So you’re new to Webflow, eh? Let’s dive in.

Visual Web Design Guide

This visual guide will walk you through important responsive web design concepts and how to implement them visually inside Webflow.

#1 The box model

Understanding website structure

All the elements on this page are all blocks inside of other blocks (aka “Box Model”). When dragging web elements, you drag them from one block and drop them into another. That’s how HTML works!

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What you see

Note: You’ll understand how to design something like this with the concepts below.

What Blocks It’s made of

Div Block

H2 Heading super PLAN

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List

List Item
500GB Storage
List Item
1 Million Pageviews
List Item
20 Collaborators
List Item
50 Social Networks
List Item
Premium Support

try it yourself

Drag this paragraph...

All the features without the limitations. All you can eat. (This is a paragraph element)

TIP: Click and drag the Paragraph element above and drop it under the price on the right. You can also use shortcuts like copy and paste(ctrl+c, ctrl+v), copy while dragging (holding alt), and delete (delete key).

Into the purple block...

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INFO: This is how HTML and web structure works - elements stack under each other or inside of each other. That’s the best way to build a fluid and responsive website.

#2 LAYOUT ELEMENTS

Basic layout elements

Add elements to your website by clicking on the [ + ] icon in the upper left hand corner. Below are some of the most basic structure elements in web design - sections, containers and columns.

A Section takes up 100% of the width of the browser window if you add it to the Body (the canvas of a website).
It’s great for the big horizontal sections of a website.

Section Element

A Container is a 960px block centered in the middle of the browser. Usually most website content is added inside of a Container so that it’s centered. Containers are usually added to the Body or a Section element.

Container Element

Adding Columns are the fastest way to build a unique website layout. To edit how many columns you want in different devices, just click on the Gear Icon in the top right corner to access element settings.

Responsive Columns

#3 Designing with CSS

Styling your elements

Select an element and add a class in the right style panel (Brush Icon). In this panel you can add text and graphic styles like font color, line height, gradients, borders, shadows, and more. Visual web design is way more fun than coding right?

button design example

Add to Cart ➜

Style it yourself

Button Text ➜

TIP: This button already has a class ”Button” with some basic styles. Select the button and try to add the gradient, border, rounded corners, inside/outside shadows, hover state styles, and transition for the hover styles – all using the style panel.

What you created

Button Text ➜

apply the ‘button’ class

Button Text ➜

TIP: In web design you can apply a class to many elements to make them look the same. Apply the “Button” class that you styled to the link above by clicking the [+] at the top of the Style panel and typing “Button” to find that class.

Form Design example

Thanks!

Your rock my socks!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form :(

Style it yourself

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form :(

TIP: First create classes for the text fields and button (apply the same class to both fields). Then change border styles, background color, and add styles for the hover & pressed states. Don’t forget to style the “Success” state for the Form element, found in the settings panel (Gear Icon in top right).

Typography example

Lakewood Stout

The Dark Beer of Lakewood, Colorado

The legendary stout was born out of the beautiful matrimony of a mountain man and his most beloved thing, the city of Lakewood in Colorado. The mountain man also loved his axe and his single-shot Remington rifle, but not as much as he loved his city. He dreamed of her flowy rivers and majestic mountains. So he named his greatest stout after her. Thus the glorious stout was birthed out of a mountain man’s heart.

“I crafted this glorious beer to express my undying love for my beautiful city.”

- Mountain Man

Style it yourself

Lakewood Stout

The Dark Beer of Lakewood, Colorado

The legendary stout was born out of the beautiful matrimony of a mountain man and his most beloved thing, the city of Lakewood in Colorado. The mountain man also loved his axe and his single-shot Remington rifle, but not as much as he loved his city. He dreamed of her flowy rivers and majestic mountains. So he named his greatest stout after her. Thus the glorious stout was birthed out of a mountain man’s heart.

“I crafted this glorious beer to express my undying love for my beautiful city.”

- Mountain Man

TIP: Go ahead and add custom typography and styles to the background. Cool tip: If you add typography styles to a parent block, all of its children text elements will inherit those text styles. In CSS this behavior is called “cascading”.

#5 Style Cascading

Utilizing Cascading Styles

You can easily create variations of an element by adding additional classes on top of each other and adding different styles on those classes. Check out the example below where we have different variations of a button.

Shared button styles example

Design the buttons yourself

GREEN Button

RED Button

TIP: Select the second button and click on the [+] next to the class to add another class. You can call it “Green”. Then give it different styles. These styles will override the base styles of the first class. Then create the Red button.

#6 media queries

Designing for different devices

In Webflow you first design your website for desktop devices and then make changes on mobile devices (access the Device icons in the top bar). Adding styles in a mobile device will override the desktop styles.

Responsive Heading example

This is some heading text that gets smaller in mobile devices.

Description: This heading is really big on the desktop, but we want it to be smaller on mobile devices. Click in the devices in the top bar to see that the text size and line height was decreased.

Fix It yourself

Make this big heading text get smaller in mobile devices.

TIP: Select this heading on the Tablet device and make the font size and line height smaller. Do the same for Phone Landscape and Phone Portrait devices. You can see that the

Responsive Button example

Button Text

Description: This button is meant to be small on Desktop screens because it’s easy to click with the mouse cursor. We made it bigger on mobile devices so that it’s easier to tap with the finger

Button Text

Fix It yourself

TIP: Go to the Tablet device and increase the padding of the button. When you do that it will override the previous styles set on Desktop and will cascade down to all the devices below Tablet.

Responsive Columns example