The Rule of Thirds

A simplified version of the golden ratio is the rule of thirds, or in the native accent of one of my graphic design professors, “rule of turds.” A line bisected by the golden ratio is divided into two sections, one of which is approximately twice the size of the other. Dividing a composition into thirds is an easy way to apply divine proportion without getting out your calculator.

To start the pencil-and-paper version of your layout, draw a rectangle. The vertical and horizontal dimensions don’t really matter, but try to keep straight lines and 90-degree angles.

Now, divide your rectangle horizontally and vertically by thirds. As In said before, don’t start thinking about technology yet.

Next, divide the top third of your layout into thirds again.

Finally, divide each of your columns in half to create a little more of a grid. You should have a square on your paper that looks similar to the rule of thirds grid in the final diagram of Figure 1.7. Go ahead and repeat the above steps so that you have a few rule of thirds grids in which to try different layout options.

With this simple grid work in place, we can begin to lay out our elements. The large, main rectangle represents the container that we talked about in the section called “Web Page Anatomy.” When using this method of layout design, I like to place the biggest block first. Usually, that block represents the content. In my first rule-of-thirds grid, I place the content block within the two-thirds of the layout at the lower right. Next, I place my navigation block in the middle third of the left-hand column. I place the text part of the identity block over the left side of the content, and the image part of the identity over the menu. Finally, I squash the copyright block below the content, in the right-hand column of the grid. The result is the top-left of the four possible layout arrangements shown in Figure 1.8.

Figure 1.8: Four layouts in grids that follow the rule of thirds

As you experiment with different arrangements, use the lines that create the three main columns as alignment guides for the identity, navigation, content, and footer blocks. It’s very tempting to arrange all your elements along one particular line, but try not to let this happen—it’s not very interesting visually. Instead, consider pushing part of the block over that line, as I did with the identity block in the examples in Figure 1.8.

Another tendency for non-designers working on layouts is to center-align everything on a page. The grid system prevents us from doing that, but there is a reason why we tend to want to center everything. That reason is a desire for balance.