Microsoft is starting to launch a new design for its many different hardware and software products that have the same basic design interface. The tile-themed UI, also known as Metro, started over at Windows Phone 7. The tile interface was recently put into the new Xbox 360 Dashboard. The biggest change will be when Windows 8 officially launches with its Metro style for touch screen-based products and start menu.
The Verge got a chance to do a three part video interview with Steve Kaneko, the design director at Microsoft who has been in charge of leading the group behind this more unified user interface for many of Microsoft's products. In the interview, Kanedo talks about how "we're not looking over our shoulders as much as we used to" in terms of what other companies are developing for their own design interfaces. While Kanedo says they are aware of what other groups are doing, they are more confident that Microsoft is now moving in the right direction in terms of its own efforts in design.
He admits that in the past Microsoft has offered "a mixed message to consumers" in terms of offering a kind of unified design for products. He also says it's now more important for Microsoft to offer up a user interface that gets rid of the rather dense amount of content that has appeared in other versions of Windows and other products in favor of the more simplified kind of design that we are seeing in the Metro interface.
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