Google Readies Cross-Platform QuantumPaper UI For Consistent Looking Apps

One of the issues that Google has experienced which hasn't affected Apple is the matter of variances in mobile device form factors.

iPads until recently were all the same size and currently only come one of 2 sizes. Because of this, the app market just for the iPad tablet grew markedly while the market for Android tablet-specific apps lagged behind because no one knew what size a tablet was going to be when designing a tablet app.

Another issue has been the lack of consistency with the design interface for Google apps on the iOS platform, the Android platform and other platforms that can run Google apps.

Quantum Paper UI

Google has a secret project in the works that presently is going by the name, Quantum Paper UI. The intention behind this project is to help unify how apps will look in the future across Android, iOS, web sites regardless of form factor or platform.

Framework & Tool-kit

The Quantum Paper UI is seen as a design framework to help ensure that Google products will look more consistent across mobile platforms, as web apps used on a mobile or on the desktop.

The UI will be offered to third party developers as a tool-kit to help advise on design principals. This will likely include widgets and a grid-like layout construct to help app developers not need to start from scratch. Understanding what it takes to create something that stays consistent with other major apps on the market is one of the clear goals here.

This approach is seen as something similar to the Bootstrap framework which uses a grid-like process to ensure consistency to great success.

Evolving Thinking

The initial basis of Quantum Paper UI can most likely be traced back to Polymer, which was an earlier internal Google project to add greater consistency to HTML design principals with apps. Developers are waiting to see whether this new framework will offer insert-able internal widgets or rely on HTML for its structured design approach.

Project Hera is also something to be aware of. This project uses Chromium to run Web-based tasks and provides a consistent look for task management with mobile apps. It is unclear presently whether Hera will be independent of the current efforts with Quantum Paper UI or later may be merged with it.

Also see:

Rearrange the Google Apps and Products in Google's Navigation Bar