BeOS Interface vs Metro
BeOS インターフェース / メトロ
BeOS Interface comes from Platform Screen Languages and Metro from Microsoft UI. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
BeOS Interface
Be's interface language threw away the full width title bar and put a short yellow tab on the top edge of each window instead. The user's guide calls sliding that tab a unique feature of Be windows: hold Shift and the tab travels sideways, so stacked windows leave a row of visible tabs rather than burying one another.
Metro
Windows Phone's flat language, which cast type rather than icons in the lead role. Large typography, flat-color live tiles and layouts that run off the edge of the screen transplanted the clarity of transit signage into UI, opening the flat era ahead of iOS 7.
| BeOS Interface | Metro | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1995–2001 | 2010–2015 |
| Family | Platform Screen Languages | Microsoft UI |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Only the front window's tab is yellow; every other window keeps a gray tab / The tab is as wide as the window's name, not as wide as the window / Holding Shift and dragging the tab slides it along the top edge of the window / The Deskbar stands in the upper right corner with running applications stacked below it | Type as the hero / Flat-color tiles / Compositions running off-screen / Chrome eliminated |
| Best used for | A workspace where many windows stay open at once and every window's label must survive being overlapped · Making an interface that reads as clearly not-the-others through a single decision rather than more color | Dashboards listing news or weather where borders would only add noise · Indoor wayfinding and signage read from a distance in one word |
| Type | A small sans, one line of it, living inside the tab; names get cut short rather than trailing into an ellipsis. | Headings five times body size, kept in a light weight |
| Composition | The tab occupies only as much of the top edge as the name needs, and because tabs slide, window positions are chosen so overlapping windows line their tabs up in a row. | Headings running off the edge, tiles in two rectangle sizes |
| Material | One light gray carries the whole surface; only the front window's tab is painted yellow and the rest stay gray, with no third color invited in. | No shadows or borders, black or white ground, saturated flat panels |
| Caution | Spreading the yellow around as a general accent destroys its one job, marking the front window, and the tab drops to decoration. | Stripping every border and shadow erases the difference between a tappable tile and a plain heading, leaving people guessing where to touch. |