I haven’t been much of a fan of Google’s design hierarchies, but it looks like it’s Material Design is about to change things for the better. Google has announced an Android version of the demo quiz app Topeka, available just like before through Github.
Transitions, animations, FAB placement, and even vector drawables are all represented beautifully.
Google had released Topeka’s web app last year to highlight the workings of Materal Design and show off the might of Polymer, with an aim to provide a smoother transition for developers hoping to use the Material Design in their projects.
The project also highlights some of the best material design features of the Android 5.0 SDK and the new Android Design Library.Though the project currently supports only API 21+, requests have already been made by developers to support earlier versions as well.
Material Design is pretty young, but plenty of app developers have started using it. Some of the best material Design apps we have seen on the Play Store so far are Cabinet Beta, Apex Launcher and Cerberus Anti-Theft. Do know that you will require Android Lollipop on your device to witness the might of Material Design.
An interesting thing to be noted is that Google has been introducing changes based on Material Design since 2011 itself. Gmail got a flatter design in 2011 and in 2012, Google Now got ‘layered cards’ with well defined typographies.
Material design is here to stay for good and change things drastically. It promises a consistent app experience across platforms Android and web. Any developer will tell you how even modest updates for multiple platforms can prove to be a difficult task. However, with Material Design, Google might just be giving us the evidence that this can be performed even at a larger scale.
