vista Microsoft Aero Wizard UI Specifications

[Ian W]

I would like to share the Aero Wizard UI design specifications that Microsoft released in 2006. These specifications go into an extensive amount of detail about the Aero Wizard design and its features including colors, command links, margins, fonts, headers, and overall visual design. Microsoft even went as far as to state why the "Back" button was moved to the upper left corner (instead of being located at the bottom of the wizard interface as in previous versions) and to list features that were ultimately cut from the final release, such as auto-resizing behavior for wizards, which proved difficult for testers to interact with because it moved interface elements.

These specifications were originally shared through the company's Shell: Revealed blog and uploaded as an MHTML document (a blog post accompanied the document). The specifications were also uploaded online as a PDF file. Listed below are both of the files.

Download: Original MHTML document
Download: PDF document