Click image to enlarge.
When Metro UI came out for Windows Phone, I was really surprised with Microsoft’s decision to move in the direction of the Zune HD. The Zune HD’s interface was great. It had a clean, modern and typographic inspired layout that no design or device has ever had before. It was snappy, had smooth transitions and new.
Windows Phone adopted that interface but in the process, it also unfortunately inherited the large, cutoff texts that served as the page title. To be fair, it does not look bad but every time I see that big chunk of text above I can’t help but think of the wasted limited screen estate I have on my phone.
So I had a free time to do some mock up of an alternate Metro Styling for inside panoramas of Windows Phone. Take for example the People Hub. With the alternate styling, few changes will happen.
- There will be more vertical real-estate for actual content
- An option to set a custom background. Set similar to Pictures Hub so readability is not hindered
- Hierarchical importance and variation is not only determined by the size of the type but also the color and weight of it. Color of header text will be determined by an algorithm of color spots on the chosen background.
- Added line breaks for a more formal and cohesive compartmentalization of each content.
- Enable the status icons to be constantly displayed on top.
I’m sure many of you might disagree with the suggestions but these are just some ideas that bounced around my head without any real actual holistic study of the full user interface. I’m sure Microsoft did their homework. I’m just merely providing a prototype, that’s all :)