Google goes maximalist with its new Material Design kit

Everyone from Gen Z to Gen X is looking for more expressive interfaces. With its updated design language, Google is giving people what they want.

Eleven years after Google first announced its grand unifying theory of design—Material Design—it’s introducing its third major revision to the system.

Called Material 3 Expressive, the company will tell you that it is its most “researched update” ever, promising to help people find what they’re looking for on the screen faster than before. But it’s also the company’s most maximalist design system to date. Still enabling quieter minimalist designs, sure, but embracing bolder colors, more playful animations, and all around more overt approaches to interface. There’s a new roundness to almost every component, right down to the tips of Google’s new default typeface, Google Sans Flex Rounded, which replaces the hard-edged terminals on letterforms with smooth tips.