It’s true that we can’t stop talking about Material Design, but frankly that’s because the Android operating system is absolutely better for it. Not only does it look better than any of the previous versions of Android, but it’s also more functional cohesive, which makes it a darling for app designers to work with.

Glynn-Finnegan is an app designer of note. He’s a lead designer tasked with redesigning the hugely popular Evernote Android app to fit within ’s new design guidelines, the end result of which can be seen in Evernote’s latest update. Glynn-Finnegan opened up about what he loved about redesigning the app for Material Design why it’s made his job as lead designer a little easier.

: t’s start by discussing the updated design of the most recent Evernote for Android update. at can users expect with that?

Glynn-Finnegan: started with version 7 probably six months ago. sort of iterated on all the various screens features really narrowed our focus on surfacing user content making that sort of shine in the app by stripping away any barriers to that, overall offering a cleaner, crisper experience.

: Can you talk a bit about the differences in the update that hit in September the update released in h?

Glynn-Finnegan: The one in September was a huge jump for us to bring in that clarity, to have an overall voice, to have this bred element inside the app. But that was pre-llipop release, also pre- guidelines.

were certainly taking those core design principals of good typography, lines, space, some of the more detailed stuff in llipop, like quality of depth information; that hadn’t come to surface yet in any real form. en the previous version of Evernote came out, we didn’t have any other Material Design apps from to look see what they were doing. I would say that this launch is a more refined, detailed orientated release where every single screen has been thoughtfully updated improved for the users.

: How hard is it to redesign an app? Do you just toss out what you already have start from scratch? Or do you try to iterate on what already exists? 

Glynn-Finnegan: It wasn’t difficult. ’re sort of always iterating we’re driven more by those data stats, really, but working with those guidelines was a pleasure.

From a design point of view, it’s more difficult to design with a blank sheet of paper than it is to sort of be given the boundaries to work within. At that point it becomes a challenge—in a good way— it’s like solving a puzzle. That’s kind of how we saw the guidelines: they were a great guide, but we were still able to still inject our personality our br within that.

: ’s Material Design stards are pretty thorough lengthy. at were some of your favorite parts of redesigning Evernote for Android to meet those stards? 

Glynn-Finnegan: I think the idea of building on simplicity was really great for us. took that to heart. Our previous update sort of had a look of Material Design, but we were leaning quite heavily on the Cards view. The more we thought about it— the more we designed iterated—the more we wanted to simplify every single stage. The key for us was for people to be able to get to their notes, to interact with their notes, interact with others. And so, we stripped away a lot of the fluff were able to align with those key principals.

: y did you guys move away from the Cards-style you had in version 6?

Glynn-Finnegan: I think specifically with the Cards view, we wanted to remove any clutter. Having your content within containers just didn’t feel right. wanted people to be able to parse their information more easily that’s why we’re relying more heavily on the list view. thought hard about how long each snippet should be how many we should fit on each screen. Obviously, all that that stuff depends on screen size, but ultimately we wanted to strip out those aesthetic elements that weren’t benefiting the content.

actually are still using Cards-view for some things, but we didn’t want to restrict to people’s notes to be defined by four borders.

: Did you find it difficult to balance Evernote’s own design paradigm with ’s?

Glynn-Finnegan: I think whenever we’re designing—whether it’s for the web, or whether it’s for an app, or all along across the board—we’re looking for all the areas that we can inject our br our personality. So that’s what we did. leaned very heavily on type good typography principles, making it very clear what the header was, what the body copy was, which were labels which were buttons. ong all those things, we’re injecting our personality our br within the framework of material guidelines.

used color, our own custom illustration style, our own iconography that we have, so we’re always looking for those elements that inject our personality, which is what users are looking for, I think.

: Do you think Material Design is better for Android overall?

Glynn-Finnegan: I think it’s much better. One thing I’ve found is that I’m able to switch between apps not lose my place, or become confused about how to go back or how to progress within the app. That momentum continues throughout the day—I’m not relearning every time I open an app. From a user experience point of view, there’s a consistency across apps.

It’s a fantastic update. It’s obviously well considered that’s really clear to me having dived deeper in the guidelines.

: You don’t feel limited at all having to work within guidelines?

Glynn-Finnegan: ’re looking for that seamless experience for all users across all devices all platforms. As a design team, we’re using Android we’re designing within Android, so we’re sort of immersed in that world. I think having the guidelines has been good to have a framework that we can work within.

: Are you an Android user? 

Glynn-Finnegan: I am. I’ve been using Android on off for probably about two years. I had a Nexus 7 tablet, but in the past six months I’ve switched over to the Nexus 5.

: at’s an app you just can’t live without?

I’m a big fan of Spotify. I think they do a fantastic job of being cross-platform. I can pick it up on my phone, use it on my laptop…I like stuff that is everywhere you go, I like having a seamless experience.

I also really like VSCO Cam I think they’ve done a fantastic new design for Android. It’s one of the best examples of injecting their personality within the confines of a framework.