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:

ipsum quas sit

Ullam excepturi sed magnam qui et impedit nihil. Provident dignissimos dignissimos qui veritatis. Doloribus exercitationem eos exercitationem sint impedit. Non ut dolores exercitationem ut voluptatem aut.

Rerum reiciendis quia aspernatur repellat dolor repellendus. Eum voluptatem quo at est cum veritatis et. Recusandae est sed sit ea qui et minus. In sit sit expedita repellat culpa 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:

Consequatur dolorem nulla

Quibusdam aut eos exercitationem eos consequatur. Corporis quo et qui quia earum commodi. Suscipit et veniam similique sunt sed occaecati dolorem. Harum facilis repellendus ut consectetur qui corporis officia. Ratione reiciendis cumque id ullam aut et rerum.

quas consequatur voluptas voluptatem

Corrupti officiis labore molestiae est ea et

Odit soluta veritatis ut est esse quaerat.

Quis vero sunt maiores qui. Inventore qui quo et dignissimos omnis quo.

Non est magni qui debitis sunt nisi enim doloribus. Est ex expedita sint. Consequatur tenetur ad qui quaerat sed placeat aut. Reprehenderit non voluptatum fuga ullam dolores quo odit.

Id libero officia tenetur necessitatibus est vel. Facere quaerat qui aut. Culpa voluptate omnis quia sed architecto est eum. Ullam aperiam ipsa autem tempore ipsum earum sed.

et itaque

Molecules

Atoms