Hi,
Well don't mean to sound skeptical - but hope this isn't just a 'we are listening' campaign - but 'we arent really doing anything' (as it's all locked down anyhow till Mediacenter 2020)...
I think the current menu strips are 'pretty good' (a really nice navigation paradigm/visual experience)- except they try to make invalid assumptions on the scenarios/usages of consumers (and don't offer many good options).
Hence there has to be that 'full customization' aspect as well for it to really work well - but done sensibly - so some places are still consistent and can be supported with 'go to this menu and click this button to do this' type documents (not completely freeform). When the consumers need to make resource hacks etc (on .MUI files etc)- which get blown away with updates etc - this is a bad outcome (and consumers don't understand this and may even be scared off applying updates etc as a result).
I think the current customization options are really way too limited for extensibility (as mentioned above) - such as limiting the 'add to start menu' to 1 icon only etc (or limiting strips to 5 icons and static only data). The example above of having live content/context coming through to the main menu is spot on (ie. weather info being display on the start page without hacks) - and I think the 'now playing' feature thats there now is a great idea and example of 'why' this is needed (when content is playing) - and should be extended to allow full 3rd party extensibility.
My personal 'beefs' with the start menu (for using the tv related functionality) - is that it takes too many clicks/navigation to get to the upcoming/scheduled shows - something that I need to check regularly to ensure we don't miss something due to EPG changes etc (something which was available I think in one click on MCE2005) - and also some of the strange groupings used (ie. the videos being segregated from the dvd library etc).
I know this layout might work in better if we were in the 'USA' - but down here it doesn't quite work. (ie Movies on TV, IPTV etc is not available - so videos should be on the same strip - and a direct link to scheduled shows should be on this strip too).
Niall