Flat Design / Vector Minimalism vs Material You
フラットデザイン / ベクターミニマリズム / Material You
Flat Design / Vector Minimalism comes from UI Expression and Material You from Google UI. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Flat Design / Vector Minimalism
Reduces information to plain planes and color, portable across screens and media.
Material You
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Material You makes adaptability itself consistent: dynamic color, generous shapes and personalized motion vary by person while semantic roles stay stable.
| Flat Design / Vector Minimalism | Material You | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 2010s– | 2021– |
| Family | UI Expression | Google UI |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Uniform planes / Simple shapes / Few shadows / Clear color | Harmonized colors derived from wallpaper / Large rounded cards and controls / Selection changes both color and shape / Broad spacing and large display type |
| Best used for | Light, understandable explanation · Large sets of consistent figures | Safely reflecting a user's palette in a product · Letting one component system support varied personal appearances |
| Type | A rounded sans-serif | Keep hierarchy in weight and scale so it survives changes of color. |
| Composition | Simple silhouettes and clear hierarchy | Set large rounded surfaces in generous space and express selection through shape, color and motion together. |
| Material | Three to five colors; shadows only when they mean something | Generate tonal palettes from a seed, then assign them to semantic surface and content roles. |
| Caution | Figures easily become generic. Define your own ratios, lines and color rules. | Automatic color generation alone can produce unreadable interfaces. Contrast and semantic roles come first. |