Frameworks are essentially structures that secure something, whether it be a building or an object. In computer programming frameworks are exactly this, except, it pertains to holding together our code. So a UI framework, is basically a software that helps us build our own projects. There are numerous UI frameworks, such as BootStrap, Pure, and Foundation. But what is the point to utilizing and learning frameworks? Can’t I just stick to my good ol’ HTML and CSS?
HTML is fundamentally a store mannequin. We got the basic form of it, such as the head, body, arms, and legs. However, it is completely naked, boring, and just a tad bit disturbing, honestly. So to dress up and style our mannequin, we bring in CSS. With CSS we can design the HTML and make it more visually appealing and personalized.
We can go through this process of just utilizing HTML and CSS, however, this is impractical. If we wanted to create, let’s say a simple, yet visually striking user interface for our website, this could become a difficult task to do, especially since we are still new to HTML and CSS. We would have to know the in’s and out’s of both languages completely well to know how to implement certain elements, such as a parallax effect, or an image carousel. Even if we are able to do this, we would have tons of lines of code, which would be tedious to go through for debugging any problems we encounter.
With UI frameworks we can create projects in a fast yet simple way. Although it does take some time and practice to get a hang of, it’s worth it, because once we are comfortable with the ui framework, we can use it the upmost capability.
The UI framework I got introduced to is Semantic UI. My experience with using this framework has been pretty good. At first I did struggle with incorporating it into my HTML and CSS code, but after awhile, I adjusted and I became comfortable. I find it easy to use, and clean, since it uses plain English. Manipulation of an element becomes simple, since all we have to do is declare “ui” and then specify the key terms of how we want our element to look. Whereas with html and css, you would have to specify multiple styles and such just to achieve the look we want.
All in all, becoming familiar with Semantic UI has helped me to efficiently design my HTML and CSS, in a clean way. I am eager to learn more frameworks that I am going to be introduced to.