Lollipop is about to be pushed out in a couple of days to fulfill our sugary needs, a large part of which is a new visual style called Material design. And what is a new design vision if no guidelines exist for developers to follow? Google have posted a checklist for developers to follow to ensure their apps meet the Material Design specifications on the android developers blog.
Here are the headers for each step in creating an app that follows the guideline:
Tangible Surfaces – “UIs consist of surfaces (pieces of “digital paper”) arranged at varying elevations, casting shadows on surfaces behind them.”
A Bold, Print like Aesthetic – “The “digital ink” you draw on those pieces of digital paper is informed by classic print design, with an emphasis on bold use of color and type, contextual imagery, and structured whitespace.”
Authentic Motion – “Motion helps communicate what’s happening in the UI, providing visual continuity across app contexts and states. Motion also adds delight using smaller-scale transitions. Motion isn’t employed simply for motion’s sake.”
And last, but not least Adaptive Design – “Tangible surfaces, bold graphic design, and meaningful motion work together to bring a consistent experience across any screen, be it phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, TVs, wearables, or even cars. Additionally, the key UI patterns below help establish a consistent character for the app across devices.”
Hopefully developers will decide to follow these guidelines so we get some sweet design unity quite soon. Do you like Material Design? Developers, are you planning on implementing the new design language?
