Steam Big Picture and controllers

You don't need Big Picture to play with controller, you can also change to mouse + keyboard when you like (unless you are on Uplay), I don't really use the Big Picture because I'm playing on the monitor of my PC, but I use the controller to play fighting, racing, and the latest platform games I played, also Assassins Creed games, but I never use it on Borderlands 2 or other shooters, Skyrim, The Walking Dead, I tried but didn't liked on these games.

Basically I think controller is good for racing, fighting, platform, some AAA games where you don't have to shoot a lot like in Tomb Raider, some RPGs like Fable III and some puzzles too..

Cases like Dark Souls where controls are weird with keyboard + mouse is good to have a controller, but there are games that are completely bad optimized in terms of controls on PC, like in Devil May Cry 4 where you have to rotate camera with arrows while having random buttons on keyboard to attack or shoot while pressing WASD to move.

I have only used 360 controller on PC but I think a PS controller would work too. I have used big picture couples of times, mostly when I plug my laptop into my TV and sit on a couch like a couch potato I am.

Well i play some games with controller but not with big picture. I can't use it normally. The only feature, i would use it for, is the easier screenshot taking. (with X360 controller). But it's hard to find the friends list, the browser is awful and well.. the whole big picture mode is terrible and unusable.
I use controller mostly for TPS games, like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Castlevania, Devil May Cry series, Dark Souls etc and for racing games. FPS games are too hard to play them with a controller. It's more comfortable, but it's much more harder.