Microsoft Fluent Design

In 2015, I started as an intern at Microsoft and served as a motion designer for a small design intiative within the Windows team called project NEON. The intiative started after Windows 10 released, and the team was now ready to explore the next look and design for it's OS. I explored all sorts of new and experimental ideas that revolved around materials, textures, projection, light and 3D. Our goal was to make the system feel more alive, human, and possibly a more cohesive experience in AR / VR devices. 

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Acrylic

The team explored hundreds of different materials, from chalk to amber. We eventually landed on acrylic, which is a type of brush that creates a translucent texture.

The original intention for acrylic was to apply it to app surfaces in order to establish visual hierachy through depth. This was especially useful in a commonly cluttered space where users feel lost. 

We explored a ton of concepts around applying acrylic to app backgrounds in order to show states, to applying acrylic to temporal components such as context menus.

3D Spatial Hiearchy

Components and typography was carefully positioned in 3D space in order to reinforce our 3D spatial hiearchy. Other graphical elements such as inforgraphics were built in 3D for expression and immersion.

Dimension

With this idea of our system feeling “alive,” we explored several ways to interactive with content in-line using techniques around WebGL and projection mapping.

Conscious UI

Conscious UI, or “shy UI” was a concept around decluttering our system spaces and only showing features when the user needed them.

The concept of conscious UI scaled to Windows and containers. Windows move into view and bump other content when it’s clear the user wants to focus on it. As more app  windows are opened, past app windows will move further back in z-space.

Animated Icons

I started an effort to animate our system icons in order to provide better context for new and unique interactions. They can also serve as delightful brand moments.

Credits

Jeremiah Whitaker, Ramiro Torres, Conroy Williamson, Karen Scott, Ryan Vulk, Lauren Beckwith, Andrew Kim, Calvin Carter, Rich Zarick, Callil Capuozzo, Samuel Gates, Jason Yore, Sung Won Chang, Phil Evans, Calvin Carter, Spencer Davis, Kurt Rauffer, Christopher Abbas, Carlos Orozco, Sergey Kisselev, Karina Dion, Harold Gomez, Alisa Chanelle Dickinson.