It's easy to complain about the current interface and disregard all the major improvement that Microsoft has made with the Xbox One. 

Over the last two days, I had to go to my nephew to help him get the Xbox live working on Xbox 360. He also wanted me to setup the Xbox 360 Kinect. I was shocked to found out that my memory of the Xbox 360 interface din't quite add up.  

The experience of working with the old Xbox 360 interface and setting the Kinect 1.0 has renewed my appreciation for the Xbox One. The biggest thing that shocked me was the lag on Xbox 360 compare to Xbox One. Every time you load a game the Xbox 360 would go to a black screen and I kept thinking the machine had crashed but turned out to simply be loading lag. I also run into so many compatibility issues on Xbox 360 (console actually crashed twice and xbox live had connection issues). I was trying to download Plants vs Zombies: GW but the download kept failing and would give me downloading error. Had to delete the file on HDD and restart the download without doing anything else while the game was downloading for it to work. By the time the game was install, I wasn't able to play or do anything until you update the game with the free DLC which was a massive 2.47gb. So, again we were able to do anything on the Xbox 360 until this update downloaded. 

The interface on Xbox 360 also seems very basic and dated now comparing it to Xbox One. While, the graphic upgrade between the two consoles wasn't that great. I was pleasantly surprise to be reminded how much better the interface has gotten compare to last gen and still improving. 

It's also not over yet, Microsoft is bringing some big change this fall to the interface. 

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/15/8786725/heres-the-new-xbox-one-user-interface-coming-this-fall

I still don't like why it took them so long to implement basic features like voice messaging.

I agree. I think the UI is better on 360, as it currently stands... but the lag... omg. It just didn't have the memory needed to push such an intensive UI. It was designed for the blades which were much, much less demanding.

The new UI coming out this fall is going to address the issues with the Xbox One and put an end to the complaints imo. They're under a completely different vision with Phil Spencer and I think this fall, we're going to see the return of Xbox as being more of a core console like it was between 2001-2006.

Two words. Don Mattrick.

It was a rough time of Interface changes for early adopter, It sure did took a while for them to get it right. I'm glad that Microsoft listen and kept improving the interface.

But I think now they really surpassed last gen with the current interface and it's about to get better this fall. Remain to be seen how well they implement the backward compability. 

If you look at what the brand Xbox meant to gaming between 2001 and 2007, and what it meant during Mattrick's run, it's two completely different things. The original Xbox, when you read on the actual box of the console, it said things like "you hold the ultimate gaming console in your hands" and "behold, the power of Xbox". It was all about gaming, core gaming. When Don got onboard he took what was the brand of choice for core gamers and turned it into some delluted, watered down Wii wanna be experience with Kinect and tv,tv,tv and... yup... more tv. 

I think that's Phil's mission and vision. He wants to take it back to a machine that core gamers, at least the ones in the US, want to own. 

The blades were much nicer to use. I never liked the tiles update, especially not while using it off-line. So many blank squares wasting space everywhere. Apparently it didn't even store the splash screens from xbla games offline so you just get an empty square with a name.

Yeah, the few times I had to play it offline I remember thinking "damn, without the internet, this console feels DEAD" lol

The 360 was slower but I still prefer the UI on the 360. It was easier to navigate and more organised.
The new Windows 10 UI coming soon on the X1 looks pretty good though.

blades ui on 360 > every other ui since, on both 360 and xbox one.

To be clear I dislike the xbox one UI immensely, both now and at launch., it's the biggest letdown of the console for me.