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Comment by _jezell_ | Hacker News Reader

After reading, I have no idea what Fluent Design is.

I share similar sentiment. This documentation needs to be better structured, perhaps more like the bootstrap documentation is, with clear examples of style class usage throughout. E.g.:

https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.3/components/alerts/

Perhaps a gallery of example websites & apps could help a lot. That was the first thing I was looking for. Couldn't find any, so I had to drill into the docs in hopes of finding some case-by-case examples of each UI element. It really helps me to get going on frontend design, especially on a new framework, when I can see a completed sample that has some similarities to what I want layout-wise in my design.

Comparing Fluent Design to Bootstrap is a bit apples-and-oranges. It's a design system for multiple possible implementation somewhat more akin to Material Design [1], and just like you might use a Material Design Theme to Bootstrap, you might find a Fluent Design Theme for Bootstrap.

The most direct Fluent Design System library to consider compared to Bootstrap would be Fabric UI which covers Web, iOS, and Android:

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric#/

Up until recently Fabric UI didn't always match Fluent Design goals, but they've aligned to Fluent a lot more over recent releases.

Though, generally the "closest to homebase" implementation of Fluent Design is often regarded to be the WinUI library that is the basis for most "modern" UI controls in Windows, in particular its where you see the most of some of the exotic materials Fluent Design likes such as the "acrylic" backgrounds that a lot of people really associate with Fluent:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/toolkits/winui/

[1] https://material.io/design/

I do not like this redesign because it does not feel cool. I believe they need stop doing redesigns, and focus on something about things that people care about for a few years, like fixing bsods.

No matter what design they pull over their software, it will not make genuinely substandard software cool.

I think "Fluent" is another word for compromized. The design has to fit in with all of the previous generations of design (which don't get updated) as well as 3rd party platforms like iOS and Android.

As far as I can tell, it looks like someone at Microsoft made a poor-man's Bootstrap clone.

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