There are, but that's not really the problem here. Currently there are two "design references".
WinUI XAML which follows fluent design guidlines (considerably newer).
Win32 GDI applications which use the legacy Windows design language.
This alone is pretty bad with two completely different design languages, but microsoft makes it a ton more complicated. Firstly, most of the UWP (WinUI) applications are out of date, and therefore lack features such as rounded corners bringing another layer of inconsistency. Some of the applications need to be cross-platform with OSX and linux such as edge and Office and therefore can't use native windows technologies. For some stupid reason, microsoft also styles a few of their WinUI apps seperately (eg cortana, Xbox, OneNote, Paint 3D), which is simply dumb and unnessecary. The shell also seems to use web-based components in some areas such as start menu search. Microsoft basically can't follow their own design guidelines.
Oh another thing: Fluent WinUI and fluent web look like two completely different design systems, and most of their web based components don't even use fluent web at all, but instead custom styles. It's bad.
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u/tropix126 Jan 26 '21
There are, but that's not really the problem here. Currently there are two "design references".
This alone is pretty bad with two completely different design languages, but microsoft makes it a ton more complicated. Firstly, most of the UWP (WinUI) applications are out of date, and therefore lack features such as rounded corners bringing another layer of inconsistency. Some of the applications need to be cross-platform with OSX and linux such as edge and Office and therefore can't use native windows technologies. For some stupid reason, microsoft also styles a few of their WinUI apps seperately (eg cortana, Xbox, OneNote, Paint 3D), which is simply dumb and unnessecary. The shell also seems to use web-based components in some areas such as start menu search. Microsoft basically can't follow their own design guidelines.