Metro vs XrossMediaBar (XMB)
メトロ / クロスメディアバー
Metro comes from Microsoft UI and XrossMediaBar (XMB) from Platform Screen Languages. One is style and the other layout. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
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.
XrossMediaBar (XMB)
Sony's trademarked interface language for its consoles and televisions. As the official manual puts it, the horizontal row shows system features in categories and the vertical column shows the items available under each category, and the single point where the two cross lights up gold to say where you are. Everything else stays pale blue on a dark field.
| Metro | XrossMediaBar (XMB) | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 2010–2015 | 2003–2013 |
| Family | Microsoft UI | Platform Screen Languages |
| Kind | Style | Layout |
| Cues | Type as the hero / Flat-color tiles / Compositions running off-screen / Chrome eliminated | A horizontal row and a vertical column cross slightly left of center, and only the item at that crossing glows gold / Text labels appear for the selected item alone; the rest of the rows are icons only / The ground is one near black navy and the icons are thin pale blue outlines rather than filled shapes / Left and right move through categories, up and down through items, but it is the rows that slide while the crossing stays put |
| Best used for | Dashboards listing news or weather where borders would only add noise · Indoor wayfinding and signage read from a distance in one word | Building a television or set top interface that must be reachable end to end with a four way pad alone · Making a top level menu for a screen viewed from across a room, where the number of categories will keep growing |
| Type | Headings five times body size, kept in a light weight | A light sans at a size readable from across a room; only the selected item carries a name, the rest stay as icons. |
| Composition | Headings running off the edge, tiles in two rectangle sizes | Fix the crossing point slightly left of center, run categories out horizontally and items vertically from it, and slide the rows under a stationary crossing rather than moving a highlight. |
| Material | No shadows or borders, black or white ground, saturated flat panels | Thin pale blue outline icons on a near black ground; emphasis comes only from lighting the one item at the crossing in gold, never from filling an area. |
| Caution | Stripping every border and shadow erases the difference between a tappable tile and a plain heading, leaving people guessing where to touch. | Move a highlight instead of holding the crossing still and the viewer loses their place the moment a row grows long. |