{"id":15272,"date":"2017-02-23T19:42:18","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T03:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/?p=15272"},"modified":"2026-05-08T02:17:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:17:03","slug":"web-design-trends-2017-year-material-design-lite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/web-design-trends-2017-year-material-design-lite\/","title":{"rendered":"Web Design Trends 2017: The Year of Material Design Lite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without a doubt, touches of Material Design are the must-have aesthetic of the year.<\/p>\n

Google’s Android-based design scheme may have started as a mobile device interface, but has exploded in popularity and usage, regardless of device or platform.<\/p>\n

It’s a natural continuation of the biggest trend in design during the past few years: flat design. Yet, Material does something flat never could, it adds just enough embellishment to enhance usability. Instead of stripping everything away to favor visual appeal, at the root of Material Design is usability.<\/p>\n

What’s Material Design Lite?<\/h2>\n

\"Material \"Android<\/p>\n

Photo credit: <\/em>Android<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Material Design Lite, or MDL, is the next phase of Material Design. It takes the ideas and optimizes them for all devices. MDL has been crafted to include guidelines, components, and an overall framework with templates and tools that help nearly every designer craft an MDL website with minimal prior knowledge up front.<\/p>\n

MDL essentially makes the concept accessible to everyone in a quick and easy way.<\/p>\n

While MDL may be a variant of “classic” Material Design, it is in no way a lesser version. Most sites designed with MDL are robust, easy to use, and visually pleasing.<\/p>\n

The idea of MDL goes back to the mission of Material Design<\/a> as a whole: “Develop a single underlying system that allows for a unified experience across platforms and device sizes. Mobile precepts are fundamental, but touch, voice, mouse, and keyboard are all \ufb01rst-class input methods.”<\/p>\n

If that weren’t enough, every part of MDL is open source. Rules, templates, best practices, and code snippets are available on the MDL website<\/a> or GitHub.<\/p>\n

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Sign up for a free trial.<\/span>Try it for free!<\/a><\/section>\n

The Principles of Physics<\/h2>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Photo credit: <\/em>Rumchata<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The foundations of this style’s aesthetic come from physics. The designer should aim to create something that looks and functions like it would (or could) in the physical world.<\/p>\n

This simple concept is what supports the innate usability of Material. Consider all of the design tools that rely on this idea\u2014layering, cards, motion, color.<\/p>\n

\"MDF<\/p>\n

Photo credit: <\/em>MDF<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Best<\/p>\n

Photo credit: <\/em>Serio Verify<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

To understand how to create these elements in a way that looks truly Material, let’s think back to physics<\/a> class, for a moment.<\/p>\n