Google Unveils New Cross Platform Design Language “Material Design”

[psycopk]

Google announced a new universal design language as part of the forthcoming “L” release of Google’s Android mobile operating system, which it’s calling “Material Design.” The design is meant to offer a more consistent, universal look-and-feel across mobile, tablets, desktop and “beyond,” the company explains.

“We imagined… what if pixels didn’t just have color, but also depth? What if there was a material that could change its texture? This lead us to something we call ‘material design,” says Matias Durate, Director of Android operating system User Experience at Google, during the keynote this morning.

Some of the key features of the new design include an updated version of the system font, Roboto, as well as bold, and dramatic colors, and highly-polished animations.

Durate also quickly walked through the changes in the new framework, which it’s also releasing publicly today at google.com/design. The idea is to put this framework in the hands of developers who build on Google’s platforms, so all apps have a consistent look, similar to how Apple has its own design guidelines for Mac and iOS developers.

 

The company is also introducing new redesigned versions of Google’s flagship apps using this new language, included Gmail and Calendar, for both Android and the web. You may recall reading about these changes recently, when some blogs got ahold of leaked versions of screenshots showing Gmail’s redesign, featuring a cleaner and simpler interface.

On Android, the new look is called “Material,” and it supports a variety of new animation capabilities, has built-in realtime UI shadows, and “hero” elements that can be passed from screen-to-screen.

The open-sourced framework Polymer, which was also mentioned during last Google I/O was also mentioned as being a way for developers to create building blocks which work with this new design language.

[k2s]

Why r u so much interested in GOOG these days maaya? R u planning to jump