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Metro, as you may or may not know, is a typography based design language developed by Microsoft. Currently they are implementing it across all of their software efforts, including the next version of MS Office, Internet Explorer and Xbox Live; it is already in place in Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 (currently in developer preview).
It would be easy on reading the name Microsoft to ignore Metro as a marketing ploy by a company who have been losing ground to Apple for years. Microsoft though, are in many ways too big to ignore. Regardless of your personal opinions on them, what ever they do, say or change, will have a large and lasting impact on what the vast majority of people, old and new, experience when they turn on their PC, tablet, phone or console for years to come.
Based on the principles of classic Swiss graphic design, Metro uses clear typography and flat coloured “Live Tiles” as navigation. In fact many of the Metro-refreshed PC programs that Microsoft has produced recently break away entirely from the concept of windows, instead focusing on a full screen experience. The Zune software is a prime example on PC as is the very latest version of Internet Explorer. Both of these programs hide even the task bar and start button on PC, with IE’s stripped down address bar, navigation buttons and tab bar hiding themselves automatically so that your web content fills the whole screen by default.
For many people, the first experience they will have had with this type of interface will have been on Windows Phone 7 devices and it is perhaps here that the principles of Metro are most clearly expressed for the mainstream public. The aforementioned live tiles are a stunning improvement over traditional icon based navigation, providing extra layers of information that enhance the user experience by several magnitudes. The stark, contrasted, white on black text interfaces for the applications not only make the information you seek infinitely more accessible, but easier to read as well. The genius of Metro is that it is so stunningly minimalistic that it doesn’t interfere at all with the users viewing of, or interaction with, the apps and programs it is applied to. The design gets out of the way of the content and by extension, the user.
Gone are the overbearing backgrounds and enforced images of company produced applications. On Windows Phone you have a “People” tile, which when pressed loads up ones Facebook, Twitter, Live, and LinkedIn feeds. You can view them all simultaneously in one long feed or choose to view one feed at a time, the crucial difference is that no matter what you choose, every post and tweet appears as white text on black. No branding, no images, nothing to disrupt you from getting straight to the information you want. The same approach is applied to all Microsoft apps on the phone, the really nice thing to see though, is that third party app developers are falling in to line with the approach and adopting the same style. The overall effect is one of a much more unified OS than that of iOS and Android where every app, even ones developed in house, has a different style and approach to presenting their information.
When Windows 8 is released next year and Metro is unleashed on the masses it will be fascinating to see the reaction to it. Certainly there will be some adjustment required by many PC users; however, given that Windows 8 is also designed around the touch screens, interfaces and gestures that any smartphone user will already be familiar with, the adjustment is unlikely to be that severe for most users.
For new PC users, young and old, Metro offers a much higher degree of readability and usability. With its large and well contrasted text based navigation and labelling it is guaranteed to be much more usable and intuitive for new users and the visually impaired. Furthermore, for young users, the bright, vibrant colours of the Live Tiles will be infinitely more usable and easy to relate to than tiny icons that must be clicked with precision using an alien device. With Metro, even when using a mouse, the tiles are much easier to click or press and paired with a touch interface Metro opens computing up to a whole new audience.
Metro does not feel like a change for changes sake. This is a genuine and well thought out step forward in computer interactive interfaces. Much, much more could be written on any of the other nice touches like the fluid animations and transitions that add a quite delightful level of polish to a product that already feels extremely well buffed.
Regardless of your opinion of Microsoft as a whole, it is hard to deny that they have a very admirable goal in improving interfaces and opening up computing to a much wider audience. Given how long the current icon based form of interface has been in place, Metro is a very brave move by a company who could quite easily have followed the trend and let someone else take the risks.
