One thing we enjoyed enormously during the past week was this little collection of experiments Google put together with the intent of making music basics more accessible to everybody of any age. A few things stand out about the Chrome Music Lab — it definitely has the Google mark all over it thanks to how strong and cohesive its Material Design and Brand Identity guidelines are. Then we realized that it's very well implemented. We tried it over different devices throughout this weekend and, in line with their objective of accessibility, it worked pretty much flawlessly in each one of the devices we used.
But really, what stood out the most is how delightful, how friendly and how fun it is to use. Google have slowly positioned itself at the top of the game in the design field ever since the introduction of Material and keeps rolling out incredible experiences that “normal” people and not just us IT nerds can thoroughly enjoy. We're really excited for Google’s future experiments and products.
But enough about that. Experience it yourself here. Time for some sweet jams, everybody!
OTHER DESIGN-RELEVANT NEWS
CRAFT BY INVISION GETS AN UPDATE
It's inVision season again, and the company is on a roll with a new version of Craft that includes a new panel called Styles. What does this mean? Well, it's easy: Free style guides for everybody!
Juan Herrera (Designer): This is really good. Really, really good. But beware, for this might create a bunch of unwanted text styles or color swatches in your documents. Still, it's amazing to see how flexible Sketch is. I can't wait to see what inVision will do next.
GIT FOR SKETCH
Some of us have been wondering whether someone would bring something like Git to our designer world. Turns out someone is actually working on it!
Lukas Imrich (UX Designer): Well, it's nice that someone's actually working on something like this. However, it's fairly basic at the moment and it works by taking a snapshot of your artboards on Sketch instead of understanding the file itself. And then there's the fact that most designers wouldn't touch Git with a stick. Let's see where this goes, but if you're already on Github, definitely try it out!
99 DESIGNS ACQUIRES A FACELIFT
The infamous design-on-demand service has got a new look, and it's... looking very hip. But "hip" is a dangerous word, and so is "trendy". The boys over at Brand New put together a brief, yet very 'nuff said piece on it, check it out!
Maggie Appleton (Illustrator): Is it somehow meta that the tool which produces the worst design in the world has some of the nicest designs itself?
SO, WE WENT ON THE INTERNET AND FOUND...
Designer's Block - What would Yeezy do? Sketch 10 more ideas? Meditate for 20 minutes? These are just a few examples of the kind of tips you can get to help you overcome creative block in this neat little page.
SketchSheets - Some really pretty and useful printable device templates.
Papier - A new handy extension for writing notes within a new tab in Chrome!
