Web_Designer_UK__May_2018

GET PRO DESIGN SKILLS
BREAKING DOWN DESIGNS FOR BUILD
Methodologies, tooling
and project structure
This helps keep problems with
specificity to a minimum as well as
creating styles that can be reused
throughout the project.
It’s important to note that the BEM
structure doesn’t necessarily follow
the exact structure of the DOM. If you
have a block with a container element,
for example, subsequent elements do
not need to be scoped to the element
but to the block:
When it comes to building the project
there are a number of methodologies,
tools and project structures which can
be very useful for helping you manage
the codebase.
These methodologies are useful
when working in teams. No matter
which member(s) of the team wrote
the code it will be familiar to everyone
else should they need to make
changes or take over the project.
TOOLING
Both SASS and LESS enable you to
write BEM code nested using the
ampersand (&). This is a really nice
way to quickly see all the elements
belonging to any given block.
.block
...
&__element {
...
&--modifier {
...
}
}
}
The code above will then be
compiled to:
.block { ... }
There is no right or wrong way to
do this, you can use whichever
methodology you choose or even a
mix of a few, you just need to make
sure everyone in the team is working
to the same principles and guidelines.
METHODOLOGIES
There are a number of different
methodologies available to you, or you
could simply create your own. Three
.block__element { ... }
.block__element--modifier {
... }
You can also use this to apply
hover and pseudo classes:
.block {
...
&:hover,
&:focus,
&:active {
...
}
&::before {
...
}
}
of the most popular are BEM, OOCSS
and SMACSS.
BEM
BEM or Block Element Modifier is, at
its heart, a naming convention. It
enables you to split the code into
reusable components by scoping
elements to a block. The naming
convention works like this; blocks are
the start of the class name:
.block
Elements are then scoped to a block
using a double underscore:
.block__element
Then modifiers are used for smaller
changes or additions, a different
colour for example:
.block__elements--modifier
PROJECT STRUCTURE
Folder structure within your
project is important, keeping
everything organised can be hard
work and take a lot of your time.
Luckily, there are a couple of ways
you can manage unruly projects.
One architecture that’s currently
gaining in popularity is ITCSS
(Inverted Triangle CSS). This is a
OOCSS
OOCSS stands for Object Orientated
CSS, the two main principles of this
methodology are:
Separate structure and skin
This means that the entire structure
of the website should be separate to
the styles that apply visual and
decorative properties.
Separate container and content
This means “rarely use locationdependent
styles”. In other words,
any given element should look the
same no matter where it appears
on a site.
SMACSS
SMACSS stands for Scalable and
Modular Architecture for CSS. There is
nothing to download and include in
your project — it’s more of a style
guide, a set of rules to help keep the
specificity demons at bay. The
architecture is complex, which is why
some teams overlook it but there are
a lot of useful rules to apply.
way to structure your files within
your CSS. The styles at the top are
the most far-reaching, whereas the
files at the bottom of the triangle
are the most specific. By
implementing the same structure
for all projects you can make every
project, even those you haven’t
worked on, seem familiar.
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