Hot Take About Learning Semantic UI through the Framework of the Elitism of Modern Art and Cinema
A User-Interface (UI) framework is a tool that provides the structure/template for constructing complex applications without extensive technical or design skills. There are many reasons why someone would want to use one of them. For example, Semantic UI is:
After picking some of my classmates’ brains, I was surprised to find that many of them don’t like HTML or using Semantic UI. A surprising majority thought that it was a frivolous skill, something fanciful that they wouldn’t bother themselves with and to save until the very last possibility to learn. I’m not sure if this notion stems from the general societal lack of seriousness for artists or the pursuit of artistic endeavors, but it certainly reminded me of it. But it also reminded me that the context in which you view something can change your perspective on it. Soup cans and soda bottles are unassuming on the shelf of a grocery store, but when perched on a pillar or situated behind a frame, the atmosphere of a museum invites onlookers to look at it in the context of art. I wonder if this mindset can somehow explain my classmate’s reluctance to become proficient in UI (and thereby take it seriously).
My classmates argue that Semantic UI doesn’t have a good return on investment. Semantic takes a lot of time to learn. There are mountains of documentation to go through, helpful as it is. Even if you wanted to learn to master Semantic UI, my classmates might argue, it is not a necessary skill. You are perfectly capable of creating a fully functional webpage without it. Why put all this time and effort into something you don’t really need? I think that it’s a fair question to ask. Should you be expected to know or be good at everything concerning software development?
My classmates argue the necessity of Semantic UI. If you are ranking the merits of visuals vs. functionality, then fine – I suppose it’s most important that your project works, that you have a solution. If your software looks good but doesn’t work, most people would probably be inclined to use something else that doesn’t look good, but work.
Clearly my classmates prioritize practicality, and their perspective reflects that. They want to address the problem itself, not how the solution looks. However, I think they’re missing the idea that Semantic UI is supposed to help reduce the amount of time spent on design because for the preset definitions. They underestimate that part of the solution can be that irrational human desire for the aesthetic. People have come to expect a certain level of experience while on the web, and one component of that is the look.
Since people create technology to solve the problems that they create, I think its generally helpful to learn to consider the people that will be using your technology. It’s good to have those foundational programming skills, but good to also incorporate Semantic UI or another UI Framework to create an engaging solution. One skill to complement the other.
I think this quote from Homeland by Cory Doctorow is sums everything up. The context is that the main character is comparing the struggles in his life – parents losing their jobs, his inability to to afford college – to his renegade friend’s struggle to escape the law by travelling the word:
“Her reality might suck too, but it sucked in huge, showy, neon letters—not in the quiet, crabbed handwriting of a desperate and broke teenager scribbling in his diary.”
If you are going to suffer making a website, you might as well take it all the way and use Semantic UI to make it huge, showy, and neon, as opposed to quiet and crabbed.