A Gooey GUI for Windows Vista

Did you listen to me talk about -4659-a085-4dd58ae4b9ae&DisplayLang=en”>Windows Vista UX Guidelines, I
discovered a few nuggets of information on Windows Vista's default UI.
Here's what I pulled from directly from their text, interspersed with
bulletpointed commentary:

• Aero is the codename for the new user
  experience in Microsoft Windows Vista
• Aero = Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open
• Commit buttons (CommandArea) are visibly set apart from the
  instructions (ContentArea, ContentPane)
• Segoe UI is the primary screen font, Segoe is the print font
• Segoe is pronounced SEE-go
• The standard font size has been increased to 9pt
• Commit buttons are always right-aligned at bottom of dialog
• The guidelines for making text accessible can be boiled down to one
  simple rule: Respect the user’s settings by always using the system font,
  sizes, and colors.
• Users can change properties directly within control
• Tooltips can contain rich data - like photos, formatted text
• Aero Wizard replaces Wizard '97, pages can be resizable
• In wizards, unnecessary Welcome and Congratulations / Finish pages
  have been removed to increase efficiency
• The icons are symbolic images—they should look better than
  photorealistic
• Icons have a maximum size of 256 x 256
• All icons used in Windows Vista client (for items such as
  applications, devices, document types, and control panels) must adhere to
  the Aero-style icon guidelines. You must replace all Win 9x and Win 3.1
  style graphics. Windows XP-style graphics can be used in Windows Vista, but
  are also recommended to be updated to the new style and quality.
• An application is powerful when it enables its target users to realize
  their full potential efficiently.
• Simplicity is the reduction or elimination of an attribute of a design
  that target users are aware of and consider unessential.

Looks like
the AERO User
Experience has a blog, too - although nothing's there yet. I wanna
hammer 'em on a few layout bugaboos that I've seen in potentially final
Vista UI elements. Namely, an unequal margin surrounding the icon in a
nextgen system tray balloon. If they want me to take their
UI guidelines seriously, they'll explain why they elected incongruence
(mathematically speaking). I'm still not sold on Vista's design, but it
seems they're going the extra step to make sure its uniform. I just don't
want to see anything that reminds me of an earlier version of Windows -
ever.

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