Stop the complaining about boxes and grids.

I am sick of hearing people say that HTML sites need to be more “free flowing” and that they are just “boxes” and “grids” which are “boring”.

A recent article by Jeffery Zeldman compared web design to architecture. There are certain fundamentals in place that work – things that don’t change. A web designer who complains about grids and boxes is like an architect who complains about gravity.

This is an excerpt from an article by Jeffery Zeldman on A List Apart. Read the full article here.

The inexperienced or insufficiently thoughtful designer complains that too many websites use grids, too many sites use columns, too many sites are “boxy.” Efforts to avoid boxiness have been around since 1995; while occasionally successful, they have most often produced aesthetically wretched and needlessly unusable designs.

The experienced web designer, like the talented newspaper art director, accepts that many projects she works on will have headers and columns and footers. Her job is not to whine about emerging commonalities but to use them to create pages that are distinctive, natural, brand-appropriate, subtly memorable, and quietly but unmistakably engaging.

(Thanks Melissa!)

  • http://www.makenosense.net Alexander Radsby

    I couldn’t agree more :)

  • http://www.allmyliesarewishes.com/ Justin D

    A web designer who complains about grids and boxes is like an architect who complains about gravity.

    Well put! I agree. This reminds me of art students in college who worshiped people like David Carson just because they didn’t have any appreciation for fundamentals.

  • http://www.elsanchez.com Agustin

    I completely agreed with this article. You can’t reinvent convention when you’re a standards designer. Constraints can be made into strengths if used correctly. Hopefully people will become more educated as the medium advances and grows from its infancy,

  • http://www.nocturnalmonkey.com Sam Hardacre

    That article was really great. Conventions are there to aid the design process not hinder it. Being a front end developer with no formal training in design, I’ve find grid layouts make my job so much easier. Simple alignment issues are instantly resolved. Round of applause to Mr. Zeldman for another quality piece.