Potentials of Microsoft Fluent Design System
Windows has changed its UI/UX many times over the years. The most successful of these is that from Windows 7, for which many seemed to have associated what a desktop experience should be. Windows 10's MDL/2 is the current "modern" incarnation. A change is coming likely next year, and Microsoft calls it Fluent Design System.
The best place to learn more about the Fluent Design System is from Microsoft's website for it.
Seen it? Read through it? What do you think?
Summarily, we see Light, Depth, Motion, Material and Scale as the building blocks. Light focuses on visual cues. Depth focuses on parallax effects. Motion focuses on animations and transitions. Material focuses on varying textures and transparencies. Scale focuses on, well, scale applied to both 2D and 3D experiences.
Do you notice anything? Well, compared to MDL/2 which seemed to focus on data layout and presentation, the Fluent Design System focuses on the aspects around data layout and presentation. There is nothing about how navigation should be done. There's nothing about hubs. There's nothing about semantic zoom. Fluent Design System is all about visual effects and how well they should be experienced based on actions and events.
This actually reminds me of Windows Aero in some ways. But even compared to Windows Aero, you should find less specifications in Fluent Design System about where or how things should be. I'm sure these specifics are still under development. So far, though, it seems that Fluent Design System is more about graphics and animations than anything else.
That said, the Fluent Design System is simply an extension of MDL/2, set in like a layer underneath MDL/2. The effect is comparable to how Windows Aero affected Windows XP's UI/UX design -- prettier, but not necessarily adding more.
When completed, Fluent Design System competes with Apple's Human Interface and Google's Material Design. Note that these two are pretty much mature and proven guidelines with thousands, if not millions, of apps to prove success. If the Fluent Design System would make dramatic changes to MDL/2, catching up to Apple and Google in this area is an understatement.
MDL/2 by itself is both too specific and very vague. It is expected that the Fluent Design System would set the stage better for Windows and applications specially built for it. If successful, the Fluent Design System has the potential to also find its way across many platforms, just like how much of Microsoft's development tools are crossing platform boundaries.
IMHO, if there's anything that the Fluent Design System should achieve, it's the ability to blend seamlessly with Apple's and Google' design languages. Consider, Microsoft Fluent Design System is not as comprehensive and specific as MDL/2, Human Interface and Material Design. Fluent Design System is aspect focused. So it seems possible that you can use Material Design techniques to present your data, and then use Fluent Design System to enhance the presentation.
The way it is now, Fluent Design System as a concept specification has the potential to be broadly applicable. If implemented in Microsoft's cross platform targeting development tools, it can be experienced everywhere on any device, including AR and VR. If similarly applied to HTMLS+CSS+JavaScript bootstrappers, it can also be seen in web applications. Microsoft should take this opportunity. If the implementation of Fluent Design System becomes Windows-specific, it may suffer the same fate as the original Metro. Innovating instead to be cross design language and cross-platform applicable would be a big win. Making it available to web applications as well is definitely a big plus.
Compared to Windows Aero and MDL/2, Microsoft Fluent Design System speaks a new and simpler language for using graphics and animations in 2D and 3D UI/UX designs. How Microsoft plans to implement Fluent Design System in Windows and for developers is currently incomplete, in progress and yet to be seen. The question right now is, how far would Microsoft really push it?
The best place to learn more about the Fluent Design System is from Microsoft's website for it.
Seen it? Read through it? What do you think?
Summarily, we see Light, Depth, Motion, Material and Scale as the building blocks. Light focuses on visual cues. Depth focuses on parallax effects. Motion focuses on animations and transitions. Material focuses on varying textures and transparencies. Scale focuses on, well, scale applied to both 2D and 3D experiences.
Do you notice anything? Well, compared to MDL/2 which seemed to focus on data layout and presentation, the Fluent Design System focuses on the aspects around data layout and presentation. There is nothing about how navigation should be done. There's nothing about hubs. There's nothing about semantic zoom. Fluent Design System is all about visual effects and how well they should be experienced based on actions and events.
This actually reminds me of Windows Aero in some ways. But even compared to Windows Aero, you should find less specifications in Fluent Design System about where or how things should be. I'm sure these specifics are still under development. So far, though, it seems that Fluent Design System is more about graphics and animations than anything else.
That said, the Fluent Design System is simply an extension of MDL/2, set in like a layer underneath MDL/2. The effect is comparable to how Windows Aero affected Windows XP's UI/UX design -- prettier, but not necessarily adding more.
When completed, Fluent Design System competes with Apple's Human Interface and Google's Material Design. Note that these two are pretty much mature and proven guidelines with thousands, if not millions, of apps to prove success. If the Fluent Design System would make dramatic changes to MDL/2, catching up to Apple and Google in this area is an understatement.
MDL/2 by itself is both too specific and very vague. It is expected that the Fluent Design System would set the stage better for Windows and applications specially built for it. If successful, the Fluent Design System has the potential to also find its way across many platforms, just like how much of Microsoft's development tools are crossing platform boundaries.
IMHO, if there's anything that the Fluent Design System should achieve, it's the ability to blend seamlessly with Apple's and Google' design languages. Consider, Microsoft Fluent Design System is not as comprehensive and specific as MDL/2, Human Interface and Material Design. Fluent Design System is aspect focused. So it seems possible that you can use Material Design techniques to present your data, and then use Fluent Design System to enhance the presentation.
The way it is now, Fluent Design System as a concept specification has the potential to be broadly applicable. If implemented in Microsoft's cross platform targeting development tools, it can be experienced everywhere on any device, including AR and VR. If similarly applied to HTMLS+CSS+JavaScript bootstrappers, it can also be seen in web applications. Microsoft should take this opportunity. If the implementation of Fluent Design System becomes Windows-specific, it may suffer the same fate as the original Metro. Innovating instead to be cross design language and cross-platform applicable would be a big win. Making it available to web applications as well is definitely a big plus.
Compared to Windows Aero and MDL/2, Microsoft Fluent Design System speaks a new and simpler language for using graphics and animations in 2D and 3D UI/UX designs. How Microsoft plans to implement Fluent Design System in Windows and for developers is currently incomplete, in progress and yet to be seen. The question right now is, how far would Microsoft really push it?
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