Windows 11 brings a new design to the operating system and applications, giving us a break from the metropolitan interface that has been around since Windows 8. Microsoft’s Fluent Design is an on-going design language journey and it evolves with each. Windows version, but it doesn’t. t touched every part of Windows and Microsoft applications.
With Windows 11, Microsoft is rethinking its Fluent Design approach and implementing its new design language in all of its applications and pages.
As part of the Fluent Design redesign, Windows 11 also comes with a new design material called “Micaâ€. Mica is a dynamic material that brings theme and wallpaper closer together, and it shows when browsing apps like Settings or Edge. The Mica material will paint the background of multiple application windows and settings to create a visual hierarchy.
In Windows 11, Mica will be the most common design element and it will appear in applications and the operating system itself. Mica material is not about transparency. Instead, it allows the desktop background behind the window to focus on the blur.
In preview builds, you may notice the Mica material in File Explorer, Settings, Microsoft Teams, and several other locations.
Fluent Design’s acrylic is densely translucent and its transparent effect can be seen behind application windows or the desktop background. On the other hand, Mica updates the app windows to incorporate the theme and wallpaper and paint the background.
In a new question and answer session, Microsoft explained that Mica hardware does not save desktop wallpaper with every frame. Instead, “it blurs the image only once” to provide better performance and a better experience than acrylic.
“Performance is really a top priority for us and we want to make sure that all of these fun new features (Mica and Rounded Corners) are super fast and don’t impact the operating system. For example, mica was specifically engineered for superior performance compared to things like acrylic.
“For rounded corners, we’ve optimized our rendering performance so that you won’t notice any difference compared to square corners,†the company said.
Microsoft does not copy Apple
Some people think that Windows 11’s design elements, such as the centered Start menu and rounded corners, are inspired by macOS. This is not true, according to Microsoft.
“Good design tends to be similar, we learn from each other, but Fluent exists
for a long time and we’ve been evolving with the way people use our device, â€said Kevin Gallo, Development Platform Manager at Microsoft.
“You know it changes all the time, because we just use devices in new ways and combine them …” You know they may sound familiar, but our goal is for those things you know to feel natural to you, “he said. he added.
Implementations of WinUI, Mica, and new Fluent Design elements started with Windows 11 version 21H2 (October 2021 update), but we are far from complete.
Windows is in the midst of a big overhaul and it will take several updates to realize the full potential of Fluent Design.
