A Brief History of Material Design

Back in 2014, Google had a vision: to unify its design language across all platforms, ensuring a consistent user experience whether you were on a phone, tablet, or staring into the abyss of a Google Chrome tab.

The result? Material Design.

With its bold colors, realistic (yet exaggerated) shadows, and smooth animations, Material Design took inspiration from real-world materials (hence the name) while embracing digital flexibility.

It quickly became the de facto design language for Android and Google apps, and before long, developers everywhere were trying to make their own apps look just as polished.

Material Design in Web Frameworks

Now, implementing Material Design on the web is like trying to make a pizza with only a microwave—it requires some effort, but thankfully, frameworks exist to help.

Here are some of the key players:

Angular Material

If Angular is the Swiss Army knife of web frameworks, then Angular Material is the premium attachment that makes everything look professional.

Built by the Angular team, it provides a set of pre-styled Material Design components that make it easy to build a UI that looks like it came straight from Google’s headquarters.

It has buttons, cards, dialogs, toolbars—you name it. And because it’s an official package, it plays nicely with Angular’s ecosystem.

React and Material-UI

React, the library that powers half the internet, doesn’t come with a built-in Material Design solution.

But fear not! Material-UI (now known as MUI) steps in to save the day.

With MUI, React developers get a huge set of ready-to-use Material Design components, making it easy to build apps that look clean, modern, and appropriately shadowy.

It’s one of the most popular UI libraries for React, and for good reason—it takes the hassle out of designing good-looking web apps.

Material Design in Desktop Frameworks

The web isn’t the only place Material Design has made itself at home. Desktop applications want in on the fun too.

WPF and the MahApps Library

Remember WPF? Microsoft’s beloved (but slightly aged) UI framework for Windows applications? Well, it turns out Material Design isn’t just for modern web apps—it’s alive and well in WPF, thanks to the MahApps.Metro library.

MahApps provides modern, stylish, and Material-inspired UI components for WPF applications, giving developers an easy way to create sleek Windows apps without making them look like they belong in 2005.

If you ever find yourself building a WPF app and thinking, “Man, this looks outdated,” just slap MahApps on it, and boom—instant facelift.

MAUI – The New Kid on the Block

.NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) is Microsoft’s answer to cross-platform development, replacing Xamarin.Forms.

Naturally, Material Design found its way here too, with built-in Material components available to make apps look polished on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.

It’s still evolving, but if you’re looking to build modern, cross-platform apps with Material Design principles, MAUI is a solid choice.

Conclusion

Material Design has come a long way since its birth in 2014.

From shaping Android interfaces to influencing web and desktop frameworks, it has become one of the most recognizable design systems in the world.

Whether you’re using Angular Material, MUI for React, MahApps for WPF, or building cross-platform apps with MAUI, there’s no shortage of ways to bring that signature Google polish to your applications.

Just remember: With great shadows comes great responsibility.

Key Ideas

References

1. Google’s Material Design Guidelines
2. Angular Material
3. Material-UI (MUI) for React
4. MahApps.Metro for WPF
5. Microsoft .NET MAUI