Material Design term explanation, created by Magora

Material Design

Material Design - the design of software and applications for Android operating systems. First introduced at the Google I/O conference on June 25, 2014.

Initially, within the company, it was invented under the codename "quantum paper.” The main metaphor of material design is flat paper, located in three-dimensional space.

The idea of this design can be seen in applications that open and collapse like cards, using the effects of shadows. According to the idea of Google's designers, apps should not have sharp corners; cards should switch smoothly and almost imperceptibly.

Material design in Applications

The material design is used fully in the operating systems Android Lollipop, Android Marshmallow, Android Nougat, Android Oreo and also in some apps of previous versions.

Why apps need a material design

It serves two purposes:

  • the standardisation of numerous products of the company;
  • the unification of app user interfaces for Android.

After the dominance of “skeuomorphism,” the web and the interfaces tilted toward a radical flattening, but it turned out to be just one more extreme. In order to be understandable and international, the objects of the interface should have an analogue, a metaphor in the real world. Such a metaphor was paper. Thin, flat, but located in three-dimensional space and having shadows, speed of movement, and acceleration.

4 principles of Material Design

Material Design is based on four basic principles:

  1. Tactile surfaces. The interface is composed of tangible layers of so-called "digital paper". These layers are located at different heights and cast shadows on each other, which helps users to better understand the anatomy of the interface and the principle of interaction with it.
  2. Polygraphic design. If we count the layers as pieces of "digital paper", then, as regards "digital ink" (all that is depicted on "digital paper"), an approach is taken from traditional graphic design: for example, magazine and poster.
  3. Meaningful animation. In the real world, objects do not arise from nowhere and do not disappear into anywhere. Therefore, in Material Design, we always think about how to use the animation in layers and in "digital ink" to give users hints about the interface.
  4. Adaptive design. It's about how we apply the previous three concepts on different devices with different resolutions and screen sizes.

The material design is one of the modern trends in the visualisation of mobile applications whose popularity is growing day by day.

Additional Terms
is a plan of the future project that may include technical drawings, plans, or engineering designs. It is a fast and flexible way to build a basic project infrastructure. Blueprint allows organising the workflow in the shortest time possible and quickly start developing parts of the program. In general terms, this is a quick way to turn a vague project idea into concrete requirements for its implementation. Why Use Blueprints in Software Development The goal of blueprint is to give developers an opportunity to optimize the process and set up the infrastructure so that they can spend more time on the realization of ideas and projects. Blueprint can be the basis of a project or component of the initial planning. What Blueprint Implies Interactive wireframes in the form of clickable prototypes; Concept design that allows you to see and feel the future product, to bring it color and style; A document describing the product, key values and achievable goals. Blueprint Benefits in Mobile App Development The idea of your application with a detailed implementation plan and future functionality comes to life right on paper. Like a plan that needs to be completed to build a durable building; Use it as a prototype. Since the wireframes are interactive and are provided as a clickable prototype, you can use them to present your product ideas and/or increase your budget. Get more accurate project estimation. With blueprints you will better understand the amount of work that is required for the implementation of each stage, with a detailed breakdown of the cost; You don’t have to spend weeks on creating project documentation; Blueprint can become a part of your business plan, necessary for the successful completion of the project.
>> Graphic Design
Graphic design is a process aimed at creating visual graphics for the problem-solving through the use of illustration, typography, and photography. As a discipline graphic design in part focuses on visual communication and presentation. A designer can work with visual arts, typographic design, and page layout techniques. Sections Graphic design can be classified by types of tasks: Calligraphy, fonts, book design. Corporate identity, including brand names and logos. Visual communications, including orientation systems (navigation and other icons). Poster products, including advertising posters. Visual solutions for product packaging, including confectionery and food. The visual style of TV programs and other media products. This is becoming an increasingly integrating profession that unites the methods and principles of various professional disciplines in working with the complex, multi-level subject of visual reality. In addition to the visual text, image, space, graphic design can master other features, such as time, motion, and interactivity. Furthermore it can operate with more diverse means of marketing, economic, and cultural communications. Professional Software for Graphic Design For offset printing: Adobe Photoshop, Gimp (work with raster images), Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape (work with vector images), QuarkXPress and  Adobe InDesign (page layout). For outdoor advertising and screen printing: Corel Draw. Basic Graphic Design Products Graphic design is one of the trends, helping in creation awesome products. For example, product packaging may include organized text,  a logo or other image, and clean design elements, such as color and shapes, that contribute to the overall perception of the picture. Composition is one of the most important graphic design properties, especially when using preliminary materials or other elements. websites book layouts and illustrations advertising and informational posters graphic solution of postcards and postage stamps records and DVDs corporate style and its main element - the logo Brochures, booklets,  calendars and other advertising products souvenir products Advantages of images, implemented via graphic design technic: Low file storage volume  as a result - quick downloading time; Flexibility of usage in adaptive web and mobile interfaces; Great scalability: convenient customisation. Common use of graphic design includes advertising, magazines, packaging, and web.
>> Mainframe
is a large, high-performance, fault-tolerant server with significant I/O resources, large amount of operational and external memory, designed for mission-critical software applications supporting hundreds of users simultaneously. Features and Characteristics The lead time till failure of modern mainframes is estimated at 12-15 years. Such reliability is the result of almost 60-years of improvements. The VM / ESA operating system development team spent 20 years troubleshooting and as a result a system was created that can be used in the most critical cases. Increased system stability. Mainframes can isolate and fix most hardware and software errors by using the following principles: Duplication: two standby processors, redundant memory modules, and alternative paths to peripheral devices. Hot swapping of all elements down to channels, memory cards and CPUs. Data Integrity. Mainframes use memory with error correction. Errors do not lead to the destruction of data in memory or data waiting to be output to external devices. Disk subsystems, built on the basis of RAID-arrays with hot swapping and built-in backups, protect against data loss. Workload. The mainframe workload can be 80-95% of their peak performance. The mainframe operating system will process everything at once, and all applications will work closely together and use common software components. Throughput. Mainframe I/O subsystems are designed to work in an environment with the highest workload of I/O data. Access to data. Because the data is stored on a single server, application programs do not need to collect source information from multiple sources, no additional disk space is required for their temporary storage, there is no doubt about their relevance. It requires a small number of physical servers and much simpler software. All this, in total, leads to an increase in the processing speed and efficiency. Protection. The built-in security features, such as cryptographic devices and Logical Partition, and operating system protection, supplemented with RACF or VM: SECURE software, provide reliable protection. User interface. The user interface of mainframes has always been its weakest point. Now it has become possible for mainframe applications to provide a modern web interface in the shortest possible time and at minimal cost. Mainframes and supercomputers Supercomputers are machines that are at the peak of computing power available today, especially in the field of operations with numbers. Supercomputers are used for scientific and engineering purposes (high-performance computing, for example, in the field of meteorology or modeling of nuclear processes), where the limiting factors are processor power and the amount of RAM, while mainframes are used for integer operations, demanding data rate, reliability and simultaneous processing of transactions (ERP, online booking system, automated banking systems).
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