Notes and thoughts on Windows Fluent Design System
The previous Windows Fluent Design System proposed 5 elements: Motion, Light, Material, Depth, Scale. The 5 elements are directly relevant to Windows Mixed Reality ambition. Such as, I also found those 5 elements could inspire my own research on affordances in AR.
Light
Light could make the perception of AR elements dramatically different, as well as users’ perception of affordances. Revealing highlights can make the interactive elements stand out, and highlight important information, draw users’ attention. In addition, simulation the lighting from real environment could make it feel realistic, but it makes details(like text) hard to distinguish in a dark environment. Moreover, for the prototype I made earlier using shadows, how light comes from will also change the looking.
Material
Material decides how things look in AR, an unlit material can ignore any types of lightings, and make it just look the same in any situation. While a transparent material shows the information behind, and it add another layer on top of the real environment while leaving the existing information still available. In addition, we could also ask what types of material feel good for a button in AR, and can be perceived as something clickable, or pressed-able? How to utilize material to distinguish a UI element from the environment?
Motion:
Motion can offer continuity of page transition, and it can communicate meanings and draw attentions in a natural way. It simulates the physics in our real world to make it feel natural and build the familiarity of our existing mental models. How would the motion be like in 3D environment and AR?
Depth
Depth is already being used in 2D graphic user interface design for years, and it can effectively communicate hierarchy of the information. But when comes to AR and immersive computing design, depth becomes something you cannot ignore.
