Material.

If you read my blog right from my website instead of using a reader of some sort, you may have noticed that I made some drastic changes to the design of the site. It’s a little bolder but still maintains the simple appearance that I really enjoy. The theme is based on Google’s Material Design principles. If you have a WordPress site and you’re interested in applying this theme, it is available at the Material Design WordPress Theme site. It’s really easy to install and tweak.

It’s really interesting to watch the pendulum swing back and forth between what’s considered the latest fad in webpage design. This blog is over 13 years old and has had many different looks along the way; some were quite elaborate with shadowed buttons, subtle animations, generous transparencies and that feeling of “beveled robustness”. That’s what users were looking for back in the day. Today webpage design favors simplicity, bold colors and a flat yet comfortable feeling.

I’m a big fan of Google’s Material Design and I’m happy to see that so many designers and programmers are going out of their way to adopt and extend the capabilities of these principles. I believe the design was originally created for Google’s Android devices. Oddly, I find this approach more visually appealing than what Apple has been working with on their iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite platforms. I have been using many of the Material principles in my work projects and the results have been well received. I think as I get older I’m moving away from my allegiance to one school of thought and now looking for the best solution to the task at hand.