This morning, Google updated their material design guidelines. Which is basically a set of design guidelines for developers to follow. While it’s not mandatory, Google would like everyone to use them. So that users can get pretty much the same experience across Android. This update to the Material Design guidelines brings a whole host of new sections to the guidelines. Some of the new stuff in this update to the material design guidelines include:
“Data tables: guidance on presenting data sets, particularly in desktop products. Units and measurements: a description of the different units used in material design, including guidance on using density-independent pixels (DPs). App structure: suggestions for top-level navigation in your app. Component sticker sheet for After Effects to help streamline your motion design workflow. Floating action buttons now have their own section, with added guidance on behavior and transitions. Updated guidance on Typography, Cards, Dialogs, Tabs and Scrolling.”
They’ve also added some changes to typography and cards in this update to the guidelines. You can have a look at them all by using the source link below. It’s great to see Google adding these changes to the guidelines, and it’ll make material designed apps even better. Now we just need Google to finish updating all of their own apps to material design. And include these new guidelines as well. Then I think we’ll all be happy.
Material Design was introduced last year at Google I/O in San Francisco, as part of Android L, which was later named Android Lollipop. While Material Design looks the best on Android Lollipop, it does also look pretty decent on older devices too, like the Sony Xperia Z3 that I have here running on KitKat still. The only huge difference I’ve seen from material design apps on KitKat vs Lollipop is the tinted status bar.
We’ve seen a lot of apps getting updated to material design lately. With the latest one being WhatsApp. Even though that’s not officially ready, and you do need to sideload the APK to use the material design version, it is here. Which is a great thing.