Modern Layouts: Getting Out of Our Ruts // AEA Seattle 2015

In the early years of the web, there was a lot of variation and experimentation with where to put content on a web page. Then, it seems, we all settled into a handful of patterns and stayed there for over a decade. It wasn’t until the arrival of responsive design that new ideas for page layout started appearing. Now with new CSS properties for layout landing in browsers, we may be about to see a bigger renaissance in layout design patterns. How can we better use the space inside the glass rectangle? What layout innovations could help users better find and focus on what they want? Take a walk through where we’ve been, where we might be going, and how we can better design for the true medium at hand. This talk features practical examples of what's newly possible, along with access to a code repo for you to play with later.

Transcript

1. MODERN LAYOUTS
   Getting Out of Our Ruts THE WEB AHEAD thewebahead.net JEN SIMMONS @jensimmons An Event Apart Seattle 2015
13. The most prominent result from the new eyetracking studies is not actually new.
    We simply confirmed for the umpteenth time that banner blindness is real.
    —Jakob Nielsen, August 20, 2007, Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings
18. A C B A C B A C B A C B
45. The medium shapes the medium.
46. There’s a world of Graphic Design older than the web.
53. vogue.com
67. Layout should serve the content.
    
68. MAGAZINES
69. 1.
74. CSS Shapes
75. <h1>Jeremy Keith</h1> <img src=“jeremykeith.jpg"> <p>Jeremy Keith lives in Brighton, England where he makes websites with the splendid design agency Clearleft.</p>
76. img { float: left; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
77. img { float: left; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; shape-outside: circle(); }
78. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Shapes level 1 March 20, 2014 w3.org/TR/css-shapes
82. shape-outside: circle(); shape-outside: ellipse(); shape-outside: border-box; shape-outside: inset(0px round
 120px) border-box; shape-outside: url(http://
 example.com/image.jpg); shape-margin: 30px;
83. labs.thewebahead.net
84. github.com/jensimmons/thelayoutsahead
85. img { width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; shape-outside: ellipse(50% 50%); }
86. img { width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; border-radius: 100px; }
87. img { width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; border-radius: 100px; shape-outside:border-box; shape-margin: 30px; }
89. img { width: 60%; float: left; margin-right: 30px; margin-bottom: 30px; shape-outside: polygon(50% 0, 100% 50%, 50% 100%, 0 50%); }
94. Vote for CSS Shapes! https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/257854-internet- explorer-platform/suggestions/6263716-shapes https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi? id=1040714
97. 2.
103. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Exclusions Module Level 1 Oct 1, 2013 dev.w3.org/csswg/css-exclusions
104. Use Grid or Absolute Positioning to place an item. Then add property wrap-flow. wrap-flow: both;
107. 3.
113. main { transform: 
 rotate(-10deg); }
114. h1 { transform:
 rotate(-90deg); }
115. h1 { float: left; padding-bottom: 200px; transform: 
 rotate(-45deg); shape-outside: 
 polygon(nonzero, -58px 80.55%, 75.95% -70px, 89.55% -33.65%, -13.4% 121.45%); }
116. transform: rotate
117. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Transforms Module level 1 Nov 26, 2013, “refining” w3.org/TR/css-transforms
119. 4.
126. Multiple Column Layout
129. article { max-width: 500px; margin: 0 auto; }
130. article { column-count: 2; column-gap: 2em; }
132. article { // column-count: 2; column-width: 200px; column-gap: 2em; }
135. img { width: 100%; } article { column-width: 200px; column-gap: 2em; column-rule: 
 1px solid #444; }
136. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Multicolumn Layout Module April 12, 2011 w3.org/TR/css-multicol
138. Regions
146. 5.
152. <main role="main"> <img src="../images/GraceHopper.jpg"> <div> <h1>Grace Hopper</h1> <p>Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language...</p> </div> </main>
153. img { float: left; margin-right: 2em; width: 50%; } div { padding: 2em; }
155. img { float: left; margin-right: 2em; // width: 50%; height: 100vh; } div { padding: 2em; }
157. img { float: left; margin-right: 2em; width: 50vw; height: 100vh; } h1 { font-size: 6vw; }
160. Viewport Units
161. Anyplace you might use em, rem, %, px you can instead use: vh viewport height vw viewport width vmin smaller viewport number vmax larger viewport number
162. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Values and Units Module level 3 July 30, 2013 w3.org/TR/css-values
163. Text
164. 6.
165. Flexbox
166. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Flexible Box Layout Sept 25, 2014 w3.org/TR/css3-flexbox
173. Grid
174. Working Draft Last Call Candidate
 Recommendation Proposed
 Recommendation Recommendation CSS Grid Layout Module Level 1 May 13, 2014 w3.org/TR/css3-grid-layout
179. Old School Floats
185. Big changes to the underlining technology are coming…
186. Magazines and The Web
190. Translate,
     Don’t Transfer.
195. (*Totally stolen from Karen McGrane’s incredible talk, Adapting Ourselves to Adaptive Content.)
198. The most dangerous phrase in the language is ”We’ve always done it this way.’ 
 — Grace Hopper
199. One Last Story
203. THE WEB AHEAD thewebahead.net JEN SIMMONS @jensimmons Thanks!