Layout Essentials 100 Design Principles For Using Grids Pdf
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Book DescriptionA classic and essential text for designers since 2009, Layout Essentials: 100 Design Principles forUsing Grids just got better with a fresh exploration of its design principles, updated text, and newphotos and international graphics. Grids are the basis for all design projects, and learning how towork with them is fundamental for all graphic designers. From working with multi-columnformats to using type, color, images, and more, Layout Essentials not only demonstrates, usingreal world examples, how to use grids effectively, but shows you how to break the rules to usethem effectively, too. This revised and updated version of Layout Essentials is your one-stopreference and resource for all layout design projects.
Whether or not grid lines are visible on the actual website itself, their underlying structure and framework help designers manage not only the entire layout of the page or screen, but also the ratios and proportions between each element.
When designing for web and mobile, the purpose of the pages or interfaces we design is to create various user flows. As user flows often contain multiple screens or windows that repeat similar design schemes and layouts, grids ease the process of developing wireframes, templates, or standardized layouts for similar pages.
Grids help split pages horizontally and vertically, using rows and columns. Grid systems serve as a systematic approach that allows designers to lay out elements in an organized manner, and provide a modular approach to designing components for multiple pages or layouts. Grids also define a consistent set of fixed units of measurement that dictate the sizing, spacing, and alignment that each design element must abide by.
The concept of grid layouts originates in print design when they were used in the context of typography with the goal of arranging handwriting on paper, especially books and newspapers. That being said, there are many areas of modern-day design that depend and thrive on a grid-based layout. This includes web design, interaction design, and especially responsive design.
When a page or site is designed responsively, it means that the page layout and content are adaptable to different devices and browser widths. In terms of grid layout, this means that as the screen size changes, so too the number of columns, and of course their width.
Given its critical importance in layout design, it makes sense that white space is an innate part of website and layout grids. Essentially, grid layouts are defined not only by the size of their columns and rows but also by the width and height of white space in between, otherwise known as spacing.
This means that if width is 100px, length would be 161.80px. This is applicable to the width and length of images, objects or shapes placed next to each other, or for the formation of one shape or element itself. When using the Golden Ratio, designers can evaluate how to divide the horizontal space available to them on the page and how much space to allocate for and around each element, etc.
A visually pleasing design generally uses no more than 3 different sizes. Having a range of differently sized elements will not only create variety within your layout, but it will also establish a visual hierarchy (see next principle) on the page. Be sure to emphasize the most important aspect of your design by making them biggest.
Every letter, border, and division in a layout is made up of lines that make up their greater structure. Learning web design means understanding the how to use lines to create order and balance in a layout.
The color scheme, content, typography, layout, and visuals all come together to serve your audience. User experience design is about precision and evoking feelings. It offers someone not only a smooth journey but connects them with the entity or brand behind the web design.
You can now experiment freely with your modular grid. Try creating text columns and fill them with placeholder text (Type > Fill with Placeholder Text) and remember to align your text to the baseline grid. As you get more familiar with using grids, you will start to see how quickly you can create consistency on a page and establish hierarchy within your designs.
Layout design is a fundamental branch of graphic design that concerns the arrangement of text and visuals. The effectiveness of every type of design, from print to web, is largely influenced by layout. An effective layout not only looks attractive, but also helps the viewer understand the message the design is conveying. In other words, understanding layout is key when it comes to creating user-friendly, engaging designs, particularly in the realms of web design and advertising.
Before we dive in, let's make sure we're clear on what layout design even is. In a nutshell, layout design refers to the arrangement of visual elements within a grid in order to convey a particular message. The latter part of this definition is key. If a layout doesn't read well to the viewer, the design is ineffective, no matter how trendy it looks.
Layout is interwoven with other fundamental principles of graphic design, such as color, contrast, repetition, texture, and typography. Layout design also encapsulates the principles of hierarchy, balance, alignment, proximity, and space. Let's take a look at these elements in more detail so that we can better understand how each contributes to effective layout design.
Balance is intrinsically appealing to the human eye. Therefore, it makes sense to create balance in graphic design. A balanced layout incorporates either symmetry, asymmetry, or radial symmetry. Symmetrical and asymmetrical balance are the most common in design and the easiest to achieve. Radial symmetry can work well in print, but is harder to pull off on a website.
There are some exceptions to the rule of balance. An unbalanced design could effectively draw attention to a particular element that looks out of place. However, if not done well, an unbalanced design appears messy or confusing.
There are two types of alignment in design: Edge alignment and center alignment. Edge alignment is when elements are aligned to the top, bottom, left, or right edge of a layout. Left alignment is typically used for text because we read text from left to right (in English). Center alignment is effective for smaller text sections, such as a title or blurb, as well as images, icons, and other visuals.
Proximity refers to elements that are positioned together or otherwise connected visually. In design, proximity is important because it informs the viewer which elements are related to one another. Unrelated elements should be spaced apart in order to avoid causing confusion.
Design elements are arranged in some sort of grid in order to create a layout. The benefit of grids is that they help create a balanced, organized layout. This makes the content flow more intuitively, and in turn creates a better user experience.
The number of columns in a column grid can vary. However, a good rule of thumb is to use 12 columns. The reason is that we can easily divide 12 columns into various smaller sections. For example, you could have two large columns containing six columns each, or four columns containing three columns each, and so on. This divisibility allows for a lot of flexibility in the layout of a design.
As is true in all areas of design, there are no hard rules when it comes to grids. Breaking out of grids in subtle ways adds depth and variety to designs. In web design, for example, you often see full-width images that fill the background of a section. Some designs also incorporate images, illustrations, and other decorative elements that float around the edges of a layout, seemingly at random.
The key function of grids is to contain, align, and organize crucial content in a design. Breaking the grid now and then with decorative elements is totally acceptable, so long as it doesn't detract from the message of the overall design.
A helpful technique for creating effective layouts is to implement the Rule of Thirds. This rule is very simple, yet highly effective in creating balance in a layout. To implement it, simply divide your layout into three columns and rows. The lines create guidelines for any linear elements in the design. The points where the lines intersect form the focal points of the design.
Designing beautiful and functional layouts is merely one out of many vital components of a stellar website design process. If you want to learn how layout design fits into the bigger picture of a robust website design process, then check out our $10k Website Process course. You get much more than a few video lessons on how to create pretty websites: You learn how to position yourself as a high-value designer, land higher-paying clients and join a community of like-minded designers.
Design principles are the key to understanding how design serves human needs for safety, meaning, achievement and beauty. Learn what these principles are and how they can help you design more welcoming, understandable, empowering and gratifying user experiences.
My hope is that in sharing these principles with you today, you will come away with a clear sense of how your app's designs can help to fulfill those basic needs that we all share. The need to feel safe. The need to understand. The need to achieve our goals, and the need to experience beauty and joy.
Working through this can be challenging. No one said that designing is easy, but I do not want you to be discouraged. Designing is a lot easier when you understand the fundamentals. Let these principles be your North Star. They will guide you toward making apps that better serve the human beings that you are designing for. 2b1af7f3a8