Testing the new Material Design in the Chrome Canary browser (Topic)

For several years now, Google has been introducing Material Design corporate design into its products and web services - a concept of a modern usable interface, a simple, at the same time multi-layered style of drawing elements.

In the stable edition of the Chrome browser, today we have the implementation of this design in the upper part of the window, as well as in individual sections of the browser - in settings, downloads, history, in managing extensions. Soon, Chrome will get even more Material Design. Implementation of the new browser areas with Material Design is currently being tested as part of the Chrome Canary project, the developer and enthusiast edition of the web browser with the latest features. Let's see what Chrome might look like in the near future.

So, Chrome Canary is a browser separate from the usual edition of "Chrome", very unstable. It is problematic to work with it in a regular mode, it is better to just periodically launch and test new functions. The Canary edition is essentially a blueprint for the future of the current stable browser edition. Download Chrome Canary

What will happen in this future? To see the Material Design implementation in new areas of the web browser, some experimental features need to be enabled. To do this, enter in the address bar:

chrome://flags

Next, test the following settings one by one.

New tab design

In the search engine for the experimental settings section, enter the value:

#top-chrome-md

These are the settings for the appearance of the interface at the top of the window. And there are several design options here. First, select the "Refresh" option. We press the restart button "Relaunch Now".

And we'll see how the shape of the Chrome Canary tabs has changed - it has become more ornate.

Large interface for touch devices

To use a different design option for the top of the browser, set a different value for the above setting - set the "Touchable" option. And restart.

Let's see how Chrome Canary has changed for touch devices - its top, where tabs are placed, has become wider, the toolbar has become wider, its buttons have increased. The Omnibox has gotten a neater rounded shape and also got bigger. All this is for comfortable web surfing on devices with a touchscreen, so that you can get your finger on the desired element the first time.

Large dialog boxes

Another experimental Material Design tweak will work in conjunction with either of the two browser top styles discussed above. It embeds Material Design into dialog boxes and similar forms. In the search engine of the experimental settings section, enter:

#secondary-ui-md

Select the "Enabled" position. Restart the browser.

We will see the changes when a dialog box appears in the Chrome Canary window, for example, a form for adding bookmarks. She became more spacious and took on a style with rounded corners of forms. Again, an innovation for ease of operation on touch devices.

A bit late, of course, Google decided to take care of users of touch-sensitive Windows devices. At the moment, Microsoft Edge, the native browser of Windows 10, is optimized for working with touchscreens. Firefox Quantum and Opera are optimized to a lesser extent, but nevertheless better than Chrome.

The Topic of Article: Testing the new Material Design in the Chrome Canary browser.
Author: Jake Pinkman