What is the difference between Flat design, Modern design, and Material design?

Let the UX design battle start! People usually confuse Flat Design with Modern Design and Material Design as they share many properties. But, have you ever researched what the difference is? Let’s dive into  UX designs for better understanding.

Flat Design

Starting with Flat Design –A user interface design that uses bright colors, simple, and two-dimensional elements. It was initially developed for responsive design, where a website content scales efficiently based on device screen size. Using minimal textures and simple shapes, this design ensures that design responds well and load fast. By decreasing visual noise, flat designs enable users with efficient and optimal user experience. Moreover, it became more prominent with the release of Apple’s iOS 7, Windows 8, and Google’s Material Designs.

Flat design is different from Modern Design and Material design. Have a look!

• It’s an uncluttered and distraction-free design.
• It doesn’t have any gradient added to it.
• It provides high readability with clear typography
• Adjustable for responsive design.
• Fast loading in browser and apps.

Modern Design

Over time, we see new styles and elements in website design. Modern design is typically the sum of best practices of Flat Design and Material Design. But with multiple considerations, it can be a challenging task to determine the best one. However, it’s not always necessary to add every trend in website design, many of them are used as better user experience. Let’s have a look at some features that make Modern Design unique with Flat Design and Material Design.

• A focused layout to attract the user.
• Semi-flat design.
• Unique and large typography.
• Large and responsive hero images.
• Video addition in live background.
• Hamburger menus.

Material Design

Material design is initially framed by Google and used to create a coherent and manageable visual language. It helps to build web and mobile experiences based on tangible screens. Material design is a system that enables designers to build unified designs with fewer distractions. Material design is different from Modern Design and Flat Design. Have a look!

• Unlike others, Material Design has slight skeuomorphic properties. 
• More interactive with higher feedback response.
• Uses gradient to create a sense of depth.
• Use of animation to show the user what’s happening on the screen.
• Slightly heavier on load page speed.

Another major difference is that Material Design is well documented by Google and has proper guidelines. Moreover, Google keeps this document updated from time to time. But there’s no single governing organization for Flat Design. It’s just a name given to the minimalist approach of design by designers and companies.