Modern Layouts: Getting Out of Our Ruts // CSS Dev Conf

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.

There's a live demo for you at: http://labs.thewebahead.net/thelayoutsahead/
All the code is at: https://github.com/jensimmons/thelayoutsahead

Feedback on this presentation: https://storify.com/jensimmons/modern-layouts-at-css-dev-conf

Transcript

1. Modern Layouts:
   Getting Out of Our Ruts
   @jensimmons
   Jen Simmons, The Web Ahead
   #modlayouts
   

   View Slide

2. View Slide

3. View Slide

4. View Slide

5. View Slide

6. View Slide

7. View Slide

8. View Slide

9. View Slide

10. View Slide

11. View Slide

12. View Slide

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
    

    View Slide

14. View Slide

15. View Slide

16. View Slide

17. View Slide

18. View Slide

19. View Slide

20. View Slide

21. View Slide

22. View Slide

23. View Slide

24. View Slide

25. View Slide

26. View Slide

27. View Slide

28. View Slide

29. View Slide

30. View Slide

31. View Slide

32. View Slide

33. View Slide

34. View Slide

35. View Slide

36. View Slide

37. View Slide

38. View Slide

39. View Slide

40. Graphic Design
    hasn’t always
    been like this.
    

    View Slide

41. View Slide

42. View Slide

43. View Slide

44. View Slide

45. View Slide

46. View Slide

47. vogue.com
    

    View Slide

48. View Slide

49. View Slide

50. View Slide

51. View Slide

52. View Slide

53. View Slide

54. View Slide

55. View Slide

56. View Slide

57. View Slide

58. View Slide

59. Noise to Noise Ratio
    “Sure. There's definitely some
    excellent original work in there — in
    the middle of all those ads.”
    Merlin Mann
    

    View Slide

60. View Slide

61. Let’s be more inventive
    with our layouts.
    Truly present the content.
    

    View Slide

62. MAGAZINE
    

    View Slide

63. 1.
    

    View Slide

64. View Slide

65. View Slide

66. View Slide

67. View Slide

68. CSS Shapes
    ( level 1 )
    

    View Slide

69. View Slide

70. img {
    float: left;
    margin-right: 2em;
    margin-bottom: 0.5em;
    }
    

    View Slide

71. img {
    float: left;
    margin-right: 2em;
    margin-bottom: 0.5em;
    shape-outside: circle();
    }
    

    View Slide

72. labs.thewebahead.net
    

    View Slide

73. github.com/jensimmons/thelayoutsahead
    

    View Slide

74. follow @jensimmons to get these slides
    

    View Slide

75. Working Draft Last Call
    Candidate
    Recommendation
    Proposed
    Recommendation Recommendation
    CSS Shapes level 1
    March 20, 2014
    w3.org/TR/css-shapes
    

    View Slide

76. View Slide

77. shape-outside: circle();
    shape-outside: elipse();
    shape-outside: border-box;
    shape-outside: inset(0px round
    120px) border-box;
    shape-outside: url(http://
    example.com/image.jpg);
    shape-margin: 30px;
    

    View Slide

78. img {
    width: 50%;
    float: left;
    margin-right: 30px;
    margin-bottom: 30px;
    shape-outside:
    ellipse(50% 50%);
    }
    

    View Slide

79. img {
    width: 50%;
    float: left;
    margin-right: 30px;
    margin-bottom: 30px;
    border-radius: 100px;
    }
    

    View Slide

80. img {
    width: 50%;
    float: left;
    margin-right: 30px;
    margin-bottom: 30px;
    border-radius: 100px;
    shape-outside:border-box;
    shape-margin: 30px;
    }
    

    View Slide

81. img {
    width: 60%;
    float: left;
    margin-right: 30px;
    margin-bottom: 30px;
    shape-outside:
    polygon(50% 0,
    100% 50%,
    50% 100%,
    0 50%);
    }
    

    View Slide

82. View Slide

83. View Slide

84. View Slide

85. View Slide

86. View Slide

87. View Slide

88. View Slide

89. 2.
    

    View Slide

90. View Slide

91. View Slide

92. View Slide

93. View Slide

94. View Slide

95. main {
    transform:
    rotate(-10deg);
    }
    

    View Slide

96. h1 {
    transform:
    rotate(-90deg);
    }
    

    View Slide

97. 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%);
    }
    

    View Slide

98. transform: rotate
    

    View Slide

99. Working Draft Last Call
    Candidate
    Recommendation
    Proposed
    Recommendation Recommendation
    CSS Transforms Module level 1
    Nov 26, 2013, “refining”
    w3.org/TR/css-transforms
    

    View Slide

100. View Slide

101. 3.
     

     View Slide

102. View Slide

103. View Slide

104. View Slide

105. View Slide

106. View Slide

107. 
     
     
     Grace Hopper
     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...
     
     
     

     View Slide

108. img {
     float: left;
     margin-right: 2em;
     width: 50%;
     }
     div {
     padding: 2em;
     }
     

     View Slide

109. View Slide

110. img {
     float: left;
     margin-right: 2em;
     // width: 50%;
     height: 100vh;
     }
     div {
     padding: 2em;
     }
     

     View Slide

111. View Slide

112. img {
     float: left;
     margin-right: 2em;
     width: 50vw;
     height: 100vh;
     }
     h1 {
     font-size: 6vw;
     }
     

     View Slide

113. View Slide

114. View Slide

115. Viewport Units
     

     View Slide

116. 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
     

     View Slide

117. Working Draft Last Call
     Candidate
     Recommendation
     Proposed
     Recommendation Recommendation
     CSS Values and Units
     Module level 3
     July 30, 2013
     w3.org/TR/css-values
     

     View Slide

118. Text
     

     View Slide

119. 4.
     

     View Slide

120. View Slide

121. View Slide

122. View Slide

123. View Slide

124. Multiple Column
     Layout
     

     View Slide

125. View Slide

126. View Slide

127. article {
     max-width: 500px;
     margin: 0 auto;
     }
     

     View Slide

128. article {
     column-count: 2;
     column-gap: 2em;
     }
     

     View Slide

129. View Slide

130. article {
     // column-count: 2;
     column-width: 200px;
     column-gap: 2em;
     }
     

     View Slide

131. View Slide

132. View Slide

133. img {
     width: 100%;
     }
     article {
     column-width: 200px;
     column-gap: 2em;
     column-rule:
     1px solid #444;
     }
     

     View Slide

134. Working Draft Last Call
     Candidate
     Recommendation
     Proposed
     Recommendation Recommendation
     CSS Multicolumn Layout Module
     April 12, 2011
     w3.org/TR/css-multicol
     

     View Slide

135. View Slide

136. Regions
     

     View Slide

137. View Slide

138. View Slide

139. View Slide

140. View Slide

141. View Slide

142. View Slide

143. 5.
     

     View Slide

144. View Slide

145. View Slide

146. View Slide

147. Working Draft Last Call
     Candidate
     Recommendation
     Proposed
     Recommendation Recommendation
     CSS Exclusions Module Level 1
     Oct 1, 2013
     dev.w3.org/csswg/css-exclusions
     

     View Slide

148. 6.
     

     View Slide

149. Flexbox
     

     View Slide

150. View Slide

151. View Slide

152. View Slide

153. Working Draft Last Call
     Candidate
     Recommendation
     Proposed
     Recommendation Recommendation
     CSS Flexible Box Layout
     Sept 25, 2014
     w3.org/TR/css3-flexbox
     

     View Slide

154. View Slide

155. Grid
     

     View Slide

156. Working Draft Last Call
     Candidate
     Recommendation
     Proposed
     Recommendation Recommendation
     CSS Grid Layout Module Level 1
     May 13, 2014
     w3.org/TR/css3-grid-layout
     

     View Slide

157. View Slide

158. and more…
     

     View Slide

159. back to magazines
     

     View Slide

160. View Slide

161. View Slide

162. Translate,
     Don’t Transfer.
     

     View Slide

163. View Slide

164. View Slide

165. View Slide

166. (*Totally stolen from Karen McGrane’s incredible talk, Adapting Ourselves to Adaptive Content. Search for it.)
     

     View Slide

167. View Slide

168. View Slide

169. one last story
     

     View Slide

170. View Slide

171. View Slide

172. View Slide

173. Text 504-229-6828 with
     #modlayouts 5 Comment!
     Jen Simmons
     The Web Ahead
     thewebahead.net
     Follow @jensimmons
     to get these slides!
     

     View Slide