Google recognizes a handful of apps each year for their exceptional use of Material Design and the 2018 winners have been announced. The Material Design Awards 2018 has four categories – expression, innovation, experience, and adaptation. A winner for each was selected from hundreds of nominations and recognized at SPAN Helsinki on November 1st. Material Design was introduced by Google in 2014 and is the latest design language for (stock) Android and Google. You can see the winners of each category after the break.
Expression Category – kptnCook
kptnCook is designed to help you with daily meal prep with easy, 30-minute or less recipes and guides on where to shop for local ingredients. Highlights include step-by-step instructions with detailed images, a transparent top app bar, a scannable image list of saved recipes, branded iconography and type, with a custom shape for text protection.
Google, “Brand identity brought to life through the engaging and harmonious use of color, imagery, typography, and motion.”
Lene Koenig, Visual Designer, “We strongly believe that anyone can cook. Our mission is to simplify the daily dinner decision—and avoid endless scrolling—by giving our users a selection of three recipes each day. Our visual language is clean, simple, and rather subtle.”
Innovation Category – Lyft
Lyft is a ride-share app that's similar to Uber, allowing riders to order a car on demand via an app. The easy-to-follow map system allows users to find available cars and follow their progress. Lyft recently overhauled its app with new Material Design components, such as Bottom Sheets and an extended Floating Action Button (FAB) that optimize screen space. Custom color system algorithms help with legibility of their neon-bright hues.
Google, “Demonstrated ability to build upon and extend the Material Design system in inspiring new directions.”
Linda Dong, design manager, “One of our biggest priorities was to create a universal design system that works best for Lyft on all platforms.”
Experience Category – Simple Habit Meditation
Simple Habit Meditation encourages people to take five minutes per day to to relax with intention. Users can find meditation programs by theme, duration or instructor. It has an easy onboarding experience, which has selectable, color-coded image cards for easy, calming navigation. It has an effective dark theme, excellent bottom navigation and branded typography. There are also subtle motion cues across mobile devices and tablets.
Google, “Creative and effective deployment of interaction, navigation, and content in service of an impactful user experience.”
Valentin Drown, Lead Product Designer, “The app’s simple information architecture and intuitive navigation allow users to quickly and easily discover the right meditation for their particular situation. Positive user actions, such as ‘‘meditation completes,’ are reinforced with rewarding interactions that help people build their positive habit more rapidly, while leaving them delighted by the experience.”
Adaptation Category – Anchor
Anchor is designed to help users record, host and distribute podcasts (and it's free). The DIY podcast tool uses cover art customization and easy-to-use episode creation and podcast aggregation. Available for both Android and iOS, users can record from their phones and the audio will automatically upload to the web app. Choice Chips are effectively used in edit mode with an extended FAB anchored at the bottom that allows the action to remain persistent. Well placed animations round everything out.
Google, “Cross-platform design that delivers a consistent experience, with native features and functionality optimized for each device.”
Emmi Hintz, Lead Product Designer, “Anchor uses bright colors, friendly typography, and conversational copy to make sure podcasting is approachable for anyone, even people who’ve never done it before. We use animations and transitions to make our app feel lively, responsive, and fluid.”
Congrats to this year's winners!
Source: Google
