This week Google announced the launch of Android 5.0 Lollipop,
the most radical design overhaul of Android since it launched in late
2008. Six weeks ago Apple announced iOS 8, one of the most exciting and
expansive releases of iOS since it debuted in 2007 (under the name
‘Mobile OS X’). It is now time to put them head-to-head.
Design – Material Design vs Flat Design
For Apple the hard work was done last year with iOS 7. Out went Steve Jobs’ beloved skeuomorphism
and in came minimalist flat design. It wasn’t met with universal praise
and it certainly became more cartoonish, but iOS 7 was clean, modern
and established Apple’s new design language.
iOS 8 builds on this good work adding more consistency and refining
iconography, but it also has some smart design tweaks with regards to
notifications, widgets, multi-tasking and keyboard interaction which
I’ll go into in more detail in the Features section on the next page.
iOS 8 (left) and Android 5.0 Lollipop (right) homescreens – image credit: Gordon Kelly
In addition to this iOS 8 makes better use of gestures for
navigation: most notably a swipe from the left edge to go back and a
double tap of the home button for ‘Reachability’ which slides the whole
screen down. These are smart moves given the jump in screen size with
both the iPhone 6 and, in particular, the iPhone 6 Plus.
By contrast Android 5.0 Lollipop represents the biggest redesign in
Android history. Like iOS 7, it sees Google ditch almost all vestiges of
skeuomorphism in favour of a flatter, more minimalist design. But
unlike iOS, Material Design is more than respray. It is an ideology.
As the name suggests, Material Design is more about physicality than
superficiality. It has specific physical rules about how buttons should
react when touched, how different UI layers should interact and how
animations are both trigger and unfold and this is being pushed on third
party app developers as well.
The aim of all this is to not only introduce a highly consistent
experience for the user, but to enhance their understanding of what is
happening. For example, animations originate from the point of contact,
key action buttons are highlighted in a standout colour and layouts are
consistent from app to app.
Comparing the iOS 8 and Android 5.0 Lollipop is a shock, because for
the first time in Android history it has become more design focused than
iOS. The ugly duckling is finally a swan. Its design is both visual,
instructional and altogether more ambitious.
Not everything is right out of the gate. If anything Material Design
is overly white and spread out (you can see less information in most
apps – eg fewer emails, lines of text, etc) whereas its predecessor
Android 4.4 KitKat was too dark and dense.
Android 4.4 KitKat (above) and Android 5.0 Lollipop (below) – soft key redesign will split opinions, especially the reduced size
Furthermore I’m not the biggest fan of the PlayStation
controller-inspired new soft keys and it remains to be seen how Material
Design will be adopted into the skins of third party handset
manufacturers. Much of the good work could be undone.
That said Material Design is not just a huge step forward for
Android, it is something Google will transition to Android Wear and its
browser-based services. It combines visuals and substance into a
methodology with the potential to influence the future design of every
operating system going forward – both desktop and mobile.
Nice review. Thanks you a lot for your opinion. The topic “Material Design vs Flat Design” is very popular now, so we recently have written a similar article. Could you look? We appreciate your ideas.
ReplyDelete