I totally agree with this. There is an emphasis on big bold icons, it is all clearly designed for sitting on a couch in the living room with a massive TV way across on the wall. Now, to be clear - theres nothing wrong with that.
Whats needed is to simply copy Steam. That platform has multiple view modes:
Small Mode
Large Mode
Big Picture Mode
Small mode presents all info as a neat compressed list. That along with Large is perfect for the desk based gamers, The last option keeps the living room couch gamers happy. So theres a view for all.
This is what FS20 and FS24 need. As a PC player with the twin monitors an arms length away I dont need to see massive tiles in the airplane selection where each tile is the size of Singapore Changi Airport (WSSS).
Please introduce a compact list mode with small thumbnails!
I wish the UI was straight and to the point. I would love if MSFS 2024 had more or less the same UI as XP 12 and XP 11. I personally can do without all these graphics.
Aircraft selection, location, weather, and time of day in XP 12 is super easy.
Getting to a livery takes about 4 times as long as it did in 2020.
To disable an handcrafted airport in My Library because I have a better 3rd party one. In MSFS 2020 I search EGLL for example and it brings up straightaway my community one and the 1 in the sim. In 2024 there is my community one, and then drop down menus with multiple results, it’s just way more complicated.
It’s like you could only make something worse like this on purpose. It’s beyond belief.
If you want to fly, you first have to scroll sideways. Which is… well, we all don’t like it.
To change the plane configuration, you have to load a new page with new model from the server and croll sideways again.
To change the livery, you have to load a new page with new model from the server and scroll sideways again.
Would be better to scroll up/downwards for planes and from there sideways for liveries and configurations if it has to be sideways at all…
You want to add some fuel? Ok, click some more different buttons to get to the refuel “page” and activate it to interact with it… You want to have 100% fuel? Sorry, you moved your mouse 1 pixel too much to the right and now you’re back at zero fuel (seems that doesn’t work for some airplanes at all. Looking at you, A400M! But that’s a different story)
You want to fly with your friends? Ok, let’s change from “live players” to “all players”. Oh, sorry, it is not possible anymore while in flight. You have to exit the flight, change the player selection and reload the flight - Now you don’t have any avionics, because the streamed plane messed up and you hit “Reload flight”… sorry, now you’re back at “live players”, because that’s the pre selected standard and you have to do it all over again
(on the other hand, you don’t see anyone further away than 5nm anyways, so meeting someone randomly requires a lot of luck. Again, different story)
I don’t think there is improvement. And if there is, it is outnumbered by the quite visible unimprovements and I don’t realize it.
Can I manage it? Yes. Is it good? No
When searching in My Library for included or Marketplace aircraft or scenery there are so many levels of results to click. There are containers listing the item in a sub-menu, but also the item is listed separately outside of the container as an individual item. The search results for an item in the Aviator edition shows: the item, the Aviator edition, the Premium Deluxe edition, the Deluxe edition, the Standard edition. But they’re not listed in a hierarchy tree, it is presented in a random list. Then the list isn’t helpful, you can only enable/disable it from the item.
I like the new design of the UI overall, it feels nice and modern, and overall is much easier to navigate the main sections than 2020 IMO (that top nav just never really clicked for me).
However I do think the the aircraft selection needs to be rethought a bit, it’s feels like a lot of clicks to get through and pick and livery on an aircraft. That being said, there are much bigger fish to fry than minor UI complaints.