Written by Lance Nickel
Google has added some things to their Material Design guidelines. These guidelines are rules and tips for designers looking to design apps on Android, to make the ecosystem consistent. The design is based of off “quantum paper”, which means that many elements use life-like shadows, physics, and other things, while still being smart like a computer.
As you know, Google Photos received an update, which added a bottom bar. Google Plus has had this for a while (Android versions), and they seem to be different. Maybe Google will update them?
The thing that kind of annoys me about Material Design is that Google themselves do not adhere to these rules as much. As nice as this system is, it could be a lot more consistent across Android, let alone Google’s own suite of Apps.
Here are some guidelines for the bottom navs:
- It should only be used if there are 3-5 top level views
- Less than 3 views? Use a tab bar.
- More than 5? Use a slide-out nav.
- It should be fixed and not scrollable.
- Web based apps can use them as a sidebar, rather than a large bottom bar.