Pulling Yourself Up by the Bootstraps
02 Oct 2023
User Interface Frameworks provide a great deal of possibilities for the implementer. Due to all the options and tools provided, they may take some getting used to. However, the time investment is well worth-while, as UI frameworks are vital tools in software and web development. There are many reasons UI interfaces can be preferred over raw HTML and CSS, including rapid development, consistency, responsive design, community support, cross browser compatibility, and more!
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel!
There are so many different things to consider when creating software. To name just a few, the device the user has, what browser, and the size of their screen. Accounting for each of these differences would be time consuming. Additionally, you don’t have a library of tools ready to use, such as tables, icons, forms, etc. You could sit around creating them each individually, but odds are you’re not going to do it quite as well as the published library, and its likely going to take quite a little while. Knowing HTML and CSS is absolutely necessary and helpful; however, you’re going to be writing quite a bit of it if you’re doing everything analog. Especially with languages where you write so extensively and it’s easy to get lost in a sea of div tags, you’re going to want to simplify when you can.
The UI Framework
What is a UI Framework? It’s basically a library of pre-written tools for you to use. Common elements of webpages are created and put in the library for you to access whenever you would like! Icons? You got it! Tables? You got it! Forms? Yep, those too! With consistent styling and formatting and a great deal of pre-created elements, your life just got a whole lot easier and more efficient.
Investment Returns
Learning a new UI Framework can be overwhelming or a lot of work. Similarly to learning a new programming language, it takes time and effort to learn all the rules and nuances of a certain interface. Learning a UI Framework will not only have a great return in that it will greatly assist in your software development process but has become a necessary part of software engineering. You could try to create software without the use of a UI Framework, but you would not get very far within a reasonable time frame.
In exchange for your time investment in learning a new UI Framework, you will be able to develop considerably more rapidly, now being able to implement and customize tables and forms and all sorts of features in a much shorter time than you would have been able to before. You will also be creating more consistent and standardized content. UI frameworks often provide a concordant look and feel, allowing you to have a more aesthetically pleasing result with much less effort than if you had tried to integrate the same look with HTML and CSS alone. Features included in UI Frameworks are generally responsive to the interface in which they are used, i.e., they can modify the appearance as needed, whether it be from device to device or browser to browser, in order to meet the needs of the user. This is a huge time saver for you!
Overall, you are going to need to pick a framework and learn it, because otherwise it’s unfeasible for you to be an effective developer. As with many things in the Computer Science field, it may be a larger than average time investment up front, but once you’ve got it down, you’re going to doing some cool stuff at a high level!
Bootstrap 5
I have recently had the benefit of being able to learn and work with Bootstrap 5. As suspected, it was a non-negligible amount of effort upfront, and certainly took some getting used to. The world of possibilities using a UI Framework like Bootstrap 5 is practically endless! However, despite the initial learning curve, I greatly enjoyed using Bootstrap 5 over the past week as I felt as though the products of my work were considerably higher level. In a website recreation exercise, for example, I had the chance to pick a site and create it from scratch myself.
I really appreciate when I learn skills that I feel I will be able to directly apply in the real world in a course or lesson. I enjoyed working with Bootstrap 5, because I felt as though I was developing a very useful skill. Not just the ability to learn how to use a UI Framework, but also how to go about the creation process. Duplicating a site online is just one half-step from designing and creating your own site from nothing!