"Metro" has apparently been renamed to "Microsoft design style"

Various terms have been tossed around as replacements for “Metro” – Microsoft’s authentically digital design launguage – due to trademark problems. The new class of WinRT apps (which can only be used in Windows 8 and Windows RT and take over the full screen), previously referred to as “Metro-style apps”, have already been renamed to “Windows Store apps” – but now Microsoft seems to have settled on a new name for the design language itself too: “Microsoft design style”.

The new term popped up a few days ago on the “Index of UI guidelines for Windows Store apps” and “Make great Windows Store apps” MSDN pages, which are part of the documentation for Windows 8 developers, where it has – along with a “Microsoft design language” variation – replaced all mentions of “Metro”.

While there is no official confirmation of the change yet, a search for “metro” on microsoft.com only turns up pages where the term “metro” is in fact nowhere to be found – it’s clear that the term “Metro” has been hellbanned from Microsoft.

So, what do our readers think of the new name? We personally would’ve wished for something like “Modern UI”, but we guess that using Microsoft’s own name will at least avoid any and all trademark issues.

via @ColinEberhardt (Twitter)