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Is it time to ditch the design grid?

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Re: Is it time to ditch the design grid?

#4
post #2

Visually, the "no" grid website [0] just looked like a website created with CSS Grid. I was expecting some sort of design that would be different. Are we missing something? [0]: https://gridless.design

I think the idea is not that the design is without a grid, but more on how it handles being resized. The video in the article does a good job of explaining it.

Re: Is it time to ditch the design grid?

#6
post #4
post #2

Visually, the "no" grid website [0] just looked like a website created with CSS Grid. I was expecting some sort of design that would be different. Are we missing something? [0]: https://gridless.design

I think the idea is not that the design is without a grid, but more on how it handles being resized. The video in the article does a good job of explaining it.

The principles of a grid-based design are still adhered to though. This isn't "gridless" in any real sense (other than maybe its handling in CSS?) from a design perspective. Maybe a better term is "adaptive grid" or something similar, which would make more sense in the design for something in a shifting and dynamic medium.

Re: Is it time to ditch the design grid?

#7
As somebody who just began using grids in their designs, I can say that grids can have a really nice effect on a lot of layouts. Fundamentally, it’s just about creating order and alignment among various elements in a view, both in positioning and spacing/sizing.

It’s really hard to pull off fancier grid layouts on the web due to device shapes and scrolling, but the basic principle still applies: line things up, create order, don’t pick sizes willy-nilly (off topic: Willy Nilly must have been the Leroy Jenkins of his day)

Re: Is it time to ditch the design grid?

#8
Although I agree with the article, the reality is that CSS frameworks continue to dominate web design. These frameworks do not make use of CSS Grid even though CSS Grid has excellent modern browser support.

For example, Bootstrap and Bulma - two popular frameworks - use flexbox for layout, but have yet to incorporate CSS Grid.

The difficulty of CSS layout is a frequent criticism of CSS (and fair criticism), but now we have CSS Grid to make layout much easier, few people actually use it. As mentioned, CSS Grid has been supported by modern browsers for some time.

You don't actually need a CSS framework for layout if you adopt CSS Grid. But it does entail learning CSS Grid first - rather than rely on the CSS framework you're familiar with.

Re: Is it time to ditch the design grid?

#9
I think web designers could stand to study actual grid based graphic design and see how that applies to our current capabilities on the web.

As for layout frameworks, I tried to learn them, but as far as I could tell they simply made bad/half assed design faster and easier. For a laughable amount of time they assumed you were building a desktop size column-based layout that was supposed to shrink, and anything different didn't work. So I never used them. It's fine if you're not hoping to produce a good design and just ship something generic, but idk if anything really good has come from them.

Re: Is it time to ditch the design grid?

#10
post #2

Visually, the "no" grid website [0] just looked like a website created with CSS Grid. I was expecting some sort of design that would be different. Are we missing something? [0]: https://gridless.design

This isn't an article about CSS features, nor is the linked site. This is about how designers think about their design and how that doesn't translate well into CSS. Both articles are trying to bridge the gap between design and implementation based on the reality of web content and browsing.

Also from the article:

> Paradoxically, where CSS Grid shines is not only in building layouts that adhere to a strict design grid, but in baking flexibility into our components.

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