Learning Frameworks: Worth the Difficulty?
06 Oct 2022
UI Frameworks: Difficult?
UI Frameworks, which stand for “User interface frameworks” are frameworks that assist in helping a developer create more advanced and professional-looking websites. While they are a great tool to use, they are considered by many to be difficult to learn how to use. If they are not even necessary to use to create a professional-looking project in the first place, is their difficult-to-learn tools even worth learning?
My Experience So Far Learning Bootstrap 5
After going over the basics of web development with pure HTML and CSS, I have finally taken on the challenge of learning my first UI Framework: Bootstrap 5. As expected, I often found it confusing to work with. The documentation was often hard to follow, and I had to do a lot of trial and error especially in the very beginning because I was not entirely sure how it would make my web page look. And yet at the same time, it has been only a week and I have already been able to make more professional-looking websites than I had a mere two weeks ago. I am slowly getting the hang of it, and even while I am still in the beginning stages of learning a new UI Framework, I can tell that it has still made it easier to make professional-looking websites than to go without it. I have also been able to use a lot less CSS in the process, making my CSS code easier to read and follow and making it more convenient as most of the code was on my HTML page instead.
Without UI Frameworks
With UI Frameworks
Above is a very small snippet of an example of how (part of) a webpage can look better with UI design. I actually practiced making both versions myself. The difference here is the navigation bar. The first image does not use UI Frameworks and has just some links spread out across the page as a “navigation bar.” Not very appealing-looking is it? The second picture uses UI Framework (Bootstrap specifically), and while it looks a bit on the simpler side, its dark background and white text at the top of the page instead of in the middle of the page looks much more appealing and professional. While it is possible to do this without UI Framework, it would be harder to pull off.
Conclusion: Worth It After All?
From my little experience with UI Frameworks, I can say with confidence that despite the difficulty of learning to use it, I still overall found that it was worth the time and effort to learn to use it. In a mere one week of learning how to use my first UI Framework, I was already able to practice recreating actual professional websites from well-establish companies like Whole Foods or Island Snow. I would have taken significantly longer to try and recreate those websites with pure CSS and HTML, and maybe I would have given up eventually because of how hard it is to go without using frameworks. So to answer the question proposed at the beginning of this essay of if it is worth it to learn to use a UI Framework, I would say absolutely yes. Computer science as a whole has a very steep learning curve, but I have never seen a single person state that it is not worth it to learn despite its difficulty. UI Frameworks in particular are the same way–difficult but worth it.