Flat design

The design of the Zune was clean and simple, with a focus on large lower case typography, silhouette-style logos, and monochromatic font colors.

The design was dominated by large and bright shapes accompanied by sans-serif typography from the Segoe font family, flat images, and a menu with a grid-like pattern.

The platform's new "Holo" interface was designed to appear more simplistic than past Android versions, with neon-blue accents, hard edges, and drop shadows for depth.

[9][10][11][12] In 2013, Apple unveiled iOS 7, which shifted to a flat UI design with use of brighter colors, typography, as well as blurred, translucent overlays.

After 2017, flat design continued to evolve, incorporating new elements to enhance usability and user experience while maintaining its core principles of simplicity and minimalism.

Fluent Design was applied across Windows 10 and Microsoft’s ecosystem, making interfaces feel more responsive and intuitive, especially in a multi-device environment.

For instance, Apple refined its flat design approach with the release of iOS 13 in 2019, which added Dark Mode, creating a more immersive experience and introducing subtle shadows to make interactive elements more distinguishable.

Research also showed that, while young people seem faster at navigating flat designs, they also have trouble with understanding the user interface.