“Finally, we believe in honesty in design. A user interface is created of pixels, so in Metro we try to avoid using the skeumorphic shading and glossiness used in some UI’s that try to mimic real world materials and objects.”

In the Windows Phone Design Team blog, the history and the future of the Metro design language, the way WP7 UI was designed, is briefly explained. Some people find it “simplistic” but as an instructional designer I know how difficult it is to produce something simple and useful. As a very good friend, and one of the best designers I’ve ever met, always says: form follows function.

The Windows Phone 7 Series UI Design and Interaction Guide is available for download as a PDF from here.

You can also watch the video and read the slides of session CL14 at MIX10: Windows Phone UI and Design Language