Free tools to speed up web development [closed]

Question

As a little side project, I am starting to build a new website for a certain organization I am affiliated to, which current site is simply outdated.

I am regularly a Java developer, and last time I really did some web development was back in the late 90s, when <p> was still more popular than <div> and Javascript was cutting-edge technology (JQuery is for lazy bums these days :) ).

Anyway, I feel really outdated. The website basically is going to be:

• Django based
• mostly serve static information pages
• it will have a dynamic news and updates page (based on Django admin capabilites)
• and some basic apps I'll develop myself (polls, small registration app, etc...)

My problem is designing the whole thing. I found some nice web-based CSS layout generators that got me going, but I still feel I'm wasting my time smoothing out the CSS files and aligning <div>s.

Are there any tools - the simpler and faster, the better - that you recommend I can use to speed up the design part of the site so I can concentrate on the real work?

I don't need anything fancy, just a nice looking layout and design that I can tweak a bit so the site will look presentable.

Answer 1

I second Brandon's suggestion to use a CSS framework. It won't give you 100% freedom to design anything you like, but it can speed up your design process greatly and free up your hands to do the coding you really want.

Suggestions Updated July 2013:

• Twitter Bootstrap http://twitter.github.io/bootstrap/ - complete grid, typo, UI widget prototyping framework
• ZURB Foundation http://foundation.zurb.com/ - responsive grid, type, UI widget prototyping framework (similar in scope to Twitter Bootstrap, but feels 'cleaner' in some ways)
• 960 http://960.gs/ - grid layout system
• Tripoli http://devkick.com/lab/tripoli/ - really good typography, but no grid system
• YUI Grids http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/ - very customizable (to the point of overkill) grid system
• Blueprint http://www.blueprintcss.org/ - grid system and basic typography
• BlueTrip http://www.bluetrip.org - a hybrid system, mixing the best of the Blueprint grid with the best of the Tripoli typography