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Material design feels like it was designed entirely to look good with zero regard for usability. It uses way too much padding for everything and wasted tons of

Material design feels like it was designed entirely to look good with zero regard for usability. It uses way too much padding for everything and wasted tons of screen real estate.

lwansbrough 3y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the most extensively usability tested design systems ever. Whether or not that supersedes the hubris of Google designers is another story. Personally I don't have an issue using material design elements as a user.
princevegeta89 3y ago
I always had the impression that it was a design taken blindly to desktop after it ended up getting positive reception on mobile. On desktop, I found it to have weird buttons, weird spacing, weird controls and layouts with hamburger menus all over the place.
- LorenDB 3y ago
  My main complaint is actually with mobile. Phones already have limited screen space. I don't need Google's trash padding taking 20% or more of that away from me. In terms of UI, Android 11 was the last good Android. Anything with Material looks awful. In fact, I will likely switch to Linux or Sailfish OS if possible when I have to replace my Android 11 phone.
  - Macha 3y ago
    I think based on timing your objection is with Material You / Material Design 3 specifically, which replaced Material Design 2 starting in Android 12. Android 11 was already using Material Design (2) (the card theme) which replaced the previous theme, Holo in Android 5. Holo was the cyberpunk-y black with blue highlights interface, though honestly Kitkat (4.4) had already started that trend that led to Material, removing colors from Holo. I'm also not a fan of Material You to be honest, the "colors from your background" gimmick just results in all the colours being muddy boring desaturated ones, and the general low contrast + rounded look just doesn't work for me.
    - LorenDB 3y ago
      OK, you are correct, Material You is the main complaint here. Basic Material isn't that bad, but Material You ruined everything.
- frereubu 3y ago
  The use of hamburger menus on desktop is one of my pet peeves. I get that it's simpler to manage across the vast number of properties that an organisation like Google has, but it's a really suboptimal use of space. Ditto the fact that the "new document" icon in Google Workspace is all the way at the bottom right, even on a huge monitor.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    > Ditto the fact that the "new document" icon in Google Workspace is all the way at the bottom right, even on a huge monitor. Even on mobile it's easy to miss! Google makes it a white button with a thin gray shadow, usually against white rows separated by thin gray lines. If you squint, it literally becomes invisible because its visible weight is identical to its surroundings. IIRC it used to be the solid accent color with white text, so you couldn't miss it. But now it's almost invisible unless you know where to look for it. It really is baffling.
- gustavus 3y ago
  Desktop interface design peaked in Windows 95 and it has been consistently downhill since then.
  - skydhash 3y ago
    Windows XP was good, even if it was very…playful. Windows 7 was usable even with the eyecandy. i feel that Win95 UI was a bit too drab for personal computing.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    Maybe, but it didn't translate to mobile at all. Flat design has been the attempt to try to create a unified design language across desktop and mobile, since most people are constantly switching between the two and using the same apps across both.
difosfor 3y ago
To be honest I kind of miss the old skeuomorphic design days where you didn't need tons of animations and huge margins to make flat design usable.
- jbverschoor 3y ago
  Enable high contrast mode on macOS. It adds borders around buttons etc. You’ll be amazed how clean yet unusable the flat design is when you turn it off after a week
Ferret7446 3y ago
The padding is useful for mobile/tablet I assume.

Material design feels like it was designed entirely to look good with zero regard for usability. It uses way too much padding for everything and wasted tons of screen real estate.

lwansbrough 3y ago

I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the most extensively usability tested design systems ever. Whether or not that supersedes the hubris of Google designers is another story. Personally I don't have an issue using material design elements as a user.

princevegeta89 3y ago

I always had the impression that it was a design taken blindly to desktop after it ended up getting positive reception on mobile. On desktop, I found it to have weird buttons, weird spacing, weird controls and layouts with hamburger menus all over the place.

LorenDB 3y ago
My main complaint is actually with mobile. Phones already have limited screen space. I don't need Google's trash padding taking 20% or more of that away from me. In terms of UI, Android 11 was the last good Android. Anything with Material looks awful. In fact, I will likely switch to Linux or Sailfish OS if possible when I have to replace my Android 11 phone.
- Macha 3y ago
  I think based on timing your objection is with Material You / Material Design 3 specifically, which replaced Material Design 2 starting in Android 12. Android 11 was already using Material Design (2) (the card theme) which replaced the previous theme, Holo in Android 5. Holo was the cyberpunk-y black with blue highlights interface, though honestly Kitkat (4.4) had already started that trend that led to Material, removing colors from Holo. I'm also not a fan of Material You to be honest, the "colors from your background" gimmick just results in all the colours being muddy boring desaturated ones, and the general low contrast + rounded look just doesn't work for me.
  - LorenDB 3y ago
    OK, you are correct, Material You is the main complaint here. Basic Material isn't that bad, but Material You ruined everything.
frereubu 3y ago
The use of hamburger menus on desktop is one of my pet peeves. I get that it's simpler to manage across the vast number of properties that an organisation like Google has, but it's a really suboptimal use of space. Ditto the fact that the "new document" icon in Google Workspace is all the way at the bottom right, even on a huge monitor.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  > Ditto the fact that the "new document" icon in Google Workspace is all the way at the bottom right, even on a huge monitor. Even on mobile it's easy to miss! Google makes it a white button with a thin gray shadow, usually against white rows separated by thin gray lines. If you squint, it literally becomes invisible because its visible weight is identical to its surroundings. IIRC it used to be the solid accent color with white text, so you couldn't miss it. But now it's almost invisible unless you know where to look for it. It really is baffling.
gustavus 3y ago
Desktop interface design peaked in Windows 95 and it has been consistently downhill since then.
- skydhash 3y ago
  Windows XP was good, even if it was very…playful. Windows 7 was usable even with the eyecandy. i feel that Win95 UI was a bit too drab for personal computing.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  Maybe, but it didn't translate to mobile at all. Flat design has been the attempt to try to create a unified design language across desktop and mobile, since most people are constantly switching between the two and using the same apps across both.

difosfor 3y ago

To be honest I kind of miss the old skeuomorphic design days where you didn't need tons of animations and huge margins to make flat design usable.

jbverschoor 3y ago
Enable high contrast mode on macOS. It adds borders around buttons etc. You’ll be amazed how clean yet unusable the flat design is when you turn it off after a week

Ferret7446 3y ago

The padding is useful for mobile/tablet I assume.