Luke Wroblewski, Chief Design Architect at Yahoo!, has put together a nice little collection of Windows Phone 7 Series “teases and transitions”, and dives a bit deeper into them on his personal blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUeNCzRhhDE

On his blog post, Luke describes the effects:

Teasing

The Windows Phone home screen teases people with a slight animation that hints at the content below the home screen image.

…

The Windows Phone also makes use of truncation throughout the user interface. Each of the main application screens include a tease of the content on the next screen over

Transitions

Transitions also help communicate interactions. When users move between screens, interaction components fly in or swivel highlighting the fact they are active and can be touched.

Has Microsoft really transitioned itself from being a designer’s laughingstock to somewhat of a design showcase?  If Windows Phone can help to turn that perception around it may be a successful venture no matter how well the phone itself does.

You can read more about these effects (and some caveats on using them too much without being able to turn them off) on Luke’s blog.