When I started this course, I never thought that with less than a weeks training I would be able to easily replicate nearly any website of my chosing, even if it’s only on the front end. Yet, in these last 6-7 days, I have been able to do just that! Now, I have a certain creative freedom I didn’t have before. One that allows me to easily visualize ideas that I had been blind to. Not only is it rewarding, but there is a certain level of excitement to it, like one venturing into the unknown.
Imagine being born with one leg, but you’re not alone: everyone else has one leg too. It’s normal; having one leg is nothing out of the ordinary because no one knows any better. Yet one day, someone is born with two legs: the first person in history to have more than one. He can jump higher, run faster, climb better; he is more efficient in every way physically than everyone else on the planet. So people start researching artificial limbs so they too can have two legs, because they’ve seen what having another leg can accomplish. It’s difficult at first, some people give up and stick to their old ways, but there are those that see the light, those that understand that if they put in the work now it will pay off in spades down the line. UI frameworks are that second leg. There will always be those that insist the old way is better, that they don’t need a stinkin second leg to get around, they can code with raw HTML and CSS like they always have and be just fine. Perhaps they are right, if one feels most comfortable without UI frameworks then why should he push himself. Yet once one has mastered HTML, CSS and the UI framework of their choosing, then 10 times out of 10 he will be faster than someone who has stuck to his old, one-legged ways.
The readability of Semantic UI is what makes it so convenient. Icons are called icons, menues are called menues and all variations one could think of are simply the name of that variation. If one wants a large icon, it’s called “large icon”, a huge menu is called “huge menu” and everything else falls predictably. Although there is a lot to learn, it is made exponentially easier largely through the readability, and the desire to learn. The shortcuts Semantic UI provides instills one with a passion to know them all so he can implement them to his hearts desire, in 1/10th the time it would take with raw HTML and CSS. This is why I love UI frameworks, namely Semantic UI.