This is part of the underappreciated series, where we explore CSS frameworks that are well-made and have great ideas, but never took off like the "big two". For a full introduction, see the first article in the series. Kickstart is a bit different, and a bit more ambitious, than some of the other frameworks featured in this series so far. It aimed to take on Bootstrap and Foundation directly. And, though it didn’t quite reach that status, it comes with some great ideas. The implementation’s great...
This is a part of series, where we explore CSS frameworks that are well-made and have great ideas, but never took off like the “big two”. In the first article in this series, I ranted about the wonders of Titon Toolkit. I loved it because it was made to be customized, to be abused, and built upon. Well, I’ll try not to rant about that sort of thing too much, because it’s a feature common to a few of the frameworks that I’ve selected for this series, including today’s. It’s called spaceBase, and...
Many, many frameworks have been created since Bootstrap took off. It may not have been the first, but it sure made people start thinking about them. People made them for the experience, for the fun of it, and to solve very specific needs. They made them for clients, for themselves; alone, and in teams. Some were sub-par, some were only usable in specific cases, and others were brilliant. But very few got any serious recognition from the community. Eventually, you’d see a new framework or five every other...
Pretty much the moment Google released their Material design guidelines, people started working on frameworks for it. However, the earliest examples were all dedicated to apps and app development. It took a while for someone to develop a Material-based framework for websites. Enter Material Design Lite (or MDL), a simple Material-based CSS framework for the whole family. Now anyone can easily bring most common (and recognizable) aspects of Material Design to any website. And now we have a question:...
Buzzfeed just released a CSS framework, and you’ll never believe... okay, I’ll just stop myself there for everyone’s sake. The point is that yes, the Internet publishing giant has indeed released a CSS framework called Solid. Is it any good? Yeah, basically. It’s good for them, at least. Installation ... Accomplished via NPM, and only NPM, for now. ’Nuff said. Style ... The thing to remember about Buzzfeed’s framework is that it was made by Buzzfeed, for Buzzfeed. All of the style-based...
Bootstrap is beloved by many. Well, if not “beloved”, then it is at least appreciated for what it is: a giant framework with almost everything you could need for building a site or web app interface. Bootstrap is changing, though. That’s right, version four is in alpha release. Naturally, we're just as curious to know what’s different, so I dived into the documentation to find out. Keep in mind, though, that this is an alpha release. It cannot be considered feature-complete. It could radically...
Usability testing is sometimes one of those things that developers conveniently ‘forget’ about. Why? Well do a search for it. Usability testing, as it is generally practiced, costs money. There are interviews to perform, a variety of tests to create for each and every project, services to pay for… and what if your client’s in another country? Or what if they’re a small business with a small budget, or a brand-new startup? What if the only reason you learned web development in the first...
There are a lot of form solutions for WordPress. And why not? After printing "Hello World!", the easiest starter plugin to make is probably some sort of contact form solution. Besides, at some point in their web design and/or development careers, everyone needs to build a form. The typical process involves installing Contact Form 7, if you just want to send yourself some basic emails, or installing something more complex (and paid) like Gravity Forms for anything else. Failing that, you could always...