Richard Chao
02-17-2011, 11:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/02/16/from-transportation-to-pixels.aspx' target='_blank'>http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_...-to-pixels.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"...a summary of a talk the Windows Phone Design Team has given a couple times recently, on the history and the future of the Metro design language."</em></p><p><img alt="image" border="0" height="319" src="http://pp2.s3.amazonaws.com/2dc3cda288894bac/a050201d3ea449358595e16da65d28f0.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="550" /></p><p>One of the first things that comes to mind when you pick up a Windows Phone 7 device is how simplistic yet effective Metro UI is. Its concept of glanceable live information on clean tiles without added chrome is refreshing. It is such a departure from every other competing OS who for the most part still use icon driven graphical user interface which apparently dates back to as early as 1945. </p><p>The presentation by the Windows Phone Design Team details the inspirations behind Metro. It is a good lesson in user interface design and a good primer on the origins of the modern GUI. It also gives us a hint of how they would like to see Metro evolve. </p><p>What do you think about Metro and how would you evolve it?</p>