Month: December 2018
Basic Principles of Material Design
Ever since Google spoke about it in their ‘Google I/O 2014 Keynote’, material design has gained attention worldwide. Today, it isn’t hard to come across designers who apply it not only to their Android projects but also to their other web-bound projects.
Google’s keynote presentation has already been viewed over a million times, and it is still treated as the key resource for understanding everything we need to about material design.
Material design has one goal – to offer users a consistent experience among multiple devices without causing any confusion. In terms of principles, it borrows heavily from print design. It aims to render the physical characteristics of paper into a digital medium, making it possible for an application or website to replicate those characteristics. Like paper, a material design interface can change size and shape.
But, material is only that part which is contained within the application. Any content outside of it isn’t.
The final objective here is portability across platforms with an emphasis on user-initiated actions, such as touch and motion. For example, when an element is touched, it can deliver a digital magnetic reaction, which allows for a perfect transition between the ripples and the reaction itself, instead of delivering two individual images.
Now, before we explore the principles of material design, it is best to determine whether you actually need it. Of course, as always, the answer to a question like this isn’t straightforward or simple. It ultimately boils down to your exact need and circumstance.
But, there is one thing we can all agree on, and that is, great design offers both functionality and uniqueness. Needless to say, the former quality is of the utmost priority. We all know aesthetics is pointless if functionality is compromised.
So, when considering adapting material design, we must first see it from the perspective of our goals. What is it that we are looking to achieve here? To put it simply, is material design likely to play a key role in helping you reach your end goals?
If your answer is, we can begin exploring its principles.
Know Your Key Resource
To really understand material design, you will have to start by looking at Google’s official resource. This resource is updated in a timely fashion and hosts all the information you need to build material design.
The Google material design resource isn’t platform specific either. It focuses on more than just the Android-specific stuff. So, you basically have access to information concerning all aspects of material design, discussed in the context of projects in general.
So, start by studying the first few chapters of the resource to get well-acquainted with the basic principles.
Understand What ‘Material’ Is
The term material design isn’t something that just got conjured up. The very idea behind material design is to create designs that mimic the real world to a particular level of generalization. You obviously do not something overwhelming, where there is no difference between the real world and the one on the screen. The goal is only to express the concept of material.
You see, we all know what ‘material’ is. We know what something feels like even before we touch it. We know what cloth feels like, what metal feels like, or what wood feels like. We can even process multiple layers, i.e. a piece of cloth over another object or paper over an object.
So, with material design, it’s all about using the apt strategies to communicate the same hierarchy of elements. The main thing to remember is that you have to do all this with the most basic design tools, such as shades or shadows.
Don’t Ignore Primary and Accent Color
The best way to adhere to this principle is to select three hues for your primary palette and one color to serve as the accent. The primary colors are obviously for the main elements of the overall interface. This typically includes fonts, boxes. Fields, and backgrounds.
The accent color is the accent color. Its duty is to offer a certain advantage when the main element is being displayed on the screen.
One more thing to remember here is that your accent color needs to be of a higher contrast than the primary colors.
Be Smart with Whitespace
As stated earlier, print design is the foundation on which material design rests. As a result, they happen to share very similar principles. Just like it is with print design, whitespace plays a major role in any kind of material design. It allows improvements with regard to typography and also, layout text.
Whitespace is actually a very important tool when it comes to creating focus and grabbing attention. So, keep things to a minimum and increase the amount of whitespace. Use large typography for the primary headings and don’t think twice about leaving empty spaces in your design.
Embrace Motion
Google believes that motion adds more meaning to design.
So, when incorporating material design, do not ignore motion as a key component. As humans, we experience motion in our daily lives. Motion allows us to develop a perception regarding how things function and where we need to focus.
The same principle applies to material design, and that’s why motion plays a major role here in boosting interaction. When motion is used, users gain a better perspective of the design’s usability.
There are different elements that can be leveraged to create motion. For instance, when a user carries out an action, you can try to animate the reaction to indicate that the action will deliver the expected results and that the input has been received.
Use the Colors Provided in Images for Image Centered Design
Google suggests extracting colors from chosen images and adding them to the palette. There’s plenty of reasoning behind this, and it would be hard not to agree with the tech-giant. When we use the same colors, we create consistency, which is the primary goal of material design.
There is a strong sense of uniformity with the same color schemes, allowing users to recognize and relate immediately.
Looking to learn more about material design? Get in touch with Us.
Simple Steps to Build a Branding Strategy for Your Small Business
Branding is important for businesses in general. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. In fact, many big corporations like to present themselves as a small operation just to garner the attention of those who prefer such brands.
Now, all business operators understand this fact. Without branding, there isn’t much of a business to rely on. However, the question isn’t about whether branding is important – it’s actually about why branding is important.
Most business operators understand the link between branding and business success. They see this and are inspired to bring about the same level of success for their own brands. If you’re a small business yourself, you’re probably also aware of the fact that branding goes beyond creating a superficial image.
But, here’s the thing – you are likely unaware of how successful businesses treat branding. Branding plays a far more pivotal role than what you already know.
There are several benefits that a well-defined brand can bring. When customers develop a connection with your business, it’s usually because they share the same values and vision. This is what encourages them to continue patronizing your business and provide continuous revenue. This is also why they become loyal to you and also, begin to advocate for you.
That’s the ultimate goal of branding and it’s far more effective than handing out discounts. Plus, a well-established brand image can make it easier for you to bring in new offerings.
But, how can you develop your brand strategy that eventually leads to this goal? Well, here are a few suggestions that’ll help you get started.
Evaluate
Start by carrying out a thorough assessment of your business and your competition. They are obviously a few strengths that you enjoy and a few weaknesses that you want to address. Make a not of it. Consider your greatest strengths. There is obviously something that sets you apart.
Now, do the same for your competitors. Assess their strengths and weaknesses. Then, compare yourself with them. How do you fare against them? Is there something that sets you apart from the competition?
Determine customer perception
The next step is to find out how the customer perceives you. You may have certain strengths that make you good at identifying and addressing the customer’s pain points. But, you will have to verify that with your customers.
In fact, all your key strengths or what you think are your key strengths need to be verified with your customers. By gaining a clear picture of how your customers see you, you can move forward with developing a proper branding strategy because you have accurate information to work on.
You will be able to gain better insight into their perception and work on a strategy that addresses their concerns. Social media can be quite helpful in this regard. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are great avenues for collecting customer feedback.
One effective way to acquire feedback is through incentivization. Offer benefits to customers who respond to your surveys and participate in the overall process.
Develop the strategy
Now, compare your own evaluation with the feedback received from the customers. Were there things that both of you agreed on? Well, if you did, those are obviously your core strengths. These qualities are obviously what set you apart from your competitors and what make customers prefer you.
In other words, the qualities that you and your customers deem as strengths are your USP. So, start working on those qualities even more and improving them.
Also, look at your strong qualities in relation to your overall goals. This will help you develop a strategy that is in line with your strategic goals. Also, make sure the personality of your business is retained and in harmony.
Connect
Branding is also about creating robust relationships with your consumers. This will help you retain a loyal customer base and also turn them into advocates for your brand. So, take the time to get to know your customers. Make sure your employees are trained to understand and know their customers in an in-depth manner.
When you take the time to know your customers, it becomes much easier to understand their need. This, in turn, helps you serve them better. Needless to say, the end result is a happy and satisfied customer.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business is to think that your customers are simply revenue generators. Smart businesses are those that treat their customers as assets, developing intimate relationships with them. Though this doesn’t work for every customer persona, it does for most.
So, start working on clever and creative ideas. Consider providing personalized experiences.
Communicate the brand
Once you have a rough idea of what you stand for as a brand, communicate it. Your clients and customers need to know what the message is. There are several ways in which this happens. You can communicate through direct interaction or via advertising and marketing.
However, do make sure that your brand image and messages remain consistent across the chain of interaction. Consistency is key in the world of brand implementation. So, a branding strategy that is focused on the consistent representation of your business’s top qualities can play a pivotal role in altering or shaping the public perception of the brand.
Establish guidelines
Speaking of consistency, having a set of guidelines to refer to can be quite helpful. In general, small businesses find guidelines or style guides of any kind to be an alien concept. However, successful branding requires guidelines.
A clear set of rules can help you maintain a certain amount of order and uniformity. On the other hand, not having guidelines can lead to chaos. It’s easy to go off the rails and lose your original identity when you have nothing to instruct you.
As you can see, branding isn’t an overnight task. It requires a certain amount of confidence and a thorough understanding of your business. For more expert branding advice, get in touch with Crafted.