What is Material Design ?

Material Design is an Android-oriented design language created by Google, supporting onscreen touch experiences via cue-rich features and natural motions that mimic real-world objects. Designers optimize users’ experience with 3D effects, realistic lighting and animation features in immersive, platform-consistent GUIs.

Material Design – Why Users trust “Realer” Interfaces

Material Design emerged as Google’s brainchild in mid-2014, codenamed “Quantum Paper” and representing a fresh “ink-and-pen” approach. With Material Design, the goal is to deliver high-quality output consistently across platforms, giving users control over clearly indicated, pleasant-looking components that behave like real-world objects. Unlike the portrayal of culture-relevant items (e.g., wastebaskets) in skeuomorphism, with Material Design designers apply basic, natural laws from the physical world, principally concerning lighting and motion. The idea is that by mimicking the physical world, we reduce users’ cognitive loads through careful attention to layout, visual language and pattern library, maximizing predictability and eliminating ambiguity. Material Design’s “card” concept serves as a system for layering elements and animations; it also permits a more personalized experience (e.g., showing followers on Twitter).

“Unlike real paper, our digital material can expand and reform intelligently. Material has physical surfaces and edges. Seams and shadows provide meaning about what you can touch.”

— Matias Duarte, VP of Material Design at Google

It’s vital for Material Design to meet users’ expectations of how components should behave. For instance, onscreen objects are more credible if they follow the laws of gravity.