Graphic design

General principles

This website's graphical architecture is inspired by the principles of Brad Frost's Atomic Design. This method distinguishes five levels of graphic organisation:

Page

The “highest” graphical organisation level is the “page”, which corresponds to the conjunction of every other organizational elements to form a whole unit on which user experience can be measured.

Example: In this website, a “page” typically corresponds to an HTML document associated to a specific route.

Note:

At a “higher” organizational level, we could for instance consider the “website”, just as we could talk about the organization of pages inside a book. However, I consider that these organizational levels “above” that of the “page” are not “graphical”, but require other analytical frameworks.

Template

The “template” prescribes how the different elements are composed in each page.

Example: In our case, the “templates” describe principles such as the position of a navbar on top of the viewport, the presence of links in the footer, and so on. Technically, the “templates” are made possible thanks to Twig's concept of blocks, built with the {extends} instruction.

Organism

An “organism” is a graphical unit of the user interface which gathers multiple functional elements into one coherent group.

Example: the navbar on top of the page, the footer, or the “cards” design.

Molecule

A “molecule” corresponds to one functional unit of the graphical interface, which answers one specific use case.

Example: a line of a form, a button, etc.

Atom

Finally, “atoms” correspond to elementary units of the language (ie. made of a sole HTML element with no children, or with only text nodes), which can be articulated together to form “molecules”.

Example: an <input> field, which can form a molecule when combined with a <label> in a form row.

Templates

Every template for this website are divided in at least 4 main parts:

Navbar

The main navigation is fixed on top of the viewport, in order to always be accessible (except for specific clients such as printers).

Header

The page header contains three graphical organisms:

1. a breadcrumb to locate the page in relation to the larger architecture of the site
2. a banner with the title of the page and a short, optional description
3. the outline linking to the main sections of the page.

Main content

The body of the page is made of multiple <article> elements. They must be identified by a <h2>–<h6> element. They can also be <section> elements. The template for each page adapts the form and content of these elements to fit the page's requirements.

Footer

The footer contains useful links and legal obligations.

These elements form a basis, from which the template of each page can be built. Titles of each article composing the page are automatically added to the outline with JavaScript.

Organisms

Banner

A banner displays an image below some content, with a semi-transparent background to give some contrast in order to keep the content legible.

Example:

libero sint sint

Quis adipisci sed omnis aspernatur vel. Ut temporibus quo at quisquam consequuntur sit aliquid. Veniam expedita quisquam rerum et. Dolore cupiditate voluptates sit sint.

Veniam est velit id repudiandae minus autem iure qui. Quidem tenetur odit repudiandae quasi reiciendis. Quis necessitatibus nihil et mollitia animi sit. Reiciendis velit minima eveniet nulla distinctio.

Cards

A card is an element with a header, a main content, and sometimes a section listing actions, which takes the form of small cards which can be placed next to each other.

Example:

Velit perferendis consequatur

A non voluptatibus id incidunt rerum qui autem. Sequi enim cum impedit nam quae a cumque. Sit sit ut perferendis quibusdam qui et. Et sit iusto ea. Dignissimos enim porro et quo cupiditate nostrum accusamus.

vel incidunt omnis sint

Temporibus dolores vel dolore tempore voluptas provident

Aut quos ipsum ad rem voluptates.

Accusamus esse architecto illum voluptatibus. Sunt tenetur eos reprehenderit accusantium eius quasi qui.

Inventore deleniti doloribus assumenda modi repellat eum vel. Dolore ea molestiae qui est eos et. Omnis officia quia dignissimos quis occaecati totam eum. Qui velit quis nam.

Reiciendis veniam ipsa sint harum modi fugiat. Iure dolorum minima doloremque itaque ducimus harum. Fuga et nostrum reprehenderit neque eveniet ut.

ullam quia

Molecules

Atoms