Designing For Large Screens

Those of you who enjoy playing with flexible layouts will undoubtedly get a weird kick out of seeing your designs adapt comfortably to small viewports. What was once a beautiful multi-column layout becomes an equally beautiful, snug pillar of readable text, free of clutter and unnecessary nonsense. But how many of you think of your layouts beyond the comfort of a 960 grid?

Ian Yates is used to designing mid-sized layouts. For that reason it’s easier (though many of you won’t admit it) to visualize and design just as you always have done, then trim things down for mobile. Your first venture into RWD will likely involve degrading media queries. Start big, then work your way down to smaller devices. This is awkward for a number of reasons, not least being that you’re often committing yourself to a maximum layout width before venturing into other potential screen sizes. Going back to account for larger screen sizes means rejigging your media queries.