8 ms·

I was extremely disappointed when they started talking about "Material Design", hinting at tactile screens by showing what one might look like, and then going o

I was extremely disappointed when they started talking about "Material Design", hinting at tactile screens by showing what one might look like, and then going on to talk about it as a metaphor for tactility. Still looks nice, but that was mean.

jaxytee 12y ago
Yeah, all this design talk is grossly underwhelming.
- psbp 12y ago
  It's great design, but I got really excited for a new screen technology.
  - boomzilla 12y ago
    Is it me, or the new design looks like Windows Metro?
    - aroch 12y ago
      They took the shapes and layout of Metro and the color palette of iOS7/8
      - hackinthebochs 12y ago
        Google is just shameless when it comes to android. It's entire history has been one of "me too".
        VikingCoder 12y ago
        Everything after Douglas Engelbart's Mother of All Demos has been shameless "me too". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz1SwCTCEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz1SwCTCEE
        hackinthebochs 12y ago
        Not really. My point is that Google has never had any design vision with android and simply responds to the movements of the other big names in the phone business with their "me too" offering. It's hard to deny this fact. It's also interesting how the same exact sentiment elsewhere in this thread gets upvoted.
        hueving 12y ago
        You probably got down-voted because you didn't offer any examples. You could swap Apple for Google in your sentence and it would carry just as much weight.
        mattmanser 12y ago
        No it wouldn't, what a ridiculous thing to say. The iPhone came out of nowhere and was a revelation, Android was a hastily (very well) assembled clone. Were you not around when they came out?
        hueving 12y ago
        Yes, I was there when apple stole the idea of a touch screen phone from Nokia and Palm, what's your point?
        actsasbuffoon 12y ago
        I don't want to get involved in this flame war, but Apple began development of the Newton (a mobile device with a touch screen) in 1987. Palm wasn't even founded until 1992.
        barbs 12y ago
        You still haven't offered any examples.
        hackinthebochs 12y ago
        I was replying TO THE EXAMPLE. What is wrong with some of you people?
    - _broody 12y ago
      Everyone is derivating from Metro UI now. I can't complain, I quite like the look. Funny that Microsoft, in this day an age would be such a trend setter!
      - Cakez0r 12y ago
        Microsoft are making all the right moves recently. I think they're going to really make a resurgence with Nadella at the wheel!
        _random_ 12y ago
        Yes, and it seems Apple is slowly becoming the pre-2013 Microsoft. Funny times!
        discreteevent 12y ago
        If you've been around long enough you would probably say - normal times. It's fun here in the tech tumble dryer.
        mastersk3 12y ago
        Wonder if you could elaborate more on this for someone not a hardcore techie
        Cakez0r 12y ago
        Sure. The things I've noticed since Nadella took over from Ballmer: * They're obviously putting a lot of effort into listening to their customers and implementing their feedback (see windows 8.2 changes, start bar is coming back, metro apps will now be windowed) (also see this article by Gabe at Penny arcade about how Microsoft implemented his feedback for the Surface Pro 3 http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/16/surface-pro-3-update http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/16/surface-pro...). * They realise the cloud is the future and they're making great strides towards making sure Azure is the best cloud platform available. I've used Amazon's AWS, Rackspace and Azure. Azure is hands down the best. Nadella was formerly in charge of Azure, so it's no surprise that Azure is coming to the forefront of Microsoft. The interface for their new cloud control panel is excellent (http://portal.azure.com http://portal.azure.com https://i.imgur.com/SxdPZjf.png https://i.imgur.com/SxdPZjf.png). * Developers, developers, developers is back in season! They're open sourcing everything. ASP.NET, MVC, their new C# compiler are all now open source. The UI library they used to make the website above is open source (WinJS https://github.com/winjs/winjs https://github.com/winjs/winjs). They are making obvious efforts to engage the developer community. * Whilst everybody else is scrambling to create walled gardens and closed platforms, Microsoft is going in the opposite direction. All of their recent open source releases have been on Github, not Codeplex. You can provision linux virtual machines, mysql database, redis caches on azure - as well as the Microsoft equivalents. They just announced they're making an Android handset after acquiring Nokia, as well as Windows Phone. They've announced that they will start supporting officially supporting Mono (open source version of their .NET clr) with new releases of ASP.NET, allowing ASP.NET applications to run on open source platforms. * Their share price is the highest it's been in 15 years EDIT: * And as much as I hate to admit it (I haven't personally switched browsers or search providers yet...) but they're actually fixing the problems with Bing and Internet Explorer, and seem to be rapidly catching up with the pack. The new developer tools for IE actually look pretty good (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ie/bg182326.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ie/bg182326.aspx) and Bing is not looking too shabby either.
    - wildpeaks 12y ago
      It's not just you, it definitely reminded me of Metro and Codrops demos.
    - _random_ 12y ago
      Especially their design page: http://www.google.com/design http://www.google.com/design "[Google Manager]: Guys... Could you make it modern, like Microsoft Metro, but maybe decrease the padding between tiles and maybe add some blurry shadows." "[Designers]: but shadows are a violation flat design principles!" "[Google Manager]: I am sorry, but we cannot come across like complete rip-offs".
      - DigitalJack 12y ago
        We need 7 red lines. All orthogonal, two with green ink and the rest with transparent ink.
        Glide 12y ago
        And can one of the lines be in the shape of a kitten?
        shadesandcolour 12y ago
        Well here's the problem, you're using a blue pen.
      - esteth 12y ago
        It's not flat design at all. They spent like 3/4 of the design segment in the keynote talking about how everything has a depth, and how things cast shadows on each other. Have we reached a point where anyone using color is ripping off windows? :/
        xster 12y ago
        Metro isn't flat either. There's a Z axis and objects get pushed back when you tap on them.
    - jsz0 12y ago
      > looks like Windows Metro? Superficially yes but it's really just a new coat of paint on top of a slightly revised UI. My eyes instantly glaze over looking at these screenshots because we have this boring font combined with a boring use of whitespace with little variation in text size. It's all the bad parts of Metro / Modern UI without any of the good parts.
      - kordless 12y ago
        And everything has a big picture of something smaller in the foreground behind it.
    - ChrisClark 12y ago
      I feel iOS 7 was a mix of Metro and Holo. And Material/Paper is now a mix of iOS7 and Holo.
  - niix 12y ago
    Nothing new under the sun. We've been using box shadows on the web for years.
- IBM 12y ago
  Yep. The "Google is getting better at design..." doesn't seem to be true. They've really doubled down on this cards UI which is unfortunate.
- zxcvvcxz 12y ago
  Seriously. I'll never understand how people can continuously get so excited about new "design". From my point of view, if you're competing heavily on design then you're in the business of a commodity and hence have no better technological or use-case differentiator... And/or you're swept up by the cult of design as of late.
27182818284 12y ago
Absolutely. That was incredibly bad! Myself and a lot of people in the audience had this split-second "Oh my god..." where we thought Google was about to show off a device that had something 3D and then....oh, it is just the style? You could feel the collective let down.
my3681 12y ago
If I am not mistaken, Apple has been awarded patents in the area of localized haptics using tiny actuators. It may be that no rival solution has emerged. I was also quite upset when the announcement dissolved into a UI metaphor. http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/19/apple-awarded-patent-for-more-accurate-haptic-feedback-system http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/19/apple-awarded-pate...
- gurkendoktor 12y ago
  If Apple was anywhere close to building it though, I doubt they'd remove all textures and button outlines :(
jaredandrews 12y ago
Tell me about it. I was outside waiting in line and listening to the keynote on my phone. I couldn't believe they were announcing that and when I pulled out my phone to look at the video.... well it was just a 3D frame on a phone. Still cool but you know..
- feltenberger 12y ago
  Did they already mention how Timely on the web has been canceled and we are left with the old calendar codebase? You know, that Quantum Paper UI they keep talking about. I see Sundar Pichai still has an attitude problem. Seriously Sundar: you come off as a condescending jerk at TGIF which is embarrasing enough, no need to do it in public.
danudey 12y ago
I tweeted the following at the time, trying to be sarcastic and cynical: ‘What if there was a material as simple as paper that could change shape based on touch? I’m not saying there is. But what if there were?’ I was pretty disappointed to find out that I was right.
jfoster 12y ago
Is it possibly a prelude to tactile screens? Makes sense for them to allow developers plenty of time to build compatible apps prior to introducing any hardware.
sschueller 12y ago
I wonder if there is new hardware in the works but it isn't finished yet. Just like L isn't finishes and oddly also the Motorola 360 is not finished (I have the felling that was supposed to be finished before IO and for some reason is not)

jaxytee 12y ago

Yeah, all this design talk is grossly underwhelming.

psbp 12y ago
It's great design, but I got really excited for a new screen technology.
- boomzilla 12y ago
  Is it me, or the new design looks like Windows Metro?
  - aroch 12y ago
    They took the shapes and layout of Metro and the color palette of iOS7/8
    - hackinthebochs 12y ago
      Google is just shameless when it comes to android. It's entire history has been one of "me too".
      - VikingCoder 12y ago
        Everything after Douglas Engelbart's Mother of All Demos has been shameless "me too". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz1SwCTCEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz1SwCTCEE
        hackinthebochs 12y ago
        Not really. My point is that Google has never had any design vision with android and simply responds to the movements of the other big names in the phone business with their "me too" offering. It's hard to deny this fact. It's also interesting how the same exact sentiment elsewhere in this thread gets upvoted.
        hueving 12y ago
        You probably got down-voted because you didn't offer any examples. You could swap Apple for Google in your sentence and it would carry just as much weight.
        mattmanser 12y ago
        No it wouldn't, what a ridiculous thing to say. The iPhone came out of nowhere and was a revelation, Android was a hastily (very well) assembled clone. Were you not around when they came out?
        hueving 12y ago
        Yes, I was there when apple stole the idea of a touch screen phone from Nokia and Palm, what's your point?
        actsasbuffoon 12y ago
        I don't want to get involved in this flame war, but Apple began development of the Newton (a mobile device with a touch screen) in 1987. Palm wasn't even founded until 1992.
        barbs 12y ago
        You still haven't offered any examples.
        hackinthebochs 12y ago
        I was replying TO THE EXAMPLE. What is wrong with some of you people?
  - _broody 12y ago
    Everyone is derivating from Metro UI now. I can't complain, I quite like the look. Funny that Microsoft, in this day an age would be such a trend setter!
    - Cakez0r 12y ago
      Microsoft are making all the right moves recently. I think they're going to really make a resurgence with Nadella at the wheel!
      - _random_ 12y ago
        Yes, and it seems Apple is slowly becoming the pre-2013 Microsoft. Funny times!
        discreteevent 12y ago
        If you've been around long enough you would probably say - normal times. It's fun here in the tech tumble dryer.
      - mastersk3 12y ago
        Wonder if you could elaborate more on this for someone not a hardcore techie
        Cakez0r 12y ago
        Sure. The things I've noticed since Nadella took over from Ballmer: * They're obviously putting a lot of effort into listening to their customers and implementing their feedback (see windows 8.2 changes, start bar is coming back, metro apps will now be windowed) (also see this article by Gabe at Penny arcade about how Microsoft implemented his feedback for the Surface Pro 3 http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/16/surface-pro-3-update http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/16/surface-pro...). * They realise the cloud is the future and they're making great strides towards making sure Azure is the best cloud platform available. I've used Amazon's AWS, Rackspace and Azure. Azure is hands down the best. Nadella was formerly in charge of Azure, so it's no surprise that Azure is coming to the forefront of Microsoft. The interface for their new cloud control panel is excellent (http://portal.azure.com http://portal.azure.com https://i.imgur.com/SxdPZjf.png https://i.imgur.com/SxdPZjf.png). * Developers, developers, developers is back in season! They're open sourcing everything. ASP.NET, MVC, their new C# compiler are all now open source. The UI library they used to make the website above is open source (WinJS https://github.com/winjs/winjs https://github.com/winjs/winjs). They are making obvious efforts to engage the developer community. * Whilst everybody else is scrambling to create walled gardens and closed platforms, Microsoft is going in the opposite direction. All of their recent open source releases have been on Github, not Codeplex. You can provision linux virtual machines, mysql database, redis caches on azure - as well as the Microsoft equivalents. They just announced they're making an Android handset after acquiring Nokia, as well as Windows Phone. They've announced that they will start supporting officially supporting Mono (open source version of their .NET clr) with new releases of ASP.NET, allowing ASP.NET applications to run on open source platforms. * Their share price is the highest it's been in 15 years EDIT: * And as much as I hate to admit it (I haven't personally switched browsers or search providers yet...) but they're actually fixing the problems with Bing and Internet Explorer, and seem to be rapidly catching up with the pack. The new developer tools for IE actually look pretty good (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ie/bg182326.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ie/bg182326.aspx) and Bing is not looking too shabby either.
  - wildpeaks 12y ago
    It's not just you, it definitely reminded me of Metro and Codrops demos.
  - _random_ 12y ago
    Especially their design page: http://www.google.com/design http://www.google.com/design "[Google Manager]: Guys... Could you make it modern, like Microsoft Metro, but maybe decrease the padding between tiles and maybe add some blurry shadows." "[Designers]: but shadows are a violation flat design principles!" "[Google Manager]: I am sorry, but we cannot come across like complete rip-offs".
    - DigitalJack 12y ago
      We need 7 red lines. All orthogonal, two with green ink and the rest with transparent ink.
      - Glide 12y ago
        And can one of the lines be in the shape of a kitten?
      - shadesandcolour 12y ago
        Well here's the problem, you're using a blue pen.
    - esteth 12y ago
      It's not flat design at all. They spent like 3/4 of the design segment in the keynote talking about how everything has a depth, and how things cast shadows on each other. Have we reached a point where anyone using color is ripping off windows? :/
      - xster 12y ago
        Metro isn't flat either. There's a Z axis and objects get pushed back when you tap on them.
  - jsz0 12y ago
    > looks like Windows Metro? Superficially yes but it's really just a new coat of paint on top of a slightly revised UI. My eyes instantly glaze over looking at these screenshots because we have this boring font combined with a boring use of whitespace with little variation in text size. It's all the bad parts of Metro / Modern UI without any of the good parts.
    - kordless 12y ago
      And everything has a big picture of something smaller in the foreground behind it.
  - ChrisClark 12y ago
    I feel iOS 7 was a mix of Metro and Holo. And Material/Paper is now a mix of iOS7 and Holo.
- niix 12y ago
  Nothing new under the sun. We've been using box shadows on the web for years.
IBM 12y ago
Yep. The "Google is getting better at design..." doesn't seem to be true. They've really doubled down on this cards UI which is unfortunate.
zxcvvcxz 12y ago
Seriously. I'll never understand how people can continuously get so excited about new "design". From my point of view, if you're competing heavily on design then you're in the business of a commodity and hence have no better technological or use-case differentiator... And/or you're swept up by the cult of design as of late.

27182818284 12y ago

Absolutely. That was incredibly bad! Myself and a lot of people in the audience had this split-second "Oh my god..." where we thought Google was about to show off a device that had something 3D and then....oh, it is just the style? You could feel the collective let down.

my3681 12y ago

If I am not mistaken, Apple has been awarded patents in the area of localized haptics using tiny actuators. It may be that no rival solution has emerged. I was also quite upset when the announcement dissolved into a UI metaphor. http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/19/apple-awarded-patent-for-more-accurate-haptic-feedback-system http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/02/19/apple-awarded-pate...

gurkendoktor 12y ago
If Apple was anywhere close to building it though, I doubt they'd remove all textures and button outlines :(

jaredandrews 12y ago

Tell me about it. I was outside waiting in line and listening to the keynote on my phone. I couldn't believe they were announcing that and when I pulled out my phone to look at the video.... well it was just a 3D frame on a phone. Still cool but you know..

feltenberger 12y ago
Did they already mention how Timely on the web has been canceled and we are left with the old calendar codebase? You know, that Quantum Paper UI they keep talking about. I see Sundar Pichai still has an attitude problem. Seriously Sundar: you come off as a condescending jerk at TGIF which is embarrasing enough, no need to do it in public.

danudey 12y ago

I tweeted the following at the time, trying to be sarcastic and cynical: ‘What if there was a material as simple as paper that could change shape based on touch? I’m not saying there is. But what if there were?’ I was pretty disappointed to find out that I was right.

jfoster 12y ago

Is it possibly a prelude to tactile screens? Makes sense for them to allow developers plenty of time to build compatible apps prior to introducing any hardware.

sschueller 12y ago

I wonder if there is new hardware in the works but it isn't finished yet. Just like L isn't finishes and oddly also the Motorola 360 is not finished (I have the felling that was supposed to be finished before IO and for some reason is not)