# Metro (メトロ)

> Windows Phone's flat language that made type the hero over icons: big typography, flat-color live tiles and compositions running off-screen — transit-sign clarity brought to UI, opening the flat era before iOS 7.

- IndexStyle No.442 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/metro
- Kind: Style · Family: Microsoft UI · Era: 2010–2015
- Mood: Technology, Trust, Rebellion
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

- Type as the hero
- Flat-color tiles
- Compositions running off-screen
- Chrome eliminated

## Best used for

- Comparing primary sources and canonical works
- Extracting principles that transfer to other media

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process

## What to avoid

Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] Type as the hero
- [ ] Flat-color tiles
- [ ] Compositions running off-screen
- [ ] Chrome eliminated
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Flat Design / Vector Minimalism (フラットデザイン / ベクターミニマリズム)** — Reduces information to plain planes and color, portable across screens and media. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/flat-design
- **Swiss (スイス・スタイル)** — Puts order front and center and makes the information itself the protagonist. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/swiss

## Further study

- from Zune HD to Windows Phone 7
- the transit-signage influence behind the name
- the inheritance into Fluent

## Reference works

- Microsoft Design — https://microsoft.design/

## AI interpretation

An AI-generated interpretation image exists for browsing convenience only — it is not a reference work: https://indexstyle.org/ai/metro.jpg

## Source of record

- Microsoft Design — https://microsoft.design/

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/metro
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/metro/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

Windows Phoneが提示した、アイコンより文字を主役にするフラット言語。大きなタイポグラフィ、平面色のライブタイル、画面端を走り抜ける構成は、交通サインの明快さをUIに移植し、iOS 7に先行してフラット時代を開いた。

特徴: 大きな文字が主役／平面色のタイル／画面外へ続く構成／クロームの排除
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。