Comments on: Windows Phone powered by (still mysterious) “Iris” UI framework

By: Microsoft Partners With AT&T to Launch Windows Phone 7 Platform | GeekSmack

Thu, 20 May 2010 03:42:48 +0000

[...] is what awaits us. Much like the Zune HDs user interface, the Windows Phone 7 UI is built on a framework called Iris. While no-one is sure what exactly the Zunes UI is built off of, its strikingly [...]

By: Veer

Veer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:03:22 +0000

Interestingly…. remember when the present wav e of Windows Live Applications were in the build stages, and every so often we would get leaks and we would see what it would look like.

Back then, the first thinks i noticed was with WLM and Photo gallery was how the shading and styling had taken on a more Windows 7 Like Feel (as one could see by looking at the then released Win 7 Beta.)

Now, there are some new Windows Live Beta Screenshot leaks on Softpedia… and the “Windows Live Today” windows, has now taken on the Iris UI.

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Windows-Live-Messenger-15-2010-Wave-4-Leaked-Screenshots-7.png/

I’m just assuming here, that with the Windows 7 Aero UI element sneeking into Windows Live Essentials Wave 3… What we see with Wave 4, may be move within Windows 8 to an Iris oriented UI and a shift from Aero.

Also, the simple text elements as opposed to using “buttons” is actually more finger friendly, one you add in some basic gesture controls.

Just a thought… cheers!!

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:22:02 +0000

Iris is the UI framework used for the desktop composition of the Zune software. Since the “Behind the scenes” WP7S shows them using Expression Blend to design the UI, it’s a safe bet to say that the on-phone UI platform is Silverlight using XAML for declarative ui markup.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:11:30 +0000

@Nathaniel
Yeah and they did a depressingly TERRIBLE job at it.
Makes me want to nerd rage.

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:30:49 +0000

Looks like Valve took some cues from Iris:

http://store.steampowered.com/news/3501/

By: John Smith

John Smith — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:26:59 +0000

It’s a fork of the Windows Media Center rendering system. Interestingly, the Iris framework keeps all the Xenon rendering logic (cross-network renderer – used for the Xbox 360 fluid Windows Media Center Extender functionality)

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:27:22 +0000

Will the Zune HD software and Windows Mobile 7 Series software merge?

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:24:23 +0000

My question is, will the release of Windows Phone Series 7 spell the end of Microsoft maintaining two separate media player software programs; Windows Media Player and the Zune Software?

By: anon

anon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:34:58 +0000

Feels like milcore.

By: Rafael Rivera

Rafael Rivera — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:19:02 +0000

@mdtauk: It doesn’t link to DirectUI, but it sure does behave like it (100% sealed, proprietary, undocumented). I was thinking the same, re: developer access. I highly doubt they’ll release the complete Iris framework to developers. It’s big. It’s complex. It’s… well theirs. Given how modular Iris is, from my research, they’ll do exactly as you said — provide an interface to code to and nothing more.

For testing, they’re stuck providing an emulator w/ Iris baked in or forcing users to own actual hardware — a big no-no. Sadly we have to wait until MIX to hear any real details about development.

By: mdtauk

mdtauk — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:10:30 +0000

I am wondering if this Iris UI has any links to Direct UI, which is another framework used by Windows Live Messenger, Windows Explorer and other bits and bobs like shellstyle.dll. Because these are undocumented its impossible to figure out how they work, but with the Windows Phone 7 UI likely to be programmable for developers, either they will enclose a subset of this Iris framework for devs to use, or they may bypass it for silverlight development only. This would negate any possibility of deep integration with the innards and the drivers.

I predict they will bring in an Expression Blend style dev programme, with a cookie cutter approach as in drag and dropping elements like:
HUB > Section A – Section B – Section C

SECTION A > command – command – link – textbox – datastack

etc and have the programming code completely separate from the UI construction.

By: tino

tino — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:27:30 +0000

A little side note: They have created different numbers for this version of the Zegoe UI font, they are more rounded and don’t have serifs.

On the “making of” video on the WP7S website you can see that they are using Blend to create the UI (?) or a prototype (?).

I really look forward to read more about this framework here :)