Produxion

I made this a while ago, but due to my slackness in updating the old blog for quite some time, it’s never made it on here. As part of the North project we’re developing in partnership with folly I needed to produce a new web presence. It was quite a quick job, as time and (…)

I’ve recently experienced a web design epiphany.

It’s funny how you work with stuff for so long, and you become very entrenched in a certain way of doing things. You follow the trends because that’s the consensus. You ocassionally push the boundaries in small ways, to create distinct designs and user experiences. But there are certain guidelines you set yourself; basic rules you adhere to. Many times it’s subconscious: you do things a certain way because, well, you’ve always done things that way, everybody else does them that way, so there’s no reason to change.

I’ve been using grids in my CSS designs for quite a while now, inspired by frameworks like Blueprint CSS. Although I don’t use Blueprint for production work (using a CSS framework starts to get a bit restrictive, and I prefer to build from scratch, rather than trying to override someone else’s default), I do use the methodology in my own CSS to create structured, grid-based layouts, and consistent typography.

One of the clever things that Blueprint introduced was the idea of displaying the grid while you’re working – this proves to be an invaluable aid as you try to refine CSS rules. But I’ve found that – as good as the theory is – it has a few drawbacks.

Rands has written a really interesting post all about cadence, and more specifically how the tone of language used on the Web has a direct impact on our trust.