Material Design

Material Design (codenamed Quantum Paper) is a design language developed by Google in 2014. Expanding on the "cards" UI that debuted in Google Now, Material Design uses more grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and depth effects such as lighting and shadows. Google announced the initial version of Material Design on June 25, 2014, at the 2014 Google I/O conference. The purpose of developing Material Design was to create a novel visual language, synthesizing the classic principles of good design with the innovation and potential of technology and science. Head designer Matías Duarte explained that "unlike real paper, our digital material expands and reforms intelligently. Material has physical surfaces and edges. Seams and shadows provide meaning about what you can touch." Material Design is based on paper-and-ink and skeuomorphic interaction concepts, but its implementation is more advanced. In 2021, Google revamped the design language, with the new language being titled Material You (Material Design 3). It provides more flexibility for designers to create custom themes with varying geometry, colors, and typography. In 2025, the next evolution of the design language, titled "Material 3 Expressive", was unveiled.