Google is believed to be testing refinements to its universal design language, dubbed Material Design.
The Californian company unveiled Material Design back in 2014.
The design language now permeates across the entire spectrum of Google software, services and apps, including the Chrome web browser, ChomeOS and Android operating systems, Google Photos, and YouTube, to name a few.
Google centred its look around pastel colour palettes, sharp windows, soft lighting, and realistic physics.
However, four years on, it appears Google is ready to make some changes to its Material Design aesthetic.
Technology blog XDA Developers has unearthed a number of references to something called “the new google material design 2 standard” in Chromium, the open-source browser project behind Google Chrome.
The code — which was swiftly made private following the publication of XDA Developers’ article — describes a “Material design 2 UI” being applied to the tab and tabstrip interface found above the address bar in Chrome.
Google looks set to make some changes to its colour palette.
According to the references to Material Design 2, the new language will employ lighter shades of grey in the interface.
Elsewhere, reds will be slightly darker than the current iteration. Google could also add a new “red-dark” theme to its app, the code hints.
This new colour palette is likely to result in an almost white colour to the toolbar in Google Chrome, compared to the light grey used in the most recent version.
Meanwhile, Material Design 2 looks set to bring a darker Incognito theme to Chrome.
According to XDA Developers, this new design is also likely to increase the height and reduce the width of tabs.
Titles and alert indicators included on tabs will also see some changes, although it’s difficult to ascertain exactly what these will be from the code in Chromium.
Beyond colours, there is also mention of a new “material design 2 tab close button icon” which hints at a broader redesign.
Google also looks set to increase its focus on making user interface elements touch-friendly.
One example sees Chrome tabs keep the same width – allowing users to always read the title of the webpage – rather than be squeezed each time more tabs are opened.
This would also make the tabs easier to tap on a touchscreen.
Google has rolled-out a number of minor improvements and tweaks to Material Design since it debuted back in 2014.
However, it’s possible the company is looking to really shake things up for the fourth anniversary.