My experience with User Interface framework
25 Feb 2021Coming from an HTML and JavaScript background, there is definitely a learning curve when I learned how to use a framework. At first, I was excited to learn a framework because my previous HTML projects look ugly, and a framework can make a website looks more elegant. Then I felt disappointed in the framework I learned because it did not have some feature, I thought it would have. The framework I learned was called Semantic UI. I initially thought Semantic UI would help me customize every aspect of a website I wanted. However, I found out Semantic UI provides a limited feature.
The pros
What was nice about Semantic UI is that is very easy to use for a person who is just getting into web development. Anyone who reads the documentation can understand how to use the features. There are so many out of the box feature that allows users to just code the website while making it elegant. Developers can turn their website that looks like is created in the 1990s, into a 2021 website with nice aesthetics. The syntax is easy to learn because if I want to create a large red button. I would just specify it as “ui large red button”. I was able to recreate the homepage design of keyforge.com using Semantic UI.
The cons
When I recreated keyforge.com, I wanted the center image of the website to zoom in when a mouse is hover over the image. However, Semantic UI didn’t have this feature. Semantic UI also did not have the component to display pictures from a slideshow. The cons of Semantic UI are that this framework is not meant for a developer who wants to design every aspect of the website.
To conclude
My experience with Semantic UI was great. I like that this framework is meant for someone who just wants to create a website with nice aesthetics. The simplicity of the documentation makes it very user-friendly even for someone who is not a developer. However, frameworks like React has a bigger library that contains more component. I’m excited I will be learning that soon!
