intrinsic design | The Blog Pros

Una is calling it the new responsive. A nod to the era we were most certainly in, the era of responsive design. Where responsive design was fluid grids, flexible media, and media queries, the new responsive is those things too, but slotted into a wider scope: user preference queries, viewport and form factor, macro layouts, and container styles.

I like the thinking and grouping here and I kinda like the name. It eludes to an evolution and extension of responsive web design rather than a rejection and replacement.

This isn’t the first crack at identifying and naming a shift between eras. Back in 2018, Jen Simmons was doing a talked called “Everything You Know About Web Design Just Changed” where she identified that responsive design was a major shift in how we did layout on the web. And yet, it was firmly defined in an era where layout tools like flexbox and grid didn’t even exist. Now, they do exist, and with them a bevy of other new features that bring more capable graphic design to the web. She called it Intrinsic Design.

I almost like Intrinsic Design more now than I did in 2018, because now, if we attempt to lump in @container queries, the name makes more intuitive sense. We (hopefully will soon) make styling choices based on the intrinsic size of elements. We make styling choices based on the intrinsic nature of the individual users we serve. We make styling choices off the intrinsic qualities of the browser.

I wouldn’t say either of the terms have really caught on though. It’s hard to make a name stick. That little burst of ideating around CSS4 sure didn’t go anywhere.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

The post Are we in a new era of web design? What do we call it? appeared first on CSS-Tricks. You can support CSS-Tricks by being an MVP Supporter.

Jen Simmons has been coining the term intrinsic design, referring to a new era in web layout where the sizing of content has gone beyond fluid columns and media query breakpoints and into, I dunno, something a bit more exotic. For example, columns that are sized more by content and guidelines than percentages. And not always columns, but more like appropriate placement, however that needs to be done.

One thing is for sure, people are playing with the possibilities a lot right now. In the span of 10 days I've gathered these links:

Sophisticated Partitioning with CSS Grid - So awesome, like the way quantity queries sorta randomize to deliver interesting layouts based on how many items in a grid.
Responsive spacing with viewport and ch units - Using the viewport for sizing, but giving typography a strong say in how things respond.
Building Robust Layouts With Container Units - With bonus CSS custom properties and calc().
Content-based grid tracks and embracing flexibility - Don't forget about our interesting new friends, min-content, max-content, and auto in the context of grid sizing.

The post People Digging into Grid Sizing and Layout Possibilities appeared first on CSS-Tricks.