Google Chrome for workstations: a major and essential facelift

If you subscribe to the nighttime version of Google Chrome from "Canary", the latest version for Windows, Linux and Chrome OS has undergone a facelift if necessary Designing the User interface. The new look is set by default, bringing improvements to the outdated Chrome design with a rounded address bar, rounded and colorful browser tabs, and new omnibox suggestion icons.

"MacOS users can set experimental flags // flags / # top-chrome-md for" Refresh "and activate chrome: // flags / # views-browser -windows to try it now, "says Google evangelist, François Beaufort. "Note that it is still actively being developed and that you can fall on some bugs."

Material Design is a design language introduced by Google in 2014. It is based on the "map" layout used in Google Now that borrows global designs from paper and ink. It tries to emulate physical substrates in a virtual environment, making sharp edges and shadows that give depth. Material Design has infiltrated Android 5.0 and is gradually becoming the default visual design for all Google applications and services.

"Material Design is guided by methods of print design: typography, grids, space, scale, color and imagery. meaning, and focus that plunge the audience into the experience, "says Google." Material Design is inspired by the physical world and its textures, including how they reflect light and cast shadows. Material surfaces reimagine paper and ink media. "

Google's Chrome browser user interface has remained virtually unchanged for many years. You can change its appearance to some extent by downloading and installing themes from the Chrome Web Store, but they're changing simply the background colors of the Start Page, Toolbar, Tabs, etc.

now appears in Chrome Canary means that Google is making progress on building the new interface If you are curious about what Material Design is about, be aware that: Chrome Canary is not a stable version of Google 's browser.This is a nightly compilation that does not work. has not yet been tested, introducing new features and possible show-stop bugs.

But keep in mind that Material Design is a project in progress. The interface is ready for prime time Google would have s major changes to Material Design earlier this year to support a tool called "Material Theming" for the design of interfaces. Redesigning Gmail on the Web was part of this redesign of the design platform.

Google should make Material Design the default user interface in the stable version of Chrome on September 2, the browser's birthday. This means that the new interface must survive design changes in the Canary, Developer and Beta channels before becoming mainstream in less than two months. We'll see if Google manages to meet this birthday deadline.