Microsoft unveils and discusses over 100 icon redesigns

What you need to know

• Microsoft's Jon Friedman discusses redesigning over 100 icons in a Medium post.
• The post shows off several icons that have never been revealed as well as some icons that have already been implemented.
• The icons required a large amount of effort to align with each other and the Fluent Design System.

Microsoft continues its push to refresh and unify the look of Windows 10. Last week, the Head of Microsoft Office design, Jon Friedman, discussed Microsoft's refreshed mobile icons. Now, Friedman shares the process of redesigning 100 icons in a Medium post. Redesigning these icons presented unique challenges, including making them work across devices and aligning them with each other and design guidelines.

Friedman called the process a "One Microsoft effort," which involves teams across Microsoft working together to stay aligned with each other. Friedman states, "Design teams across the company came together as a collective to develop design guidelines that encourage individuality while creating a cohesive whole." He adds that teams shared icons throughout the process as well as obstacles and successes.

The Fluent Design system is at the core of this effort from Microsoft. This system began on Windows 10 and now extends throughout Microsofts efforts across platforms. The redesigned icons needed to be created for both flat operating systems like Windows 10 and 3-D ones like Mixed Reality.

Many of the icons shown off in the post have already been revealed or implemented throughout Windows 10 and Microsoft's mobile apps, but there are some icons in the post that Microsoft's never shown before.