I believe that what makes Fluent Design unique is not necessarily what components Microsoft has used to create it, such as Acrylic, depth-of-field, parallax effects and more, but rather the sum of all these parts and how they can adjust to fit any screen, or method of input. Yes, Acrylic is beautiful, and Fluent Design is already looking great on Windows 10, even in the stages of bare infancy, but it's more than that.
The fact that, one day, Fluent Design will be able to seamlessly morph form my PC to my tablet to my HoloLens to my phone and my Xbox and all the way back is what makes it unique. Here, we have something that has never been accomplished. An operating system that runs everywhere, with a UI and UX design that makes it easily accessible across all form factors. And it looks awesome.
Android has Material Design. and it is fantastic at letting users know where things are, and how things interact. It's not quite as good at navigational cues as Metro was, but as of now it's still better than MDL2. It's also consistent. iOS may have started the whole "real world in technology form" UI design, but when they abandoned that Google took up the mantle and ran with it.
iOS is super consistent and easy to use, but it's boring and lacks the user customizability and warmth that other operating systems has. They pioneered good UI design, but recently their efforts have fallen short of "beautiful."
Microsoft is trying to find the best of both worlds. An OS that can move anywhere and remain easy to use and navigate while being pleasant to the eyes.
05-29-2017 07:01 PM