How Google’s new material design is transforming the Admin Console

6:56 AM admin console , Gmail , Google Apps , google calendar , google docs , Google Drive , google i/o , google sheets , google slides , material design 0 Comments

Last June at Google I/O, Google presented a material design, its new design direction intended to embrace all of Google’s web and mobile assets. The material design is a visual language that offers a cohesive experience to Google’s users across platforms and devices and gives a more sensory oriented engagement with the brand. 

Presentation of the new material design that was announced at Google I/O 

Google brings a philosophy to its vision that it explains in a post: “Material is the metaphor, a material metaphor is the unifying theory of a rationalized space and a system of motion. Our material is grounded in tactile reality, inspired by our study of paper and ink, yet open to imagination and magic.” 

The design system combines basic principles of good design, innovation and technology that will be continuously evolving with users needs. “Users initiate change,” Google adds, “Changes in the interface derive their energy from user actions. Motion that cascades from touch respects and reinforces the user as the prime mover.” 

The new design brings consistency to the interface and includes a bright and colorful UI, refreshed iconography and typography, the popular “hamburger” and floating button. Although the system is printed into flat design, it also has fine layers that cross each other through smooth animations and transitions that gives the user quicker access to the elements they need most often. The entire interface is based on what Google calls a "unifying theory of a rationalized space and a system of motion." You can see the design language in action in this video released by Google.

Docs, Sheets and more already adopted this design 

This new design system has already been applied in many of Google’s products. Several applications from the Google Apps suite have been radically redesigned: Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and now the Admin Console. 

Other products adopted the design as well, such as Google Classroom, Drive Android app, Android 5.0 Lollipop and the new Gmail and Calendar Android apps. Google is now about to implement these new design principles to all its products across various platforms in the near future.

The Admin Console has been revamped with this new design 

The Admin Console has been completely revamped with the new material design so that it is more intuitive for Google Apps admins to manage their Google Apps domain and users. The most used commands are highlighted and the daily tasks are easier to achieve. Here is a few examples of the changes you will see in the Admin Console:  

• New icons and navigation for the toolbar