this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by rokzoi to c/android
 

Are you guys tired of the "Material You" design? I don't really like the huge paddings on everything aspect of it. Also a lot of it feels too flat. What do you guys think?

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[–] [email protected] 109 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (12 children)

As a UI/UX designer myself (hobbyist, to be clear), I really like it.

There seems to be this notion in the homebrew/FOSS/Linux community that "wasted space" is always non-preferable. I can see this being true for some people, but I feel like a lot of people are band wagoning this opinion.

It's pretty universally known and accepted in the design community that padding is extremely important when it comes to helping your brain read and separate content. And to be fair, most non-tech people prefer space and padding in their applications to make things easier to understand.

I can be entirely off base here, but TLDR: I like padding and it's literally beneficial to helping your brain understand the layout of what you're looking at better.

[–] Zeus 22 points 2 years ago (7 children)

personal opinion, i think padding is worse for delineating objects than a bit of colour; or just, like, a line. look at this example - there are four distinct segments on the left, whereas on the right they all merge into one and a half

padding is really useful, yes, but if you put padding on everything then what's there to be separated?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The one on the right looks like different buttons and that everything is clickable. A quick glance shows you different elements and you can easily find what you're looking for. An example of form and function working together.

The one on the left looks like a text area showing different symbols. A quick glance shows you a blue area and a white area. Seems like you need that extra moment to find what you want because everything looks the same. An example of function over form.

Cramming a lot of things together isn't always good (probably it's just bad in general) because it just makes things confusing and ends up wasting time more than having bigger things but less of them.

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[–] rokzoi 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's nice to see your perspective on it, you make some great points.

Its funny how the places that I dislike the most (status bar toggles and recently google search) are used often and thus do not need the benefits of reading and content separation. You already know by heart what it says and where they are.

Maybe I would like it more if the big padding would only be used in places where I do not interact often with. This would make consistency difficult though.

[–] wason 7 points 2 years ago

Good point but just because you know where certain things are on screen, that doesn't mean everybody knows. So you have to account for that too. Like design considering that that's the first time someone's looking at that screen.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

UI dev here. To add to this, good use of “negative space / white apace” is also beneficial in signalling abundance. The more negative space you can afford to “waste”, the more resources you signal to have.

Luxury brand ads are good examples. Compare this Citizen Watch ad (https://images.app.goo.gl/mALYonDz6qzKJjuJ6) to this (https://images.app.goo.gl/sTXzyrFXNDUxR8AR9)

https://boagworld.com/design/why-whitespace-matters/

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[–] Dark_Blade 12 points 2 years ago

There’s a fine line between desirable ‘white space’ and too much padding, which Google should probably do a better job at finding.

[–] rtxn 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

While you're here, I'm curious about your opinion on the latest Spotify client design. It feels like they want to bring the desktop design closer to the touch screen client (maybe to reduce the codebase not shared by the projects). Personally, having grown up with Winamp, I find it very uncomfortable how images are dominant in both list and grid views, and how much space is left (really wasted) around texts. I think it's just a very inefficient interface with way too much useless visual fluff.

spoiler

(the application on the left is a terminal-based client that really only needs a tiny corner on the screen)

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[–] dantheclamman 7 points 2 years ago

Padding sometimes seems like it's used as a crutch to get around placing stuff more thoughtfully. I agree there's nothing inherently wrong with it, but it is particularly annoying in feeds where it results in an excessive amount of scrolling

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[–] AnalogyAddict 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

As a professional UX designer, the padding is the least of the issues.

I'm hoping I get used to it, but I miss more skeuomorphic design. It's like a designer wanted to push it to be edgy and forgot about real people using it.... which describes the bulk of Apple design, too, for that matter. I think we overshot the balance point.

Edit: forgot my real point halfway through commenting: I will say even that isn't the worst of it, though. The dynamic theming is a bit of a branding nightmare.

[–] Skyraptor7 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I miss the UI from android 4.3.. it was so clean and minimal.

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[–] MattyXarope 23 points 2 years ago

I'm not upset by it because, like all Google design eras, nearly no one uses it uniformly.

[–] bizzle 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm over pastel colors, honestly. I want bold, vibrant colors. At least the option. It feels like Google is stripping more and more customizability with every update.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 years ago

The dynamic colors are a fucking nightmare. No, I don't want all my ui elements to be the same color as my girlfriend's skin tone. And the worst is even if I change it, it resets every update. I also don't like the new quick access controls in the pull down. This is really the first Android update that's felt like a flat downgrade for me.

[–] Rac3r4Life 20 points 2 years ago

No, not at all. I am really fond of Material You. I think it is a nice mix of modern and playful. The colors are great too. I seek out applications that adhere to the material you standards and allow for using system colors. I have a Pixel 7 and a Pixel Watch. I'm excited to see what Material You looks like on the watch when the Wear OS 4 update comes.

[–] faltuuser 18 points 2 years ago

Big fan of material you.

[–] eighty 15 points 2 years ago

Design preferences has a tendency to be "cyclical" appearing to be tiresome. That's fine and an encouraged strength of customisablility.

The issue is unified design language across android devices. Material You attempts to solve this to limited success. But it's better than the alternatives I've seen in the past.

The over-padding (especially default widgets) is something I take issue with but it's a preference and can easily be adjusted.

[–] isdfoa 15 points 2 years ago

I'm a fan - also I think material you allows for good interpretation/flexibility in terms of branding so that not all apps look exactly the same cookie cutter style.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

Absolutely not.

I'm way more tired of the designs before it, or the apps halfway into the design language but not really. Especially if it is to the point where just using the material you colours you have seperates it, signal comes to mind there for example.

Some apps can keep their design layout but please let me use my material you colours anyways

[–] Zeus 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

yeah, i hated material ew as soon as it was announced. so much padding everywhere, and so little contrast - to paraphrase the incredibles: if everything's orange^[1]^, nothing is. your eyes will adjust to it. i want actionable items to stand out, not be a slightly lighter shade of the same colour. it also looks rather like a fischer-price my first phone interface

i must say, if an app (for example, jerboa) uses material 3, i usually try to look for an alternative

[1] other colours are available, i just like orange


edit: some examples:

with material design, it's clear what's a header, what's a footer,^[2]^ and what each button's state is.

with all the padding, there's also less space; leading to less functionality

with material ew, it's much harder to tell at a glance what each app is, one has to scrutinise the icon rather than just tell at a glance by colour

i also really dislike monet; the way it pulls this horrible washed out sickly pastel colour from a wallpaper and washes it over the entire app. if i just pulled one accent colour, and applied that to, say, the header and main action button, i'd like it a lot more

[2] look at the lack of contrast on that "new post" button

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[–] jacktherippah 12 points 2 years ago

No, I wish more app used it. It's really fun and looks beautiful.

[–] Never_Sm1le 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The only thing I hate about MY is its comically big quick settings. Give me back the Android 11 quick settings and it will be fine (the Internet QS be damned)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

My main complaint is the amount of padding everything has, it makes things feel so cramped, even on a big screen. Increasing the information density would really improve the design, imo. Making colors more saturated would be cool too.

But other than that, the design is growing on me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

Definitely not, first of all I love pastel colors and, on the more practical side of things, at least for touch interfaces I do prefer to have some padding: even on larger screens (my current phone is 6.7") I tend to prefer larger and more padded interfaces to avoid hitting the wrong one (and that's the main reason why I don't like to type on a phone that much).

So I might even be in the minority but having a control center with larger but less buttons on each page is exactly what I prefer, I don't mind having to scroll if it's easier to toggle what I need to.

[–] Hell 9 points 2 years ago

i don't completely hate it, but seeing the same same UI in every app doesn't feel good.

[–] iliketurtles 9 points 2 years ago

I find it and other modern designs to be boring, but I don't hate it.

[–] Ghona76 9 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Ironically, one of the reasons I left Reddit in the first place was because I knew that old.reddit.com was going to be next on the chopping block and I hated the new design.

I'm resigned to the fact that I won't be able to avoid that aesthetic, even with a move to Lemmy since old.lemmy.world obviously doesn't exist (I'd love it though).

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[–] T156 8 points 2 years ago

I'm personally not that fond of it, and kind of want it to blow over in favour of a new trend.

It lacks the charm, and neat little 3D effects that skeumorphism had, but that's also not helped by it being implemented poorly.

[–] xyzinferno 8 points 2 years ago

I was offput by it so much on my last phone that I rooted it (first time rooting any Android) just to override it as much as I possibly could. For me, it wasn't because of the flatness, but entirely because of the huge padding.

The volume slider, which was a thin stripe before, now looks like a comically large bar for no reason at all. Small circular icons on the notification shade which could fit 4 in one row, now only fit 2 in a row. Pulling down the notification shade still let you see the screen behind it, but now it grays it out entirely.

As for the custom color selection, the main gimmick of Material You, it is entirely hit or miss. On my own phone, Pixel 3, I used a red/maroon color, and on my new phone, Pixel 5, I use a mint green.

There's situations where my chosen color looks really good, and others where it looks horrendous. As it turns out, having one universal color choice for things ranging from the notification shade icons, time display on the lock screen, calculator, etc. makes it difficult to find one color that looks good for all of them.

TL;DR: I hated it when it came out. I have gotten used to it now, but still dislike it immensely.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

I love it and I wish more apps used it, it's actually a really good design interface and android's bigger problem is design fracturing than any particular design paradigm being bad. So many iOS apps feel like part of the same platform, and so many reddit apps are still using fucking holo UI

[–] seafootball 8 points 2 years ago

I actually like it very much!

[–] dustojnikhummer 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Give me back Android 7, just in dark mode

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I like it fine, I just wish Google (and Microsoft, Apple, etc) would decide on a consistent UI theme instead of completely changing it every few years. They don't even have time get all their first party apps up to date with the latest design trend before they move on to a new one, and third party apps are even worse. I have apps on my phone in like 4 different UI styles now.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

I can't stand it, honestly. I recently moved from a samsung phone after like a decade of using nothing but samsung to a pixel phone and I really dislike how fat random ui elements are. The volume control is confusing to look at because it's gigantic, there's less quick settings tiles because the ones you do get are giant, and I dont really like the colour tint across the entire OS. Just because my wallpaper has grass in it, my whole phone shouldn't be baby shit green.

[–] applejacks 7 points 2 years ago

Barely any of my apps use it lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

It definitely grew on me over time, and as more apps began to embrace it. Really well-detailed apps, like Sync, showed the true potential of what Material You can be like. It's also a little easier to distinguish the pastel and tint in sunlight (at least with sunglasses on), so that's a major plus.

[–] s6original 7 points 2 years ago

I love Material You. And thanks to Android if you can't stand it you don't have to use it. It's nice to have options.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

I'm still liking it a lot.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What's the biggest difference between Material and Material You, other than the custom colorization?

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[–] ilickfrogs 7 points 2 years ago

Personally I love it. It was certainly a very jarring change from what I'd grown accustomed to in the years prior. But it's playful while also being clean and professional. Hope more devs implement it in their apps as time goes on.

[–] dinckelman 6 points 2 years ago

I thought it looked really weird before I got to use it, and I still think that, now that both the apps I use, and my OS, have received the updated to M-You. I think it uses the available space horribly, and the color schemes it attempts to provide never feel like what I want

[–] kratoz29 6 points 2 years ago

I love it, and also monet.

[–] evil_opossum 6 points 2 years ago

Not "tired" of it, but I'm looking forward to more colour options rather than just pastel colours that sorta work half the time. I hope I can customize it a bit more in the next release.

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