Google has received a prestigious iF Gold Design Award for the implementation of Material You and Dynamic Color in Android 12.
The iF Product Design Award was first introduced back in 1954 and includes honors for a wide range of disciplines spanning the automotive textile industry. Over 5,000 wholes are made each year with only a handful of gold prizes awarded to these participants.
Material You were awarded the iF Gold badge along with Apple’s AirPods Max, Galaxy Z Flip 3, iPhone 13 and many more. By taking one of the top spots in the “Communications” category for 2022, Google’s vision of its own Android 12 operating system is heavily dependent on personal color choices for your entire smartphone experience on Pixel smartphones.
Material You, Android 12, and Pixel 6 are a cohesive software and hardware experience that challenges the enduring one-size-fits-all approach to OS design. Material You is Google’s latest design language, giving both Google and the open source community a more personal, accessible and customizable experience. Hardware and software were developed jointly as a holistic design experience that puts the user at the center.
As the largest single overhaul of the mobile operating system since Android Marshmallow, Material You in Android has certainly its opponents, but it offers one of the most comprehensive consumer-focused OS upgrades in the mobile space, all based on your wallpaper theme .
On the iF Gold Award designation page, they noted Material You’s “consistency” and “flexibility” as core principles of daily experience, while praising the “user-centric approach” as a “good example” of efforts to make mobile operating systems more responsive to end-user needs and wishes:
‘Material you’, Google’s new mobile operating system, allows for a high level of flexibility and scalability while maintaining consistency across all product ecosystems. It successfully reflects a human mental model in its visual idiom. This user-centric approach to digital design is a prime example of how operating systems become more responsive to users’ needs and preferences.
A major component of Android 12 is the use of nuances and tones to thematize various first-party applications and services. This looks set to expand with the upcoming Android 13, as the latest beta phase has suggested even greater controls and automated theme elements for Material You and Dynamic Color. You can check out all the core changes that led to the iF Gold Award for Material You and Android 12 our in-depth hands-on in the video below:
Tell us what you think about the Material that you – and by extension Android 12 – receive the iF Gold Award for design in the comments section below.
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