Material Design (codename Quantum Paper) is a

design language A design language or design vocabulary is an overarching scheme or style that guides the design of a complement of products or architectural settings, creating a coherent design system for styling. Objectives Designers wishing to give their su ...

developed by

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in 2014. Expanding on the "cards" UI that debuted in

Google Now Google Now was a feature of Google Search of the Google app for Android and iOS. Google Now proactively delivered information to users to predict (based on search habits and other factors) information they might need in the form of information ...

, 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

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conference. The purpose of developing Material Design was to create a novel visual language, synthesizing the classic principles of

good design The Good Design movement was an artistic movement or design concept that originated in the 1930s, but took form principally in the United States immediately after the Second World War. Designs made under the influence of Good Design include buil ...

with the innovation and possibility of technology and science. Head designer

Matías Duarte Matías Duarte is a Chilean Americans, Chilean-American User interface design, computer interface designer and Google's Vice President of Design. Prior to his current role, he was the Director of Android (operating system), Android User Experience ...

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 as well as

skeuomorphic A skeuomorph (also spelled skiamorph, ) is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs are typically used to make something new feel familiar in an effort t ...

interaction concepts, but implementation happens in a more advanced manner. In 2018, Google revamped the language (Material Design 2), providing more flexibility for designers to create custom themes with varying geometry, colors, and typography. In 2021, a further evolution of the design language, titled Material You (Material Design 3), was unveiled. In 2025, the next evolution of the design language, titled "Material 3 Expressive", was unveiled.

Implementation

Material Design have been gradually extended throughout Google's array of web and mobile products, providing a consistent experience across all platforms and applications. Google has also released

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that des ...

s (APIs) for third-party developers to incorporate the design language into their applications. The

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open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

implementation of Material Design for web application user interfaces is called Material Web.

Updates

Material Design 2

After the 2018 revamp, Google began redesigning most of their apps based on an updated set of principles and guidelines dubbed "Material Design 2", which appeared on

Android Pie Android Pie ( codenamed Android P during development), also known as Android 9 (API 28) is the ninth major release and the 16th version of the Android mobile operating system. It was first released as a developer preview on March 7, 2018, and ...

. It provided a larger focus on customization of the basic Material Design components to adapt to the branding of the products in which it is being used. The updated guidelines further heavily emphasizes white space, rounded corners, colorful icons, and bottom navigation bars. Google began utilizing a special size-optimized version of their proprietary

Product Sans Product Sans is a geometric sans-serif typeface created by Google for branding purposes. It replaced the old Google logo on September 1, 2015. As Google's branding was becoming more apparent on multiple device types, Google sought to adapt its de ...

font called Google Sans.

Material Design 3 (Material You)

in May 2021, Google announced a new concept on

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known as "Material You" (also known as "Material Design 3"), emphasizing increased animation, larger buttons, and the ability for custom UI themes to be generated from the user's wallpaper. Material You was gradually rolled out to various Google apps on older Android versions in the following months, and acted as a major focus on the

Pixel 6 The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are a pair of Android (operating system), Android phablet smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successor to the Pixel 5. T ...

and

Pixel 6 Pro The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are a pair of Android phablet smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successor to the Pixel 5. The phones were first previ ...

smartphone series.

Material 3 Expressive

At The Android Show: I/O Edition in May 2025, Google announced "Material 3 Expressive" for

Android 16 Android 16 is the sixteenth and Android version history, latest major release of Android (operating system), Android, the mobile operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance and led by Google. The first developer preview was released ...

and Wear OS 6. This version of Material Design shares similarities to its predecessor but has increased animation and is more colorful and modern.

References

External links

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Material Design 1
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Material Design 2
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Material Design 3
{{Google LLC 2014 software Design languages Google Graphical user interfaces Touch user interfaces