> It appears to be a grid of icons in two different sizes, laid out at random

You can change the layout. You can also choose icon size based on whether the larger icon is more useful due to 1) increased visibility, and/or 2) increased space for notifications.

Metro is also a lot more than just the start screen. It's a a style that describes the entire platform. It's clean and modern, it's content instead of chrome, it's crisp and legible, and it's free of the pseudo-physical elements (whether leather or glass or metal or whatever) that have become so common in GUIs.

The Windows team published a case study that highlights a lot of the metro aesthetic, and it goes way beyond the design of the tile. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh86826...

> with the Microsoft app icons being blocks of unpleasant primary color, with a white image in front of it.

Obviously, tastes differ. White on solid color is what basic metro tiles look like, though, and the offenders are the parties who shove their faux-3D logo into the tile without adapting it to the platform. This is no better than app developers who do a half-assed port of an iOS app to Android.

Disclaimer: Microsoft employee

>Disclaimer: Microsoft employee

I thought, "this has to be a Microsoft employee", right after I read this:

>It's a a style that describes the entire platform. It's clean and modern, it's content instead of chrome, it's crisp and legible, and it's free of the pseudo-physical elements

It sounds like something straight out of a marketing brochure.

" ... It's clean and modern, it's content instead of chrome, it's crisp and legible ..."

I'm also an MS employee, and I really hate it when I see fellow MS employees talking like this on forums. It's soulless corporate marketing jargon, devoid of content.

The link you posted is good and helpful, but it doesn't matter, because the preceding paragraph marked you as a phony in the eyes of the current audience.

Meh, I think what I said was accurate. I specifically did not throw out the phrases "fast and fluid" or "design language" because I was trying to express how I feel, and not simply repeat the marketing material.

Are the things I said inaccurate?

  > White on solid color is what basic metro tiles look like, though, and
  > the offenders are the parties who shove their faux-3D logo into the
  > tile without adapting it to the platform.

Why didn't Microsoft anticipate this and require that icons be plain white silhouettes on top of a solid color when placed on a tile? That way, the third-party applications would match the Microsoft applications in appearance.

Actually, isn't there still time to fix this now that it's apparent that it will mess with the user experience in a major way and degrade the basic aesthetics of the main screen?

If you don't like the app's tile you can unpin it - personally I like having some variety to my start screen.

It would be pretty hard to enforce a lot of visual uniformity considering that live tiles are meant to surface content, including things like photos. You'd have to enforce rules on what people's friends can look like.