Today at the Google I/O conference Matias Duarte, the VP of design for Android, revealed Google’s new design direction. Much like Apple, Google is betting that the future of design means a simple, cohesive visual language across all devices. Google is calling it Material Design. There are a few hallmarks: Stripped down geometries and grids that make better use of white-space and give menus an airy feel; ink-splash animations that respond to inputs; and the illusion of layers and depth. “What if pixels didn’t just have color, but also depth?” he asked. “What if there was a material that was as simple as paper but could transform and change shape in response to touch?” To that end, Material Design will allow designers to define an elevation for every pixel. In turn, those elevations will trigger shadows that let multiple cards to layer over one another in an easy-to-intuit way.
In the video you see how this idea of Material Design could lend itself to a new layered visual language for Android’s various apps. The concept is most clearly illustrated in the calendar app, where you watch as days can pop out and overlay on the week for a zoomed-in vision. It’s tactile, dynamic and a radical departure from Google’s previous design language, which for a long time had been covered in visual details that made it hard to distinguish decorative flourishes from functional elements. Like Apple before it, Google is betting that to continue to expand it’s ecosystem, the elements in it will have to communicate more simply and clearly.
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