Material Design Lite web framework brings style to websites

Google introduced Material Design last summer, and now about a year later it has introduced Material Design Lite, a web framework for bringing the design language to the Web. Google makes various promises about it, including that it "gracefully degrades in older browsers", all the while bringing a Material Design look to a website through JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. The components library gives access to various items like badges and buttons, while customization options lend it all a personal touch.

Google Developers introduced Material Design Lite on Medium today, where they detailed its various aspects and abilities. The Lite part, they explain, is derived from Material Design Lite's (MDL) ease of use. MDL is said to be framework-agnostic, and the code size clocks in at about 27kb gzipped.

The websites that result from MDL will look very familiar to most Android users, with the distinct Material Design flavor spanning all aspects of it, from menus to graphics.

There are text fields, buttons, spinners, and such available, and the complexity of it all depends on how you're feeling. Those who want to get into the mix of it all can download the Material Design Lite sources from GitHub and get started, while others can use the pre-built CSS or the aforementioned theme customizer.

SOURCE: Medium, GetMDL