The Skinny Grid

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Abstract

Contemporary web development and design can initially be a challenge, despite the abundance of applications, templates, tutorials, and reference materials available. In this text, we have developed a method for teaching front-end web development to higher education graphic design students that is consistent with today’s web standards, and we endeavor to develop a model to engage students through research and community-based interactive design projects. Our additional goal is to address current pedagogical modes of curriculum development and practice in relation to ongoing developments in the contemporary field(s) of web design. With an array of tools at hand, contemporary web designers have to navigate a complex path between commonplace, “out-of-the-box” solutions, which are unnecessarily complicated and code-intensive that compromise scalability, functionality, or adaptability. How might one construct a curriculum that successfully addresses this persistent need? We have developed what we have called “The Skinny Grid,” a method to address, in the classroom—and beyond—the foundational aspects of aesthetics and functionality in web design in the most effective manner, in order to optimize every element to produce first-class web design.