Google recently unveiled Android 5.0 Lollipop. The biggest difference Google has been touting is Material Design, which the company describes as “a visual language for our users that synthesizes the classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science.”

Here’s 45 minutes of Google explaining what that means.

Obviously developers are going to want to support Material Design, as it’s going to be a major part of Android going forward. With that, Android design advocate Roman Nurik has provided a checklist for Material Design here.

“Android 5.0 brings in material design as the new design system for the platform and system apps,” he writes. “Consumers will soon start getting Android 5.0 and they’re already seeing glimpses of material design with apps like Google Play Newsstand, Inbox by Gmail and Tumblr. Meanwhile, developers now have the Android 5.0 SDK, along with AppCompat for backward compatibility. And designers now have access to Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch templates. All this means that now—yes now!—is the time to start implementing material design in your Android apps.”

The checklist itself is quite long, but it’s broken up into four sections: Tangible Surfaces; A Bold, Print-Like Aesthetic; Autentic Motion; and Adaptive Design (and UI Patterns).

“If you include a good chunk of the items in the checklist…especially the ones indicated as signature elements, and follow traditional Android design best practices…you’ll be well on your way to material design awesomeness!” says Nurik.

As far as those best practices go, you can find some for core app quality here and tablet app quality here.

Good luck.

Image via Google