00:00What is material design?
00:02You'll probably have to ask me this a couple times.
00:04So, material design is a system
for designing
00:08interfaces...designing...designing
00:20Material design is a new perspective on what the human and device relationship can be.
00:26Maybe it's too complex of an idea.
00:29Material design is this design philosophy that's really trying to acknowledge the technology
00:34acknowledge the technology behind the
interface.
00:37It's a way for designers to
collaborate with users
00:42Material design is a way for designers to get what they want.
01:00Well, the overarching impetus was really just a bunch of designers wanting to make things better.
01:05A lot of this happened organically
01:07as designers across the company sought to find ways to collaborate.
01:11We realized it wasn't just an Android story or just a
01:13Google story but it could be really
01:14a cross platform design framework story
01:17the current way of doing things was was
clashing in all kinds of ways because we
01:22hadn't been thoughtful about the physics of it.
01:24why don't we take that and run with that a
little bit, and see if we could
01:28figure out, you know, what is this made of...
01:31what is the material that our software is made of?
01:36what he described as quantum paper. In
order to create these these rich,
01:40tactile user interfaces, and that idea of
01:43it being mostly paper like
01:47but smart paper served as a point of
view
01:51about how your surfaces work and why.
01:54There's a very very clear parallel
between
01:57the systems book design and the way that humans also
02:00hold and use devices. People use materials
02:04in life every day, and we want them to
understand software in the same way.
02:07When we're thinking about how a digital surface works, you think about all the
02:11shortcomings and advantages it has
02:13one of the main things that we run into is
that you have this sort of flat plate of glass
02:16which is great because you can -
02:18it's easy to move around - but it also prevents you from actually being able to touch the things
02:21you're working with.
02:22Inside this device there is actually a
little bit space
02:28well let's try and take advantage of that,
and create a meaningful structure
02:32that goes underneath it, almost like the
skeleton filling out this body
02:36from the inside out.
02:37Material design early on was almost like we were going
02:41out and trying experiments
02:42Yeah, it was totally an experiment.
02:44Everyone kinda sat next to each other in a room
02:47all the different aspects and components
together.
02:50...kinda riffing off each other
02:51It's one thing to play by yourself - it's another thing to play in a group where you're improvising real-time.
02:56I think a lot of us are used to working
more practically
02:59This is the first time where we were
being pushed and told--don't worry about that
03:03let's just see what happens now.
03:09This is something that we've done a few times
03:13We've set up these light rigs to understand how
03:16the shadows work. The depth cues that
come from the shadows
03:19really made us think more deeply about
03:23how do we communicate surface? We built a system that enforces
03:28that the light comes in a 45 degree
angles that helps keep the shadows
03:32consistent from the top to the bottom of
the screen
03:35even as we were designing out the icons, we started to see some really interesting
03:38subtleties you wouldn't normally notice, but
03:40these are things we pick up on and help
us to understand that it's a surface.
03:46The strips are spacers
03:48measured out to scale to the way
they're
03:51model digitally, so not just x & y but also in z.
03:59The Floating Action Button, the FAB,
04:01the way that we said there's just one
thing stop
04:04with your five buttons here four buttons--make the call--
04:09I thought that was great, and it was not
an idea that I was comfortable with at
04:13A button sounds like such a simple
concept,
04:16though when we kinda took it down to its
basics of
04:20well it's this area on screen that lets
the user perform an
04:24action, it's a very concentrated thing
04:27that should make you feel powerful and
like they're able to complete something.
04:32There were little things like having buttons that depress--felt
04:35a little bit odd because they're not actually depressing--your finger doesn't feel anything
04:38in fact, this like, millimeter layer of
glass between you and the actual
04:42image means that you're not even getting
to it in the first place.
04:45So instead we reversed it, so we had buttons that lifted up when you touch them so
04:48it was more of a magnetic
04:50attraction of your finger. There's a logic to
it, but also magic in it.
04:54Past the motion, there was the graphic
design aspect--the boldness
04:57the typography, the imagery. Those were
all intended to give the system a bit
05:02you want people to feel comfortable with
it, but we wanted it to feel very well
05:05We created this color spectrum around
picking sort of primary color and then
05:10using an accent color
05:11creating this really simplified and easy
to use system, while being very definitive
05:16someone who never took a color theory
class
05:18could create a combination of colors
within their product that felt harmonious.
05:24I design fonts, and one of the things I
really like about that
05:28is the font doesn't come to life until another person uses it.
05:32and we really see Roboto as a living typeface that,
05:36you know, as as needs change in as we
introduce new form factors
05:40as we need it to do more things, we can
continue to revise and continue to update it.
05:44I think a challenge for material design
will actually be
05:48the designers' toolset having to evolve
as fast
05:52as technology is and the platforms evolve.
05:56To constantly be reevaluating itself and to constantly be thinking about
06:00what's no longer relevant. What did we think was universal, but turned out to
06:05or simply the wrong emphasis?
06:07What I love is when people
06:09take sort of the basic principles of
material design
06:13and then they take them in a new
direction.
06:15Now that we've published the
06:16material design specs,
06:17I'm really excited about the fact that
we can go and engage other designers
06:23One of the things I wanted was for third-party designers to take this foundation and build greater design upon it--
06:26the same is true for us internally.
06:29looking four years down the road, 10
years down the road, and saying,
06:32well material design--all those ideas, those frameworks--they're over.
06:36The principles behind them, I think,
should be timeless. Maybe we don't have
06:41but I believe we'll get there.
