Fluent Design System (codenamed "Project Neon"), officially unveiled as Microsoft Fluent Design System, is a design language developed in 2017 by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

. Fluent Design is a revamp of Microsoft Design Language (popularly known as "Metro") that includes guidelines for the designs and interactions used within software designed for all

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...

and

Windows 11 Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released in October 2021. It is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), and is available for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 ...

devices and platforms. The system is based on five key components: light, depth, motion, material, and scale. The new design language includes more prominent use of motion, depth, and translucency effects. The transition to Fluent is a long-term project; aspects of the design started appearing in

beginning with the "Fall Creators Update" released in October 2017, as well as an update to the

Xbox One system software The Xbox system software is the operating system developed exclusively for the Xbox consoles. Across the four generations of Xbox consoles, the software has been based on a version of Microsoft Windows and incorporating DirectX features optimiz ...

released alongside it. It was later revealed to be designed in conjunction with

Windows 10X Windows 10 has several editions, all with varying feature sets, use cases, or intended devices. Certain editions are distributed only on devices directly from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), while editions such as ''Enterprise'' and ''E ...

, in addition to

which has a similar design.

Compared to Metro and Aero

Fluent's key principles, or "blocks" (Light, Depth, Motion, Material, and Scale), turn away from the flat concept

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban ...

had defined, and while preserving the clean look and feel Metro introduced, Fluent renews the visuals of

Aero Aero is a Greek prefix relating to flight and air. In British English, it is used as an adjective related to flight (e.g., as a shortened substitute for aeroplane). Aero, Ærø, or Aeros may refer to: Aeronautics Airlines and companies * Aero (P ...

, a design approach that was introduced in

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearl ...

, including blurred translucency, parallax animated patterns, drop shadows, highlight effects following mouse pointer or input gesture movements, and "faux materials" Metro once discarded.

Current applications of Fluent

Light

Reveal highlight

The purpose of light is to draw attention and illuminate information. Upon hovering, the Reveal highlight illuminates nearby hidden borders on objects such as hamburger navigation menu lists and buttons. Upon selection, such as by clicking or tapping, a white circular illumination effect quickly appears. Additionally, in the Windows Holographic environment, a rounded white

pointer Pointer may refer to: Places * Pointer, Kentucky * Pointers, New Jersey * Pointers Airport, Wasco County, Oregon, United States * The Pointers, a pair of rocks off Antarctica People with the name * Pointer (surname), a surname (including a list ...

exists. On November 6, 2017, Microsoft Employee David Has stated that plans to apply the reveal highlight to the

taskbar A taskbar is an element of a graphical user interface which has various purposes. It typically shows which programs are currently running. The specific design and layout of the taskbar varies between individual operating systems, but generally a ...

exist—but , it has not occurred. With WinUI 2.6, Microsoft has discontinued reveal highlight to match their web and mobile offerings, which do not offer reveal highlight.

Reveal focus

Focusable items with a border glow via the focus visual.

Depth

The addition of depth utilizes the z-axis and allows for content differentiation via layering. Depth is presented via drop shadows and Z-depth layering. This is especially apparent in the redesigned Office app in 2019.

Motion

Motion establishes a relationship between UI elements and provides a continuity ithe n experience.

Add/delete animations

List animations for inserting and removing items from a collection.

Connected animations

Connected animations are item transitions. During a content change, an element appears to continue by flying across the app.

Content transition

Used when only a portion of content on a page will change.

Drill

Drill is used when navigating deeper into an app. For example, displaying more information after an item is selected.

Fade

fade -in and fade-out to bring items into and dismiss them from view.

Parallax

Parallax moves objects at different rates. The background moves slower than the content above it. For example, a list will scroll faster than the background image, creating a depth effect in addition to motion.

Press feedback

When an item is pressed, it momentarily recedes into the background and then returns to its original position. Examples of press feedback include the

Start menu The Start menu is a graphical user interface element used in Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 and in other operating systems. It provides a central launching point for computer programs and performing other tasks in the Windows shell. It is na ...

live tiles, Action Center quick actions, and

Microsoft Edge Microsoft Edge is a proprietary, cross-platform web browser created by Microsoft. It was first released in 2015 as part of Windows 10 and Xbox One and later ported to other platforms as a fork of Google's Chromium open-source project: Android ...

address bar buttons.

Material

Acrylic

New icons with acrylic materials have been created for Microsoft programs, starting with the

Office An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...

apps and the

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and h ...

-based

in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Preliminary versions of the final icons were spotted in the "Meet the New Icons for Office 365" video, before more were spotted when Windows 10X was unveiled, prior to being officially revealed on December 12, 2019. These icons started appearing through

Microsoft Store Microsoft Store (formerly known as Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It started as an app store for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform ...

updates to those apps, beginning with

Mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and Calendar. The acrylic material creates a translucent, blurred effect with a slight noise effect. A visual hierarchy can be created by using different opacities. For example, in an app, primary content surfaces are often opaque (with the exception of widgets or lightweight apps such as

Calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-size ...

), a secondary pane can have 80% background acrylic, and the tertiary pane can have 60% background acrylic. Background acrylic blurs all items behind the active acrylic material. In-app acrylic blurs content within the app. Acrylic is disabled in a specific window when the app is no longer selected. Both types of acrylic are disabled system-wide when transparency is disabled, when battery saver mode is enabled, or on low-end hardware. Background Acrylic is disabled when a window is deselected or in Windows 10 Mobile, HoloLens, or tablet mode.

Mica

Mica is a new opaque material introduced in Windows 11 that takes on the tint of the user's wallpaper. Unlike acrylic, which was designed for transient surfaces (e.g., context menus), MMC is designed for use on long-lasting primary surfaces.

Scale

Apps scale across different

form factors Form factor is a hardware design aspect that defines and prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications of components, particularly in electronics. A form factor may represent a broad class of similarly sized components, or it m ...

display size On 2D displays, such as computer monitors and TVs, the display size (or viewable image size or VIS) is the physical size of the area where pictures and videos are displayed. The size of a screen is usually described by the length of its diagon ...

s, and 0D to 3D. Elements adapt to their screen size and are available across multiple dimensions. Conscious controls are also categorized within Scale (e.g. scrollbars and inputs that adapt to different methods of invocation)

Undetermined

* Spatial sound

References

External links

* * * {{Microsoft Design language Free and open-source software Graphical user interfaces Microsoft free software Software using the MIT license Windows 10