"This post is a summary of a talk the Windows Phone Design Team has given a couple times recently, on the history and the future of the Metro design language...."
"Design Fiction
"It’s probably not surprising that most of the designers in our studio are fans of Science Fiction movies. Aside from the characters and plots, designers in our studio (myself included) get really excited at the user interfaces that are visualized in films. There’s been a lot of great discussion recently in the design community at large on this topic of Design Fiction: the design of products, interfaces, and other artifacts that we see in Science Fiction. The product and UI’s that are designed for film are important because by imagining the future without the constraints of current technology, the film-makers are really visualizing idealized interfaces for our present culture. These visions serve as a target for engineers to build towards, and educate audiences for the kinds of experiences they will have in the future.
"When we look at the interfaces that Hollywood has forecast for us over the past 20 years, there are three clear trends. First, computer interfaces are no longer something that needs to be carefully explained to audiences, rather, they should push the imagination. Second, the time between a technology appearing and film and being available commercially is shrinking considerably. And third, the user interface becomes increasingly invisible. By that I mean, the interfaces in Science Fiction move away from existing on a computer to being layered over the environment. With that, the desktop metaphors and shaded buttons disappear. The interface surrounds us, lives with us, and augments our spaces. It’s just…information. When that information is an object, it’s an object. When it’s text, it’s text. There are no unnecessary elements.
"Where Next
"We believe that different inspiration leads to different results. Already we see how the interfaces in movies have inspired new products or interfaces that are currently being researched and developed. There’s the Microsoft Surface computer, which aimed to move software experiences on to the surfaces of more casual environments. In 2008, Esquire magazine published the first magazine with an e-ink cover; a nod to the digital newspaper in Minority Report (2002). The 3D table in the first Xmen movie (2000) was built by Xenotran in 2004.
" John Underkoffler, one of the visionaries behind the Minority Report interfaces, founded a company soon after to develop the gesture UI. Microsoft Kinect puts controller free gesture interaction in the living room for $149. Qwiki creates an information storytelling experience similar to the Artificial Intelligence aboard the ship in Pixar’s Wall-e, and Zebra Imaging is building 3D displays and prints that are a step towards those seen in the movie Avatar. For us, our inspiration for the future of interface lies in the information experiences visualized in films like Minority Report, Avatar, Star Trek, and Iron Man 2. We like the idea of information existing as it is without embellishment, seamlessly overlaying itself and complementing our environment, present when it needs to be and invisible when it doesn’t. It’s a vision that resonates well with the philosophy behind Metro...."
