What's the deal with UI frameworks?
27 Feb 2020
Importance of UI Frameworks
The first question to ask yourself is “What is a framework?” In simple terms a framework is what holds together the code that is written by a user and is designed to save developers a lot of time in software projects. When relating UI to frameworks it is a software that is designed to help developers with various different projects. UI frameworks are appealing to many different developers because of how efficient it can be. Efficiency is something all programmers or developers wants because it can save them time and UI frameworks does just that by saving the developer from building from scratch. Another reason UI frameworks are preferred because it is a much more secured option. The reason for being a much more secured option is because UI frameworks will usually have an online community which will offer the developer knowledge on many different aspects that can help make it as strong as can be. Another reason why UI frameworks are used is because it is usually always cheaper. UI frameworks will save the developers’ hours of time which equals to thousands of dollars in a company and this is what developers look for.
A popular UI framework would be Semantic UI which is what ICS 314 uses to create or duplicate many different websites. Semantic UI’s main goal is to make coding more understandable to the web and is used by thousands of developers. This framework offers developers useful components that other frameworks do not offer and has amazing documentation. Another key aspect of Semantic UI would be that it is fully responsive and browser support is very good. Semantic UI may not be the most popular UI framework out there, but it is a highly suggested one among developers.
Many people might ask, “Why not use raw HTML and CSS?” The reason why one should not use raw HTML and CSS is because a developer would have to start from scratch and that would lead to spending hours writing code. By using raw HTML and CSS, it causes the developer to create their own structure, images, fonts, and more. The use of UI framework takes some of the stress out of coding by offering developers specific icons they can use, formatting content on their page, and even overlaying text over images in a simple way. UI frameworks are meant to help developers in their software projects and most developers do use a certain UI framework instead of using raw HTML and CSS.
Personal Experience
After personally using Semantic UI for about a week I can understand why this is the preferred method in creating webpages or projects. Before using Semantic UI, we learned how to write raw HTML code and raw CSS code which made the page look a little plain and it did not have any fancy bells or whistles. Then using Semantic UI, I was able to create menu with a simple command and it did make creating a webpage or duplicating a webpage a lot simpler. I enjoyed all the different functions Semantic UI offers and I also enjoyed how efficient this framework was. It was interesting to see how Semantic UI offered many different icons with a simple command such as Facebook, email, or Twitter. Using Semantic UI made it a lot simpler to duplicate a webpage compared to writing raw HTML code because I know for myself that would have taken hours instead of half an hour.
I would suggest to developers or even students who are learning like me, to use Semantic UI or some type of UI framework to create their webpage. Each UI framework offers many different functions which help to cut a user’s coding time in half and that is a key aspect to have in the coding world. Coders want efficiency and a time saving tool when coding. That tool is UI frameworks and I would highly suggest it to all developers.
Sources
Genty, N. (2017, September 24). UI Frameworks – How They Can Make Your Life Easier in 2017. Retrieved from https://iconic- solutions.com/ui-frameworks/