Has there been any research on whether Material Design has superior UX for desktop use?
I've just tried the new settings screen on Chrome 59, and personally I find it far, far worse than what it was previously. I hate this trend of hiding essential top-level navigation behind a hamburger menu, especially on desktop.
I struggle with what things are buttons in material design. Everything looks flat, so clickable things look like labels to me. Especially buttons that aren't rectangles.
Try reading a material design page or app on a shitty old TN display and you are in for a treat. It is virtually impossible to tell forground from background because all the "light gray" colors look the same on such a display and the gray-ness also changes with the viewing angle.
I'm not sure it's "hidden" in this case. In fact, the hamburger seems to just open "shortcuts." The fact that I can click Advanced and see where Passwords are is a big improvement, in my opinion. One of the main reasons I go into settings is to manage my passwords. I always had a hard time visually scanning for them with the old layout. So there's one tiny drop of anecdotal evidence that it's a little better.
It seems like an excellent idea that is only an idea. I was pro at first but most of the time I dread a little. Only advantage is that it suits mobile a little bit, and now google has mostly one UX.
I've just tried the new settings screen on Chrome 59, and personally I find it far, far worse than what it was previously. I hate this trend of hiding essential top-level navigation behind a hamburger menu, especially on desktop.