I recently read an article over at A List Apart, called Frameworks for Designers. It got me thinking. Actually no it didn’t. The idea was so brilliantly obvious! And sometimes we even do it (such as using blank CSS templates), but not quite like how Jeff Croft describes the process.
From a developer’s point of view it makes a lot of sense. We make all sorts of little include files that do things and we include them into our scripts when we need that sort of funtionality. Jeff explains how designers can do similar types of abstraction with CSS and other elements, which really is one of those “Duh!” type moments. Honestly. One file for tabbed browsing, another for forms styling or page layout. At the same time you can include various javascript for functionality of effects.
At 212Interactive we have a few elements like this, though definitely not quite as sophisticated as the article suggest could/should be done.
My other contract jobs are a mish-mash of projects that haven’t quite made it far enough to use this technique, though I am planning on using something similar for the upcoming RevealCMS (alpha and beta coming this summer).
Here are some free XHTML/CSS templates to get you started with your own framework for design. twe.nty3.com