Grids are good for test layouts. Their use in final production is a bit iffy at this point. Technically there's no reason not to of course, but as you move along in the process some things tend to get a bit tricky. A common issue is that you used one grid extent for a particular design element (say labels on a horizontal labeled form) and then you decide you need more space. Rather than it being a CSS change (label) it's a code/template change (change the grid CSS class assigned to the form label).
The best bet seems to be to do roughs on the grid, then go through and work out which grid extents you used and re-implement them in the final CSS with appropriate names. Keep in mind that grid layouts do not, typically, resize. Arguments have been made against the whole grid concept on the basis that they don't work well on mobile devices. In my experience, mobile devices need their own stylesheet anyway, so as long as you do the renaming thing I outlined above you can normally do a perfectly decent mobile stylesheet as well. Regarding forms, get a real design - done by someone who really knows how forms need to look - and stick with it. A classic failing of stuff like RMSforms is the lack of space for error displays, and the poor choice of check/radio labeling (those elements tend to have very long labels in comparison to other elements). Good form designs take these things into account, producing forms that are elegant and readable and draw attention to the relevant items. Developers and designers looking for a Christmas pressie for themselves could do a lot worse than http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms/ Other stuff worth reading includes: * http://www.alistapart.com/articles/inline-validation-in-web-forms/ * http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1867-design-decisions-new-signup-form If you don't already have a solid form presentation layer, you really should burn some time on it - get the little details right and make it secure, easy and attractive. Some more notes at http://phirate.posterous.com/pretty-by-default On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 11:41 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Anyone using any of the new CSS frameworks? I tried 960.gs to see what > "separation of concerns" really feels like. Drupal added support I see. > Its logical to have a reset.css and a text.css, so why not a layout > resource that you dont touch either? Makes fine sense to me, and I was > impressed how nice it is to have a stable scaffold for the page, and how > simple and fast and readable was my own 'developer' style sheet. I am also > looking into the emerging second tier tools now, > like http://www.gridsystemgenerator.com/ , > or http://wiki.github.com/chriseppstein/compass . As far as PHP for forms > goes, I like that Code Igniter allows the designer to specify layout, then I > found this posting for Zend Framework: > http://www.zendframeworkexpert.co.uk/2009/06/09/using-a-view-script-to-render-a-zend_form_element/ . > Also playing ZF with forms framework like > http://www.rmsjr.com/blog/web-design/rmsforms-a-flexible-tableless-css-forms-framework/ for > ZF and generating client side validations ( eg > http://jquery.bassistance.de/validate/demo ) that slot into the framework. > Evangelising ends. Merry XMAS anyways. > > -- > NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug > To post, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send email to > [email protected] -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
