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Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

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Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#31

Post by gone35 »

hhsnopek wrote: post #3
Someone1234 wrote: post #2

The death of flat/minimalism cannot come soon enough. Unfortunately Google Maps seems to have been swallowed up by it. The current (new?) UI is simply unusable. All I wanted to do earlier was drop the pin at my current location (which Google Maps couldn't divine due to no GPS) and then "Search Nearby" for eating places. Well the pin has gone and now all you get is the street view thingy (yay?) and search nearby is al…

I don't know what you see - I think the new Google Maps is wonderful. Download the are of the map your most in for offline usage. You can also just click on the spot you want to go and it gives you a details about it under the search bar. I don't use Street View at all, takes a little bit longer to load, instead I just use the flat colored map. Embrace the change or be let in the dust of old technology - I see a wond…

I don't know what you see - I think the new Google Maps is wonderful. (...) I see a wonderful new UI that will attract more users and allow other to easily use Google Maps and other products.

Sure; to each their own and "wonderful" is a subjective notion, but it is a fact that the new Google Maps hid/removed functionality from the main screen [1].

It is also a fact that these design choices in effect force users to learn longer workflows/roundabouts for less functionality than before. And it is also a fact that some users are opting out as a result.

The tractable question then is whether the improved use cases you cite are so "wonderful" and valuable for a large enough set of users, they are worth the collateral damage imposed upon the broader userbase.

[1] http://www.digital-geography.com/short-announce-the-new-goog...

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#32

Post by jamesaguilar »

luke_s wrote: post #30
nostrademons wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that there are ready-made toolkits for Material that will give you the same design across iOS, Android, and web, and so if it's easy to develop in, why not use them? As a startup founder, I have to say it makes a lot of sense. My core competency is finding & serving my own market, I don't have time to wrestle with designing for 3 platforms. I'm guessing that the strategic advantage is to cut off A…

Yikes! Its embrace/extend/extinguish applied to design, and we just hit extend :-) Frankly though, I can't see any of your huge unknowns ever coming to pass. Almost all startup founders and designers I know use iPhones. Many still have trouble understanding why they should pay attention to Android design at all. If material ever does start to pick up momentum on iOS I can see Apple wielding the ban hammer liberally.…

There is no way google, or anyone, could accomplish the extinguish phase of an eee operation against design.

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#33

Post by luke_s »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #32
luke_s wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes! Its embrace/extend/extinguish applied to design, and we just hit extend :-) Frankly though, I can't see any of your huge unknowns ever coming to pass. Almost all startup founders and designers I know use iPhones. Many still have trouble understanding why they should pay attention to Android design at all. If material ever does start to pick up momentum on iOS I can see Apple wielding the ban hammer liberally.…

There is no way google, or anyone, could accomplish the extinguish phase of an eee operation against design.

Ah - I think perhaps what I meant wasn't clear. Its not against design - its against Apple. The medium the attack is conducted in is design.

Also, because this is the internet and tone doesn't come through very well, my comment is meant to be a bit tongue in cheek. I think the idea that google wants to conduct eee against Apple using design is just a little too far fetched, though there may be a tiny grain of truth in there somewhere.

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#34

Post by MisterBastahrd »

nostrademons wrote: post #23
luke_s wrote: post #12

I think that material is great design, but terrible strategy and in the end may land up resulting in the Android design space being worse, not better. For years google (and many members of the design community) made a very successful argument that android apps should look and act like android apps, and iOS apps should look and act like iOS apps and web apps should act like web apps. Trying to achieve design consisten…

I think the idea is that there are ready-made toolkits for Material that will give you the same design across iOS, Android, and web, and so if it's easy to develop in, why not use them? As a startup founder, I have to say it makes a lot of sense. My core competency is finding & serving my own market, I don't have time to wrestle with designing for 3 platforms. I'm guessing that the strategic advantage is to cut off A…

I've got a couple of personal projects I've been in the planning stages for, and I decided that it was worth my time to get familiar with Material. I don't think it's too much trouble to have applications behave in consistent ways. One of the things that drives me nuts in the desktop app space is when I hit the 'x' to close a window, and instead it minimizes an application to the system tray. I was going to take the weekend off of designing and planning, but instead I'm going to be neck deep in layouts. :)

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#35

Post by eric_the_read »

alttab wrote: post #20
ewoodrich wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree, but I've found many Google UI changes to be lacking in terms of discoverability. On both Android and web apps I've been baffled by icons and buttons with no hints or explanation. Through trial and error I'm generally able to grok the new conventions, but I still get frustrated initially when presented with opaque symbology.

I hate the hidden swipe features. If there is no UI space for it, I'm not literally going to click and swipe around to "discover" shit. using an app, I dont want to have to discover, I want to easily be able to find what I'm looking for. Swiping between map results at the bottom of the new maps was completely unintuitive for me. I was still pinch zooming and clicking on individual results on the map. To "teach" me, t…

I had no idea you could swipe between map results! Wow. Talk about undiscoverable; if they had overlayed instructions for me (which they probably did), I probably just dismissed them without reading because I was trying to find my results.

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#36

Post by oftenwrong »

ewoodrich wrote: post #7
hhsnopek wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what you see - I think the new Google Maps is wonderful. Download the are of the map your most in for offline usage. You can also just click on the spot you want to go and it gives you a details about it under the search bar. I don't use Street View at all, takes a little bit longer to load, instead I just use the flat colored map. Embrace the change or be let in the dust of old technology - I see a wond…

I mostly agree, but I've found many Google UI changes to be lacking in terms of discoverability. On both Android and web apps I've been baffled by icons and buttons with no hints or explanation. Through trial and error I'm generally able to grok the new conventions, but I still get frustrated initially when presented with opaque symbology.

Google seems to love using those "mystery meat icons". They should always include a setting for text labels on clickables. Being able to long press or hover for a tooltip would also be a welcomed addition.

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#37

Post by kevinwang »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

The death of flat/minimalism cannot come soon enough. Unfortunately Google Maps seems to have been swallowed up by it. The current (new?) UI is simply unusable. All I wanted to do earlier was drop the pin at my current location (which Google Maps couldn't divine due to no GPS) and then "Search Nearby" for eating places. Well the pin has gone and now all you get is the street view thingy (yay?) and search nearby is al…

What do you prefer to flat/minimalism?

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#38

Post by psbp »

Tsutsukakushi wrote: post #6

Google is the first big player to do flatness well imo.

I remember thinking that Apple would introduce "ink"-like effects at some point after seeing their new design in iOS 7. I'm surprised that Google did it first, and actually did a great job with it.

Re: Top designers react to Google’s new ‘Material’ design language

#40

Post by aashishkoirala »

aashishkoirala wrote: post #39

The first two reactions politely say that they essentially ripped off Windows, don't they?

Wow that was a speedy downvote. It's almost as if someone's got their finger on the trigger constantly. Stressed much?
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