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All Aboard: The Metro Design Language and what it Means to you

With Windows Phone, then Xbox and soon Windows 8, Microsoft is “all in” with its new design language: “Metro”. However, despite general excitement within the Microsoft ecosystem, it’s not exactly clear what Metro is. There are no real standards available, yet we see ongoing ‘Metro-fication’, for better and worse, of various Microsoft and non-Microsoft properties.

• Difficulty: General

Session Detail

As a design language Metro emphasises typography, motion and “ruthless minimalism”. As such it appears deceptively simple to apply across a variety of purposes – perhaps perfect for Microsoft’s developer audience? But does Metro provide sufficient expressive range to support user experiences that go beyond the merely obvious?

Shane Morris has designed user interfaces for Metro and Metro-like applications for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and ‘traditional’ desktops. He’ll share his experience, provide some warnings, and explain what Metro means for your future designs, regardless of whether you are designing for a Microsoft platform or not.

Speakers

Shane Morris (Automatic Studio, Melbourne)

Shane Morris is one of Australia’s most respected user experience professionals. Through consulting, mentoring and training he has helped organisations create compelling digital experiences since 1991. In that time he has worked on desktop applications, internet applications, mobile user interfaces, physical devices and web sites. Shane has taught user experience topics around the world and is a key contributor to “101 Things I Learned in Interaction Design School” at ixd101.com. More...