This is how Microsoft designed its new colorful Windows 10 icons
Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/20/21146028/microsoft-windows-10-new-icons-colorful-design-changes-updates-fluent-design-system
Reported today in The Verge.
This is how Microsoft designed its new colorful Windows 10 icons
Microsoft has started rolling out new colorful app icons in Windows 10 today that overhaul the look and feel of the operating system. Changes to many of the built-in Windows 10 app icons have started rolling out today, but more are coming in the months ahead. It's part of what the company describes as a "multi-year effort across Microsoft's design teams to redesign our icons."
Windows has always suffered from a variety of different icons that are sometimes decades old, and Microsoft originally embarked on an effort to try to simplify some of these in Windows 10 when it first debuted nearly five years ago. Microsoft picked monochrome icons that were simplified but were designed for colorful Live Tiles that never really caught on with app developers and Windows 10 users.
"Flat, monochrome icons look great in context of colorful tiles, but as more icon styles enter the ecosystem, this approach needs to evolve," reveals Christina Koehn, a design leader for Windows and Devices at Microsoft. "When icons in the taskbar and Start menu are different styles, it creates more cognitive load to scan and find applications. We needed to incorporate more visual cues into the icon design language using our modernized Fluent Design Language."
Microsoft has now evolved its icons to better reflect its cross-platform approach, while sticking to the familiarity of what Windows users are used to. "Leveraging the Fluent Design System, we introduced depth and color to our iconography," explains Koehn. "These additional cues are subtle, but they make a world of difference when scanning an interface." This splash of color should make it easier to scan for apps on the taskbar or Start menu, and Microsoft