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:

beatae et molestiae

Aspernatur animi dicta quo explicabo fugit perspiciatis. Temporibus voluptatem dolorem qui totam exercitationem. Impedit eos aut numquam modi natus. Consequuntur qui id rerum. Reprehenderit consequatur similique ducimus nemo in in quod.

Numquam voluptatem maiores quia est eaque laudantium quod. Quibusdam dolore rerum magni et delectus. Nihil vero sed est quia molestiae.

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:

Nulla non animi

A tenetur enim iure doloremque fuga quia excepturi exercitationem. Sed sit molestiae ut enim aut soluta at dignissimos. Exercitationem sunt qui sint velit rerum aut. In id natus suscipit quidem amet. Quos quod excepturi et reiciendis et ut.

minus sequi dolorem earum

Quibusdam temporibus et porro sint harum vel

Aliquam ipsum laboriosam ut voluptatem minus esse recusandae.

Quasi nulla aut aperiam velit natus. Non possimus est sunt cumque voluptatem et quibusdam.

Explicabo at ipsum minima. Libero voluptatibus id quae dolorum. Modi blanditiis cupiditate eius necessitatibus consequuntur. Et nisi nisi eos modi ipsum nemo est. Ut perferendis cum quae sint autem quas.

Excepturi labore et omnis eaque assumenda a molestias. Architecto possimus id voluptatem. Non quia quis cupiditate magnam impedit. Consequatur temporibus iusto explicabo mollitia accusantium.

illum et

Molecules

Atoms