As a rule I’m not usually a massive fan of frameworks, and my first thoughts on the 960 grid system were ‘why bother?’. If you know how to hand code HTML and CSS and you have a copy of Photoshop, that should be all you need. Well here I am today to tell you how naive and wrong I was, and here is 4 reasons why!
1 – No instructions required
The basic premise of the 960 grid system is that most modern web sites adhere to a 900 – 1000px width, which could either be centred or left aligned, What 960 does, is offer you a free resources, to design and build your site to a 960px width quickly and easily (the clue is in the title). The package consists of full stylesheet integration with pre defined styles and naming, as well as design templates which you can use in your favorite visual editing software to create the screen designs with. I use the term ‘framework’ loosely as the level of dependency you have with the grid system is entirely up to you. If you are fluent in code, you may prefer to use just the visual templates to help design the site. and code your own custom CSS, alternately you may prefer to save yourself some time and use the pre-written stylesheet to give the outline for your site at the build stage, its completely up to you.
2 – Speed up your process
When your dealing with creating a new website for clients, either big or small there are a lot of details that need addressing. The 960 grid system solves a lot of these straight out the box. The download is broken down into 2 main elements, The equipment you need to design a website with, and the tools you can use to build it with.
3 – Multiple platform support
The 960 grid system supports multiple platforms as well. Its a bit of an assumption that everyone uses photoshop to mockup web designs, but the grid system will cater for those of you who prefer illustrator, inkscape, fireworks or even omnigraffle. As well as this you are supplied with a PDF of the grid system which you can print off to use in your initial sketch ups. which can prove extremely helpful in the design process.
4 – Improve your spacial awareness
The real strength of this framework however lies in the grid system. If you go to 960′s homepage you will see several great examples of how either the 12 or 16 column grid system has been implemented on modern websites. The grid really helps when building a website proportionately. It offers designers the ability to sharpen their visual awareness and see how elements can be best placed on a web page. You have the choice of either 12 or 16 columns, depending on the number of elements you need to fit on your page. To give you more of an understanding of this the 960 homepage shows you some examples, like the one below, of how the grid can be successfully applied to any site, to maximize results.
So there you have it 4 great reasons why you should at least dabble in using the 960 grid system. Its not just a novices tool either, fantastic designers such as elliot jay stocks have used this same system to make some truly amazing sites, as discussed in sexy web design which is all the more reason to give it a go, and see if it can work wonders for you too!
Leave a comment