What is Material Design?
Material Design is a design language developed by Google. It defines the design elements of applications that run on Android. It makes use of grid layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, depth, layering, and bold colours and shadows.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What is the difference between Material Design and Holo?
Material Design is the evolution of Holo. The main idea behind it is to create a more flexible and consistent design language across different platforms and devices.
Question #2: What is the purpose of Material Design?
Material Design is the result of Google’s desire to improve the user experience of Android apps. It aims to make these apps more consistent and understandable to users, which results in things such as:
- Increased usage
- Increased engagement
- Increased user base
Another thing is, it is designed to do is to allow for the creation of more flexible user interfaces that can run smoothly (and beautifully) on different devices while still maintaining a consistent overall look and feel.
At the end of the day, Material Design’s purpose can be broken down into four basic goals:
- Provide delight through consistency in all product experiences
- Increase usability through familiarity, expectation, and relatedness
- Reduce cognitive load through clarity, signifiers, and deference
- Encourage interaction using motion, shapes, and grids
The most important principle behind it is the creation of a unified experience across all of Google’s touchpoints. This idea of being consistent across platforms applies not just to the apps themselves—like Android, Chrome OS, and the Google website—but also to the experiences that occur within those apps.
Question #3: Why should I use it?
You should use it because it is more than just a collection of style guidelines. It has a comprehensive collection of rules to help you deal with virtually any design problem you could think of. This includes complicated use cases that are often missed by other design systems.
For this reason, designers who want this kind of structure might find it very comforting.
It also has extensive documentation on how to use it. For a lot of modern design systems, this kind of support and documentation is often lacking.
Question #4: What are the downsides when using it?
The main downsides to using material design are as follows:
- Material Design, which is instantly identifiable, is strongly associated with Google and Android. This isn’t necessarily bad for everyone, but it could be a problem for some in terms of branding.
While brands can use their logos and color palettes—in addition to other distinguishing factors—within Material Design to help strengthen their branding, there is a big chance that the finished product will still have that distinct Google/Android look and feel.
- Websites and apps that do not use motion or animation may appear to be missing something. This is because Material Design heavily encourages the use of both.
- Heavy animation can use up a lot of resources on mobile devices. This can lead to higher data usage and quicker battery drain. This is something you should consider if you ever decide to work within the Material Design guidelines.
- Material Design is more complex than other alternatives. This means beginners might find it much more challenging to learn and master.
- Some designers feel constrained by its comprehensiveness. Because Material Design has a solution for almost every design problem, it can limit creativity and innovation. This can be helpful in some cases but it can also hinder your ability to find novel solutions and come up with creative ideas.
- Its emphasis on using icons instead of text can cause usability issues. While some icons are instantly recognizable, others are not—which can leave a lot of users feeling lost and frustrated.
For instance, for most users, it is much more difficult to identify a circle home button than the house icon used previously in Android devices.