CSSHórus | CSS Library for responsive and mobile websites Responsive Layouts, Responsively Wireframed Responsive layouts, responsively wireframed Made with HTML/CSS (no images, no JS*) this is a simple interactive experiment with responsive design techniques. Use the buttons top-right to toggle between desktop and mobile layouts. Using simple layout wireframes, this illustrates how a series of pages could work across these different devices, by simulating how the layout of each page would change responsively, to suit the context. Responsive layouts? Producing static wireframes to design layouts for websites, web applications and user-interfaces has worked well for a long time. However, this solution creates a new problem: How should we go about the process of designing these variable layouts? Enter, responsive wireframes? The 'wireframes' on this page (which are only very simple, high-level examples) were created with HTML/CSS, and some argue that this is the answer; to design in the browser. So which is better? Traditional wireframes? HTML? So, what's the answer? Just wondering...
Less Framework 4 I called Less Framework "a CSS grid system for designing adaptive websites". It was basically a fixed-width grid that adapted to a couple of then popular screen widths by shedding some of its columns. It also had matching typographic presets to go with it, built with a modular scale based on the golden ratio. The resources it was originally published with are still available on GitHub. Contrary to how most CSS frameworks work, Less Framework simply provided a set of code comments and visual templates, instead of having predefined classes to control the layout with. /* Default Layout: 992px. Less Framework was popular in the early days of responsive design. Eventually, I moved on from fixed-width grid systems and worked on a fully fluid-width one, in the form of Golden Grid System. Less Framework's popularity was helped by the following contributions and the lovely people behind them (dead links crossed off):
The Goldilocks Approach to Responsive Web Design Multi-Device Layout Patterns Through fluid grids and media query adjustments, responsive design enables Web page layouts to adapt to a variety of screen sizes. As more designers embrace this technique, we're not only seeing a lot of innovation but the emergence of clear patterns as well. I cataloged what seem to be the most popular of these patterns for adaptable multi-device layouts. To get a sense of emerging responsive design layout patterns, I combed through all the examples curated on the Media Queries gallery site several times. Mostly Fluid The most popular pattern was perhaps surprisingly simple: a multi-column layout that introduces larger margins on big screens, relies on fluid grids and images to scale from large screens down to small screen sizes, and stacks columns vertically in its narrowest incarnations (illustrated below). I dubbed this pattern "mostly fluid" because the core structure of the layout really doesn't change until the smallest screen width. Column Drop Layout Shifter Tiny Tweaks Off Canvas
Responsive Web Design just got Easier with the Responsive Grid System The Semantic Grid System Columnal | A responsive CSS grid system helping desktop and mobile browsers play nicely together. Fluid Baseline Grid - A sensible HTML5 and CSS3 development kit
Golden Grid System GGS was my next step after Less Framework. Instead of a fixed-width grid, it used a fully fluid-width one, without even a maximum width. The resources it was published with are still available on GitHub. The idea was to take a 18-column grid, use the outermost columns as margins, and use the remaining 16 to lay elements out. While the grid's columns were fluid — proportional to the screen's width — the gutters (spaces between the columns) were proportional to the font-size being used. GGS also contained a set of typographic presets, strictly to a baseline grid. Correctly setting all of these measurements is difficult, of course. When published, GGS gained a lot of attention, as the web design community was searching ways to work with fluid-width grids, which have always been troublesome, running counter to many graphic design principles. Many people trying to use GGS were also confused by the lack of predefined code for working with the grid.
Zen Grids: a responsive grid system built with Compass and Sass