Golden Grid System GGS was my next step after Less Framework. Instead of a fixed-width grid, it used a fully fluid-width one, without even a maximum width. The resources it was published with are still available on GitHub. The idea was to take a 18-column grid, use the outermost columns as margins, and use the remaining 16 to lay elements out. On smaller screens the 16 columns could be folded into 8, 4 and 2. While the grid's columns were fluid — proportional to the screen's width — the gutters (spaces between the columns) were proportional to the font-size being used. GGS also contained a set of typographic presets, strictly to a baseline grid. Correctly setting all of these measurements is difficult, of course. When published, GGS gained a lot of attention, as the web design community was searching ways to work with fluid-width grids, which have always been troublesome, running counter to many graphic design principles. Later on I developed Frameless, the last entry in my early CSS grid system saga.
Essential tools for every web designer Every web designer requires the right tools to do their job. To create well crafted original designs you certainly need to be inspired to do so. Getting to that point is sometimes the hardest challenge in the field of web design. Luckily enough for us and our fellow design community there are tools available to assist in completing the job quicker and more efficiently. Below, I have outlined a list of tools I recommend for any web designer. Color Adobe Kuler (free) A great tool offered by Adobe which allows members to upload, create, and edit color schemes of their choice. Pictaculous (free) From the creators of Mailchimp comes a color palette generator different to any other. Colorzilla (free) ColorZilla for Google Chrome is an extension that assists web developers and graphic designers with color related tasks – both basic and advanced.ColorZilla includes a Color Picker, Eye Dropper, Gradient Generator and many additional advanced color tools. Dribbble.com (free) Hues ($2.99) Typography
Responsive Navigation Patterns Update: I’ve also written about complex navigation patterns for responsive design. Top and left navigations are typical on large screens, but lack of screen real estate on small screens makes for an interesting challenge. As responsive design becomes more popular, it’s worth looking at the various ways of handling navigation for small screen sizes. Here’s some of the more popular techniques for handling navigation in responsive designs: There are of course advantages and disadvantages of each method and definitely some things to look out for when choosing what method’s right for your project. Top Nav or “Do Nothing” Approach One of the easiest-to-implement solutions for navigation is to simply keep it at the top. Pros Cons Height issues- Height matters in mobile. Responsive navigation breaking to multiple lines on small screens In the Wild Resources This clever solution keeps the nav list at the footer of the site, while the header contains a simple anchor link pointing to the footer nav.
iOS Fonts 15 Responsive CSS Frameworks Worth Considering Taking the next step of our responsive layout coverage (we recently published the articles Responsive WordPress Themes and jQuery Plugins to help with Responsive Layouts), today we are taking a look at responsive CSS frameworks that we feel are worth your consideration. Just like most CSS frameworks, all of the frameworks below will help you rapidly develop sites by eliminating the need to write basic CSS styles yourself, as you would expect. But, on top of that, they also come with a responsive layout helping you to quickly and easily create mobile-specific sites. Less Framework 4 The Less Framework contains 4 adaptive layouts and 3 sets of typography presets, all based on a single grid, composed of 68 px columns with 24 px gutters. The idea is to first code the Default Layout (992 px), and then use CSS3 media queries to code several child layouts: 768, 480, and 320 px. Foundation MQFramework Golden Grid System The Golden Grid System is a folding grid system for responsive design. Columnal
Media Queries 40 Incredibly Useful Web Design Tools You Should Use Daily This article will showcase tools which should and could be used by designers daily. If you need some inspiration – you can visit the most popular and recommended design showcase sites to find really good works and examples. Check out design related tools, online generators, free font sites, template sites, great websites helping to test and manage websites – those all have been created to save your time! Remember - not always the best way is to create everything by yourself. I strongly suggest you to go through this article and bookmark tools, which could help you or just bookmark this page and come back whenever you feel discouraged or struggled! Inspiration 1. Deviantart is one of the largest artist showcases on internet. 2. Web Design Library is an internationally refereed resource that provides a platform for the dissemination of design thinking and research. 3. 4. Behance is a very great place for inspiration, because there are more professionals with stunning designs. 5. 6. 7. 8.
The 8 biggest responsive web design problems (and how to avoid them) | Web design I created a survey asking fellow designers about the problems they faced when creating fully responsive sites. This article will list the most common problems they reported and offer possible solutions, along with suggestions to consider on your next projects. The information contained here is based on hundreds of survey responses (if you'd like to add your own answers, the survey itself is still open) along with problems I've also come across in my own work at Offroadcode. So without further ado, let's reveal what the most common responsive web design problems are... and how you can avoid them. Fledgling methodology Despite responsive design already having been around more than two years, it's still in many ways a fledgling methodology. All of these feature in the most common problems reported by survey respondents, which were: Subscription offer 01. The 'old' process of designing a website was a very linear one, which made it easy for clients to understand. 02. 03. 04.
FFFFALLBACK - A simple tool for bulletproof web typography. Responsive Webdesign-Special: News, Tipps & Infos zu Responsive Webdesign Image Lightbox ist eine schicke Lightbox mit responsive Design-Features und Touch-Unterstützung. Wir stellen dir das schlanke Skript kurz vor. » weiterlesen Heute führen wir auf t3n.de die Video-Serie weiter, in der wir euch in Zusammenarbeit mit Galileo Press Video-Workshops zu verschiedenen Themen für Webentwickler und Digitalarbeiter präsentieren... ... » weiterlesen Möchte man für unterschiedliche Geräte anpassungsfähige Websites erstellen, ist „Responsive Webdesign“ das Stichwort. Duo ist ein Browser, der dabei helfen soll, Responsive Webdesign zu testen. Timelog ist eine kleine, simple Web-App, mit der ihr einfach stoppen könnt, wie lange ihr für etwas braucht. Mit der Serie „Responsive Webdesign“ wollen wir euch die Entwicklung flexibler Projekte erleichtern. Responsive-Webdesign ist eine tolle Technik. Das Angebot an kostenlosen Templates für die eigene Website wächst stetig. Mit der Serie „Responsive Webdesign“ wollen wir euch die Entwicklung flexibler Projekte erleichtern.
20 Incredibly useful tools and resources for Web designers When it comes to Web design, the tools you use play an integral part in your results. Of course, we’re big fans of getting down to the basics, like putting pencil to paper, but sometimes finding new apps and resources can help you get those creative juices flowing. Check out our list of 25 incredibly useful tools and resources for designers and developers below. 1. Niice essentially operates as a design search engine, pulling in results from Behance, Dribbble and Designspiration. 2. Pixel Dropr is a Photoshop plugin created by UI Parade which allows designers to create collections of icons, illustrations, photos, buttons and other elements that can be dragged and dropped to any PSD file. 3. If you’re a Hacker News reader, you already know how Designer News works. 4. Firefox has added a new typography-centric tool called the “Font Inspector” to its DevTools, available now in the browser’s Nightly Build. 5. 6. 8. This Web app is a simplistic as it sounds. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
The 5 Worst UX Mistakes Websites Make The user experience of websites has improved by leaps and bounds over the years, but I still run into sites that make me ask, “What were they thinking?!” From a design perspective, it’s easy to get caught up in internal squabbles (“No, no, THIS is the content that has to be front and center”) or distracted by tools or methods (“I say we use lean UX on this project”). When this happens, we often forget that at the end of it all waits a person who wasn’t in on all these decisions, and just wants to get the information they need, buy the product, or be entertained for five minutes while waiting for the train. In the hopes it will help us all avoid these pitfalls, here’s my list of the five worst UX mistakes that I still see people making in website design. Mistake #1: Paying too much Attention to the Macro and Short-Shrifting the Micro Recently, I reviewed a non-profit agency website. People expect technology to follow the same rules as human-to-human interaction. This is challenging.
OpenType OpenType® is a modern font format developed by Adobe® and Microsoft® to provide users with an accessible and advanced typographic toolset. OpenType improves on PostScript and TrueType just as the DVD trumped the video cassette. When deciding what format to choose, using the latest technology simply makes sense, but let’s dig a bit deeper and explore the ways OpenType makes life easier for typographers and graphic designers. OpenType is Efficient One Style = One File The PostScript format is limited to 256 characters per file. Based on Unicode, an OpenType file can contain up to 65,535 characters or glyphs. As a concrete example of the efficiency of the OpenType format, compare the multilingual PostScript version of FF Meta 1, a package of four type styles, with its OpenType successor. Narrow this example down to a single style (FF Meta Book), and we can see that the glyphs and metrics from several PostScript files are all included in one OpenType file. Mac and PC Compatible What’s Inside?