Announced at the 2014 Google I/O conference and making its first appearance in Android Lollipop, Material Design is the new design language from Google.
This is particularly big news for Android, as Material Design's whole purpose is to provide a more consistent user experience; and as an open platform Android is particularly vulnerable to inconsistencies. Open your Android device's app drawer and spend some time flicking through your apps, and chances are you'll encounter at least a few apps that will look and feel very different from one another.
Material Design sets out to change all this by providing the tools and guidelines that you need to deliver a more unified user experience.
By adhering to Material Design principles, you can create apps that look good, run smoothly, and feel like a seamless extension of the Android platform. And who wouldn't want that?
However, Material Design is more than just a bunch of technical specifications about...