#FluentFriday Tweet Chat Follow-Up
By: Microsoft Design
Tags: UX Design, Fluent Design System, Microsoft, Design

#FluentFriday Tweet Chat Follow-Up

All of your unanswered questions answered by Principal Design Lead Joey Pitt and Sr. Dev Writer Mike Jacobs — with more than 280 characters.

Last week, we hosted our inaugural #FluentFriday tweet chat where Principal Design Lead Joey Pitt and Sr. Dev Writer Mike Jacobs answered the community’s Fluent Design questions.

Coffee, pastries, and soda for breakfast in the Tweetuation Room.

We had an hour to respond to as many questions as we could but quickly ran out of time before we got to them all! We promised to follow up with those we didn’t get to, so here they are. Hope they help.

Question 1:

Answer: Principal Program Manager Paul Gusmorino answered this question here and we wanted to add a little more context.

As we incorporate Fluent Design into more apps and the Windows shell, we’re trying new things and different approaches. The upside to this experimentation is we get to innovate; the downside is that it can create inconsistencies. After every round of innovation/trying new things, there’s a stabilization period where we determine what works best and start enforcing consistency. To learn more about our iteration cycle, check out this Q&A with Joey Pitt.

Question 2:

Answer: We’ve already added acrylic to the start menu, reveal to the live tiles, and we’re looking at other UX patterns to make live tile curation better. These are just early explorations of how we are taking the start menu to its next evolution.

Question 3:

Answer: One thing we’ll share at Microsoft Build is how we’re moving our color and material systems forward, and we’ll do this in a way that reinforces hierarchy and helps you focus on what you’re doing. Make sure to sign-up for the Fluent Design: Evolving our Design System session at Microsoft Build to find out more.

Question 4:

Answer: Font rendering is optimized differently on Windows and OSX. OSX optimizes for aesthetics, and Windows for legibility. The OSX rendering is truer to the outlines the font designer drew, but it introduces more blurry grey pixels and a bit increased weight. Windows reduces or eliminates that blur for legibility, but the characters are a bit more blocky at smaller sizes, which is why we don’t have the grey that OSX does. Neither is inherently better, they’re just different design choices.

Check out our eBook Now Read This, which includes a chapter on font rendering.

Question 5:

Answer: Currently, apps like Photos use Connected Animation, but we know it’s not used everywhere. We’re definitely making it easier in XAML in the next release of Windows. We are discussing this and more at the What’s New for Windows UX Developers: Fluent and XAML session at Microsoft Build.

Question 6:

Answer: Some Fluent Design effects (such as acrylic) use the GPU, which can increase power consumption. Windows disables these features depending on your power settings, and users have the option of turning off these effects altogether.

Question 7:

Answer: While Windows shell supports colorizing your taskbar with accent colors, we are tracking this request in the Feedback Hub. Upvote if you haven’t already!

Question 8:

Answer: Great idea! We’re currently redesigning the Microsoft Design site which will give some additional cues for how to implement Fluent. We’re also planning on including more designer-focused video tutorials in the future. In the meantime, check out our developer-oriented video series.