Donnie D’Amato built a whole site around the thesis that “digital designers still expect to use the grid while experienced layout engineers have moved beyond it.” The idea isn’t that we should never literally use display: grid; but rather that strict adherence to an overall page grid isn’t necessary. Brad’s reaction was interesting, as someone in and out of a lot more projects than I am:
One of the most frequent, confusing conversations w/ designers is “No, the pink lines that overlay design comps aren’t all that helpful for how things actually work in the browser.”
[…] throw your transparent pink 12-column grids in the trash can.
Brad Frost, “Link post to gridless.desgn”
Donnie feels this is all in the spirit of responsive design, and I’m inclined to agree, except that browser technology has evolved quite a bit since the coining of responsive design and it might be time to call it something new. “Content-driven design” is one of Donnie’s headers and that’s a nice phrase.
This all resonated with Michelle as well:
CSS layout features like flexbox and Grid enable us to build more flexible layouts that prioritise content. We talk about intrinsic and extrinsic sizing in CSS — sizing based on both content and context. The promised container queries specification will put even more power in the hands of developers. But it feels to me like the design process is still stuck in the past.
Michelle Barker, “Is it Time to Ditch the Design Grid?”
When container queries are really here, overall page layouts are really going to be an endangered species. Donnie knows:
[…] you should truly consider all other options before using a [browser window size] breakpoint. Ask, is the component expected to always be related to the page size (headers, modals, etc.)? Then a breakpoint might be acceptable. However, components that are placed deep within the page should not be using breakpoints to inform their layout.
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