The GuideGuide Workflow
On the face of it, GuideGuide looks like grid tool. While grids are something it does exceptionally well — better than everything else out there if you ask me — the real benefit is how it replaces all of the little measurement and alignment hacks designers use to place things precicely where they want them.
Ever created a throw-away shape simply to make sure something is lined up? GuideGuide can help you avoid that.
The people that get the most value out of GuideGuide are the ones that understand how to use it in every part of their design process, not just when they need a grid.
How GuideGuide works
GuideGuide adds guides. The name is pretty literal. You use GuideGuide to add guides that will mark where you can put stuff.
The typical experience looks like this:
- I need to do something.
- I use GuideGuide to add guides to my document.
- I do something, aligned to the guides.
Here are some examples of things you might want to do with GuideGuide’s help:
- “I need to put things in a 12 column grid.”
- “I need to align these things to the middle of that thing.”
- “I need clear space around this logo.”
- “I need a bleed for this page.”
- “I want to fill this area with as many 16px rows as it will fit”
- “I need margins that are 10% of the width of this object.”
- “I need to create a grid of video tiles.”
All of these examples start with something you want to do, and end with you doing it. In the middle is GuideGuide creating guides that are the guardrails for your work.
Use GuideGuide for everything
GuideGuide shouldn’t just be used at the beginning of a project. It’s an alignment and spacing tool that you use for everything. As a general rule, if you find yourself doing math or some kind of elaborate hack with throw-away objects to figure out where to place something, you should be using GuideGuide instead.
Use it to help you:
- Space out objects
- Line things up
- Position things based on other things
- Selectively remove guides while leaving others
- Consistently position objects across designs
When every problem is a nail, GuideGuide looks like a hammer. Or something like that. As you work, I hope you’ll start to see that GuideGuide can fit into your workflow in many places.