Ever since news broke last week that Microsoft was abandoning the "Metro" name for the design and aesthetic of the Windows 8 and Windows Phone user interfaces, the question has been, "what will Redmond call it instead?"
Early indications were that Microsoft would replace "Metro" with "Windows 8" or "New UI," yielding "Windows 8 Apps" or similar. However, employees appear now to be using the term "Modern UI" as their adjective of choice. First reported by The Verge, blog posts and training courses are popping up, referencing the "Modern UI design language and principles," "Modern UI Style apps," and even "Modern UI Style UI" (suggesting that perhaps this is more of a search-and-replace job than a carefully considered replacement). Whether this is a result of the word from on high or merely an employee striving to find a better term now that "Metro" has been banned isn't clear.
If "Modern UI" is indeed Microsoft's new terminology, it has some precedent. During development, the Windows 8 Start screen was named "MoSh," standing for "Modern Shell."
