
Please stop using Twitter Bootstrap - endtwist
http://notes.unwieldy.net/post/43508972396/please-stop-using-twitter-bootstrap
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coldtea
> _Let’s be honest: a great many of us are tired of seeing the same old
> Twitter Bootstrap theme again and again. Black header, giant hero, rounded
> blue buttons, Helvetica Neue.Yes, you can customize the header to be a
> different color, maybe re-color some of the buttons, use a different font.
> Ultimately, however, that doesn’t change anything—it still looks like
> Bootstrap._

Well, your blog still looks like a me-too minimal one column, design, like
another 50,000,000 blogs out there (half of them on Tumblr), but you don't see
me complaining, do you?

~~~
pknight
I was thinking the other day how annoyingly common the one column minimal
design has become. Half the time it sucks in terms of user experience because
a bunch of these themes are designed as if a visitor isn't going to be
interested in reading more articles or getting some background info on the
author. And since they all look the same you won't even realize that you
visited a particular author's site before.

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bonaldi
"And not just the same general layout, but the exact same components."

Funny how on the desktop designers demand HIG compliance and standard UI
widgets, while on the web they want us to get all Kai's Power Tools on every
button and widget.

~~~
unconed
I'd say the difference is two-fold. First, desktop applications generally
still have unique icons and branding. Second, desktop applications have much
more freedom as to how they combine the elements. Usually you can tell which
application it is from a distance, because the layout has been designed to
suit the app's specific needs and functions. The OS chrome itself is meant to
be invisible, in favor of what makes it unique.

For example, Firefox, Safari and Chrome all look identifiably different on OS
X, despite all implementing the same overall style.

Twitter bootstrap isn't just a CSS style, it's a rigid layout and UI pattern.
The author is decrying the use where bootstrap is the only kind of design
being done. In that case, people typically haven't considered what layout they
want to use or which elements to emphasize and how. They just go with the
standard 960 grid and its simple divisions, regardless of how much content
there is, and take something that's meant to be invisible and emphasize it
visibly by not adding anything new.

While bootstrap gives the appearance of being well designed, often the content
inside it fails to live up to that promise.

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krapp
> It has a time and a place, but you wouldn’t use Times New Roman on your
> startup’s website, would you?

Only because I have a thing about using serif fonts in html, otherwise it
might well be one of my fallbacks.

And besides, arguing that people should put more effort into restyling
Bootstrap is different than arguing they should abandon it altogether. In
terms of providing a framework for layouts, I think it does its job quite
well, and that users will probably intuitively understand a Bootstrap site
because they've encountered them a hundred times before. This in turn gives
your site an implied sense of stability and trustworthiness since it "looks
like twitter/etc etc."

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mt4ube
Yes, the Bootstrap components are obvious and the internet is starting to look
like Bootstrap. I totally agree, I can tell in a glance whether a site is
Bootstrapped or not... it's everywhere. And I also agree that this makes the
experience seem less personalized, the product ends up feeling like all of the
others once you make the connection, etc. (but in the end, I think this might
mostly be designers / developers).

But he notes that it's 100% customizable and says "most people do not bother".
That's the real problem. As long as you bother with that, you can't tell it's
Bootstrapped (<http://diehlgroup.com/>) and his whole argument collapses. It's
not JUST a design package for developers. It's also a basic reset and browser-
compatibility package, taking away so many headaches and days and days of
work.

To me, the best argument against Bootstrap is purely the weight. But even
then, I can strip it down to only components I need, literally even it's just
one file of LESS mixins (which is what I pretty much end up doing).

Interesting and true, though. Shits taking over.

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malandrew
Aren't all native desktop apps effectively "bootstrap" and doesn't that
consistency convey a level of affordance that only comes with
standardization/popularization?

Are you going to ask iOS developers to stop using the Master-Detail
Application, Tabbed Application, Cards-based Application or Page-based
Application templates next?

Hate on it all you want because you think it is boring and generic, but at
least acknowledge that it provides value, especially in circumstances when the
alternative is an interface created by someone who likely lacks the chops to
create a well-designed coherent interface.

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sgdesign
The problem here is that before Bootstrap, the only way for a non-designer to
get something decent was to hire a designer. Now thanks to Bootstrap there's a
whole new middle-ground of gets-the-job-done design that doesn't suck but is
also very, very generic.

I still think on the whole we're better off than before because in most cases
Bootstrap replaces things that were even uglier.

It's just a little disappointing sometimes when you see a company that clearly
has the means to develop its own identity and design settle for generic
Bootstrap.

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dshanahan
The only people who feel this way are the ultra-early adopters. Assuming most
sites aren't meant for that audience, I don't think it's actually worth
worrying about in the process of getting an early iteration out the door.
Sure, as a site/app scales it should think more about branding but early on
it's more likely a net benefit to have the kind of UX clarity that Bootstrap
provides for most web users.

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mattvv
As a developer, I find using bootstrap to lay out a project before a designers
hand's touches the project really nice. It gives the project a much better
look then I would normally put effort into doing and allows the designer
flexibility to quickly and easily style it.

As a designer, would you rather take spaggetti html code from a developer or
one compliant already with a framework like bootstrap to start working off?

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dpweb
Sorry, but F design. Wikipedia, Google search, HN, Craigslist - they're
essential - they are real value - and they're not winning any design contests.

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NicoJuicy
instead of complaining, sum up some alternatives.

And wrapbootstrap or bootstrap themes? :-)

