Applying Material Design in Hybrid Apps

Tutorial 3 of 5

Introduction

Goal of the Tutorial

This tutorial aims to guide you on how to apply Material Design principles in Hybrid Apps. By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to create a hybrid app that is not only functional but also visually appealing with Material Design.

What You will Learn

You'll learn how to:
- Understand Material Design principles
- Implement Material Design using HTML and CSS
- Use Material Design components in your hybrid app

Prerequisites

You should have a basic understanding of:
- HTML & CSS
- JavaScript
- Basic knowledge of Hybrid Application Development

Step-by-Step Guide

Material Design Principles

Material Design is a design language developed by Google. It's a comprehensive guide for visual, motion, and interaction design across platforms and devices. To use material design in your hybrid apps, you need to understand its principles such as Material as a Metaphor, Bold, Graphic, Intentional, etc.

Using HTML and CSS for Material Design

Material Design can be implemented in your HTML layout using various CSS tricks, such as box shadows for elevation, smooth transitions for motion, and much more.

Material Design Components

Material Design has a rich set of pre-designed components like Buttons, Cards, Menus, etc. that you can use in your app. These components can be easily integrated into your app using HTML and CSS.

Code Examples

Material Design Button

<!-- This is a Material Design button -->
<button class="mdc-button">
  <span class="mdc-button__label">Button</span>
</button>
  • The mdc-button class styles the button with Material Design principles.
  • The mdc-button__label class is used to style the button label.

Material Design Card

<!-- This is a Material Design card -->
<div class="mdc-card">
  <div class="mdc-card__primary-action">
    <!-- Card content goes here -->
  </div>
</div>
  • The mdc-card class styles the div as a Material Design card.
  • The mdc-card__primary-action class is used for the main tappable area of the card.

Summary

In this tutorial, we've covered the basic principles of Material Design, how to implement it in HTML and CSS, and how to use Material Design components in your app. The next step would be to delve into more complex Material Design components and understand how to customize these components to fit your app's unique style. You can refer to the official Material Design documentation for more details.

Practice Exercises

  1. Create a Material Design form with at least 3 fields: Name (text), Email (email), and Submit (button).
  2. Create a Material Design card with an image, title, description, and a "read more" button.

Solutions

  1. Material Design Form:
<form class="mdc-form">
  <input type="text" id="name" class="mdc-text-field">
  <input type="email" id="email" class="mdc-text-field">
  <button class="mdc-button">
    <span class="mdc-button__label">Submit</span>
  </button>
</form>
  1. Material Design Card:
<div class="mdc-card">
  <img src="image.jpg" class="mdc-card__media">
  <h2 class="mdc-typography--headline6">Title</h2>
  <p class="mdc-typography--body2">Description</p>
  <button class="mdc-button">
    <span class="mdc-button__label">Read More</span>
  </button>
</div>

Tips for Further Practice

Try to use different Material Design components in a single layout. Mix and match different components and see how they interact with each other. The more you practice, the more you'll understand how to design with Material Design.