Google’s Material Design is a set of UI guidelines for designers. It has many elements found in modern development, that give sites a better visual experience. This is invaluable for designers, allowing them to deliver experiences that come from using the best practices of web design.

It has lots of neat touches that can help affect changes for the better. One example is its use of drop shadows for various states of the menus and divs that gives a balanced sense of depth. Want to increase your repertoire?, you can use parts of the guidelines to bring a professional touch to a project. Keep in mind that you might find the overuse of it might make innovation limited.

They show real world studies, and principles to follow as you design applications. They include animations for various elements, typography, and many subjects needed for a clean site.

Personal experience

I used material to solve some issues I was having with divs separating areas on a screen – things were too busy. With the clever use of shadow, and ditching borders I was able to create a cleaner experience for visitors.

Use cases

When you either need a complete design solution, or just need to learn some basics about clean design.

Cons

Expect thorough documentation.