Android tries to find identity through new Material Design UI, borrowing from Microsoft

Windows Central

WinC Bot
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Since its inception, Windows Phone has had a bold visual design language defining the core experience of the OS. Initially called Metro, Modern design gets its influence from the work of Massimo Vignelli, who famously made the NYC Subway maps, and the school of Swiss Style started in the 1950's. At Microsoft, the lineage starts with Windows Media Center, up through the ill-fated Zune HD, finally spearheading the core design of Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8.
Android though, has never had such luck. The UI has changed significantly since Android 1.0, often evolving around a very loose, almost ad-hoc set of principles. Things began to change once ex-Palm design head Matias Duarte joined the Android team back in 2010. Since then, we have seen attempts at a new language, notably the Roboto font for Android 4.0.

Full story from the WPCentral blog...
 

Sport Driver

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It's easy to see some Windows (Phone) 8.1 in this Android L, some presented things that are common to us were presented as something new like tabs in multitask view for example. But Google is in front of Microsoft with Android Wear and AndroidAuto.

Poslano z mojega Samsunga Galaxy S5
 

anon(6038817)

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Microsoft has had the best and most consistent design language across its platforms. That's one of the reasons I'm drawn to Windows Phone right now.

Apple and Google are behind the curve in this area.

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 via Tapatalk
 

squire777

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It's pretty funny seeing Android fans on the defensive on comment sections all over the internet.

"OK maybe it does look like Windows... but but it's better because it's Android"

I wonder how all of those fandroid fools feel now considering how they used to refer to the WP metro UI as being childish.
 

Sport Driver

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It's pretty funny seeing Android fans on the defensive on comment sections all over the internet.

"OK maybe it does look like Windows... but but it's better because it's Android"

I wonder how all of those fandroid fools feel now considering how they used to refer to the WP metro UI as being childish.


Some might won't like it BUT this is Android, they can change everything ;) .
 

plot_almighty

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I'm a Microsoft enthusiast as much as anyone here, and I love the metro design, however watching Apple incorporate some elements from Modern into iOS 7 made me find the OS attractive for the first time since the iPhones inception. I picked up a white 4S specifically because the hardware/OS combo is purely beautiful. Now watching Google address the god awful Android interface with this new Material Design language may have me testing a Nexus/Galaxy with it on there. Seriously Google, good job with that.
 

btgusto

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the new UI design from android L appealed to me. I think MS's developers are moving too slow and giving up baby steps while android gives you the kitchen sink and lets you decide what you want. I wont switch to android but I just hope MS quit treating us like kids and add more capabilities into WP. People talked about how 8.1 was such a huge update with so much functionality but truth be told it was a baby step which added capabilities that were already on other platforms.
 

jmshub

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It's funny that in the last few years, Apple and Google have found their design voice, by borrowing very heavily from Microsoft, the third place that they both write off as a lost cause.
 

ManOfActions

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I could not agree more! Apologies for those who already read my comment, but for me this look more and more like the end of the road for us WP Fans. I fell in love with Metro when I got my Zune HD and loved it ever since. I got my focus in 2010, I guess part of me wanted something different. Now most of what made us unique is lost. We gave up so much. I’m still waiting for something different that rumored 3D phone look promising.

Today we have no more hubs, Office optimize for touch is everywhere except on Windows, our WP xbox game well, I won’t go there, the music and video apps are a mess, and now iOS and Android have similar UI/UX. Like you said, 8.1 doesn’t bring enough to the table event with Cortana. I am probably one of the few who cares about this but I still can’t do something as simple as attach multiple word documents to an email using a “normal” process (add attach a file after I wrote my mail). No I don’t want to go to the other two OSes but I wonder without differentiation is it the beginning of the end or am I just overreacting? No one here seems to think so.
 

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