Why we love Material Design?
In June 2014, at the famous I/O conference, Google revealed its new material design language. They listened to their users’ feedback and decided to raise their game in the design field. Material design, the new visual language created by Google, is an effort to synthesize the classic principles of good design with the tech and science innovation, hoping to impact the future of digital design.
Scaling great design and bringing it to everyone is no easy task. That’s why developers welcome having better design processes and practices. The new design philosophy also comes with guidelines, principles and visual standards to make it easier for developers to do the right thing, while still leaving freedom to designers to express their creativity. After all, one of the goals of material design is to “develop a single underlying system that allows for a unified experience across platforms and device sizes”.
Material design language is still being improved, but here is why we love it so far:
- we tend to easily understand it, whether we’re users, developers or designers;
- it’s cohesive, thoughtful and bold;
- it offers a unified experience across platforms and device sizes, ratios and pixel densities;
- scaling great design is easy with material design, allowing developers to bring their apps to a new level of usability and delight;
- it’s the simplest way in which the hierarchy of elements is conveyed; the design elements are not just flat, they create the hierarchy, meaning and focus;
- emphasis on motion and microinteractions;
- harmonious colors and beautiful typography;
- it can be adapted to elegantly reflect any brand.
Bold, colorful and minimal, material design addresses many design problems that developers and designers deal with every day. We expect that Google’s effort to standardize and improve the UI and UX to be largely adopted, leading to a much needed consistency across the app and web ecosystem.
Have we convinced you yet? Take a look at Essence, the open source framework implementing the material design principles. It’s built with React.js and Less.js. Give it a try and share your thoughts in the comments.
Mihaela, on behalf of Essence team
