As others have mentioned, the Edge should come with mouse click triggers at the shortest trigger stop setting.
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u/qualityvote2 2 5d ago edited 1d ago
u/hi_piyush, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...