14 DAY TRIAL // Project NEON seems to be Microsoft’s next big thing in terms of visual makeovers for Windows 10, and the company has just teased this new set of improvements with a quick peak at one of the apps to receive the facelift.
The software giant presented during the Windows Developer Day livestream a slide discussing the “vision for Windows Redstone wave,” pointing out that Microsoft wants to “make beautiful, engaging experiences, possible on the Windows platform - simply and by default.”
And while this description itself does not reveal too much about how Microsoft plans to overhaul the UI of Windows 10 apps, a screenshot that’s displayed in the background of this slide provides us with a glimpse into the restyled interface of an app that’s supposed to get a facelift as part of Project NEON.
As you can (barely) see in this screenshot, Project NEON is indeed supposed to rely on blur and transparency effects, just like previous reports on the matter indicated. Additionally, NEON would introduce new animations in search for better fluidity across the operating system.
Coming with Redstone 3
The new design language is projected to become widely-available with the Windows 10 Redstone 3 update due in the fall, and not with the Creators Update coming in April. Although some apps are indeed using Project NEON design elements, the new language is just not ready yet, and Microsoft plans to increase focus on this project after the release of the Creators Update.
Interestingly, the Project NEON APIs are already integrated into Windows 10, so developers who want to update their apps and bring them in line with Microsoft’s new design language can already do so.
The majority of Microsoft apps available in Windows 10 are expected to be updated to Project NEON in the coming months, as the company wants to pioneer the transition before the launch of Redstone 3. The first preview builds of RS3 will ship to users after the debut of the Creators Update in April, while more Project NEON apps should go live in the summer.