@vincent couldn’t agree more! There’s a lot of things in the MD guidelines that are ridiculously complicated for the needs of a basic site…things like the different DPs for shadow elements are far too complex to implement if you follow them to the letter.
I get your point about uniformity too - with a “set” pallette and design guidelines it renders it no more useful than any other design framework out there. If we all follow the rules then we’ll all create identical looking sites and apps (the Bootstrap effect!!).
Also: the paper folding thing!! Its one of MD’s main rules that “paper never bends”…surely that’s the most limiting thing for a designer? If we were “allowed” to fold and reform the paper so to speak it would open up a whole realm of possibilities.
The more I work with it the more i’m starting to think about taking some of the over-arcing ideas of MD (implying physical space with shadows, thinking more about meaningful interactions etc) and leaving the unnecessary stuff behind. There’s some great ideas in there, it just seems to be bogged down in unneeded technicalities.
Always good to have your input man!