Язык дизайна Windows Aero: Эволюция интерфейса Microsoft

Design language by Microsoft

Windows Aero (a backronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open) is the design language introduced in the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. The changes introduced by Windows Aero encompassed many elements of the Windows interface, with the introduction of a new visual style with an emphasis on animation, glass, and translucency; interface guidelines for phrasing and tone of instructions and other text in applications were available. New cursors and sounds based on Windows Aero design principles were also introduced. Windows Aero was used as the design language of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The flat design based Metro design language was introduced on Windows 8, although aspects of the design and features promoted as part of Aero on Windows Vista and 7 have been retained in later versions of Windows (barring design changes to comply with Metro or Fluent).

For the first time since the release of Windows 95, Microsoft completely revised its user interface guidelines, covering aesthetics, common controls such as buttons and radio buttons, task dialogs, wizards, common dialogs, control panels, icons, fonts, user notifications, and the "tone" of text used. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 also support Windows Aero as part of the "Desktop Experience" component, which is disabled by default.

Notifications allow an application or operating system component with an icon in the notification area to create a pop up window with some information about an event or problem. These windows, first introduced in Windows 2000 and known colloquially as "balloons", are similar in appearance to the speech balloons that are commonly seen in comics. Balloons were often criticized in prior versions of Windows due to their intrusiveness, especially with regard to how they interacted with full screen applications such as games (the entire application was minimized as the bubble came up). Notifications in Aero aim to be less intrusive by gradually fading in and out, and not appearing at all if a full screen application or screensaver is being displayed—in these cases, notifications are queued until an appropriate time. Larger icons and multiple font sizes and colors are also introduced with Aero's notification windows.

The Segoe UI typeface is the default font for Aero with languages that use Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic character sets. The default font size is also increased from 8pt to 9pt to improve readability. In the Segoe UI typeface prior to Windows 8, the numeral zero ("0") is narrow, while capital letter "O" is wider (Windows 8's Segoe UI keeps this difference), and numeral one ("1") has a top hook, while capital letter "I" has equal crown and base (Windows 8's "1" has no base, and the "I" does not have a crown or base).

Aero's base icons were designed by The Iconfactory, which had previously designed Windows XP icons.

The Vista User Experience Guidelines also address the issue of "tone" in the writing of text used with the Aero user interface. Prior design guidelines from Microsoft had not done much to address the issue of how user interface text is phrased, and as such, the way that information and requests are presented to the user had not been consistent between parts of the operating system. The guidelines for Vista and its applications suggest messages that present technically accurate advice concisely, objectively, and positively, and assume an intelligent user motivated to solve a particular problem. Specific advice includes the use of the second person and the active voice (e. g. "Print the photos on your camera") and avoidance of words like "please", "sorry" and "thank you".

The Aero interface was unveiled for Windows Vista as a complete redesign of the Windows interface, replacing Windows XP's "Luna" theme. Until the release of Windows Vista Beta 1 in July 2005, little had been shown of Aero in public or leaked builds, with alpha builds containing interim designs such as "Plex". Windows Aero incorporated the following features in Windows Vista. Windows Aero theme: The main component of Aero, it is the successor of Windows XP's "Luna" and changes the look and feel of graphical control elements, including but not limited to buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, menus, progress bars and default Windows icons. Even message boxes are changed. Windows Flip improvements: Windows Flip (Alt+Tab) in Windows Vista now shows a live preview of each open window instead of the application icons. Windows Flip 3D: Windows Flip 3D (Windows key+Tab) renders live images of open windows, allowing one to switch between them while displaying them in a three dimensional view. Taskbar live thumbnails – Hovering over the taskbar button of a window displays a preview of that window in the taskbar. Desktop Window Manager (DWM) – Due to the significant impact of the new changes on hardware and performance, Desktop Window Manager was introduced to achieve hardware acceleration, transferring the duty of UI rendering from CPU to graphic subsystem. DWM in Windows Vista required compatible hardware. Task Dialogs: Dialog boxes meant to help communicate with the user and receive simple user input. Task Dialogs are more complex than traditional message boxes that only bear a message and a set of command buttons. Task Dialogs may have expandable sections, hyperlinks, checkboxes, progress bars and graphical elements.

Retrospectively, a design style and Internet aesthetic and UI/UX design trend based on Windows Aero called Frutiger Aero has been identified, which was popular from roughly 2004 to 2013. Frutiger Aero is characterized by modern and organic themes associated with nature, glass, water and air. Common features of Frutiger Aero include shiny and glossy textures, CGI renders of scenes with nature and technology together, grass, transparency, sparkles, bubbles, nature symbolism, a tertiary color palette, bokeh photography, and elements of skeuomorphic design. The term Frutiger Aero was coined by Sofi Lee in 2017, as a combination of Aero and the Frutiger typeface, which was popular with corporate materials of the time.

In the 2000s, Frutiger Aero came as a necessity for tech companies to make new technologies accessible to as many people, using familiar, skeuomorphic and humanist designs. This shift coincided with the decline of Frutiger Aero and Windows Aero. Later in the early 2020s, Frutiger Aero has known a nostalgic revival on Reddit, YouTube, Instagram as well as TikTok where the hashtag #frutigeraero was used over 30 million times.