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CSS CSS Layout Techniques Flexbox Layout Using Flexbox Today

Syed Abbas
Syed Abbas
337 Points
Posted by Syed Abbas
Syed Abbas
337 Points

the big picture of all different types of layout

So when a designer decides which layout to use for a website, would their decision making goes something like:

  1. Do i want a responsive or a liquid layout (or adaptive or fixed, etc...)?
  2. Say I want a responsive layout, now do I use grid or flexbox to achieve that?

I read this post where Nick Pettit discussed a few types of layouts (fixed, liquid, adaptive, responsive). http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/which-page-layout. Then when I google 'grid layout' I find terms like "responsive grid layout" and "adaptive grid layout".

Is this like a hierarchy where fixed, liquid, adaptive, responsive are the big umbrellas, and under them are more specific layout technique (grid, flexbox, etc...) to achieve that desirable effect. Are Float Layout, Grid layout and Flexbox layout all in a subset of responsive layout?

1 Answer

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points

Responsive layout is probably the main umbrella term and especially today encompasses most if not all of the other techniques you mentioned.

It can all be achieved using responsive layout and the key to controlling all of this is media queries.

With mediaqueries you can switch between different layouts.

So you could have flexbox on desktop screens Multcolumn layout on tablets and single column layout on mobile screens. So in my opinion at the top of the tree is Responsive and if possible a mobile first approach. :-)

Syed Abbas
Syed Abbas
337 Points
Syed Abbas
Syed Abbas
337 Points

got it! thanks for your quick reply.