Battle of Responsive Web Design: Zurb Foundation, Less Framework 4 OR Columnal?

[Design_chica86]

Good evening,

I really want to get into responsive web design. My goal is to launch websites quicker that are mobile friendly and great for different screen resolutions. Help me. I'm a noob. My head is spinning from all the options out there.

• Zurb Foundation http://foundation.zurb.com/
• Less Framework 4 http://lessframework.com/
• Columnal http://www.columnal.com/
• Bootstrap http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/index.html
• Frameless http://framelessgrid.com/

QUESTIONS

1. Can someone with experience recommend which CSS frameworks ABOVE are BEST to start out with?
2. What are the Pros and Cons for the different Frameworks listed? (IE 6,7,8 etc) Feel free to suggest anything not listed.
3. Once the site is built can I easily add jQuery sliders, effects or animations?

Donate to the needy with your genius

[ralph.m]

Can someone with experience recommend which CSS frameworks are BEST to start out with?

None. Code the template yourself.

Frameworks tend to introduce more complexity than you need. Responsive CSS is not hard to do.

IE 6,7,8 etc...

These are not very welcoming of responsive design.

Once the site is built can I easily add jQuery sliders, effects or animations?

Yes, although things like sliders are not so easy to make responsive, so use them with care.

[Design_chica86]

[In Madea Voice] Hellerrrrrrr

Ralph, I was referring to which css frameworks listed above are the best options to learn and the pros & cons for each. Some of the one listed I think don't work in IE.

I do agree they all appear overly complicated. I'm just tired of hand-coding websites from scratch. Is there a way I can create my own system to launch websites quicker? I was hoping a CSS framework could help with this

Thank you for your opinion.

[ralph.m]

I'm just tired of hand-coding websites from scratch. Is there a way I can create my own system to launch websites quicker?

Partly why I said what I did is that people come here with all sorts of problems with frameworks—problems they don't need to have, IMHO. I quite enjoy doing layouts from scratch, so I guess everyone is different. But I'm sure you could abstract a few basic designs of your own that you can adapt to various projects. That way at least you know how they work.

Anyhow, that's just my view, and I'm sure you'll get other perfectly valid perspectives.

[deeve007]

I'm also in the middle of investigating the various responsive frameworks. http://gumbyframework.com is another you can add to the list.

And also going through the decision making process of whether to choose a framework or code my own from scratch.

[tsanne]

I'm also in the middle of investigating the various responsive frameworks. http://gumbyframework.com is another you can add to the list.

And also going through the decision making process of whether to choose a framework or code my own from scratch.

Love your gumby framework!

[deeve007]

Not mine, just another I found around the traps.

[akrimony]

Good evening,

I really want to get into responsive web design. My goal is to launch websites quicker that are mobile friendly and great for different screen resolutions.

As Ralph said, frameworks introduce a lot of things that are not needed for your website and make things more complex. The best way is to code the layout from scratch.

However, I do understand your impatience. It's like when you start attending music classes, you want to skip on the initial notes and get on with the melody playing! :-)

Out of the frameworks you listed, zurb has quite a community around it. It is also updated very frequently. Although, you'd have to spend quite a time learning it!

[itmitică]

None.

But I would add a few more to learn from on how to start your own:

http://html5boilerplate.com/
http://html5boilerplate.com/mobile
http://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/projects/320andup/

[uglyeoin]

I've been liking Zurb, it certainly speeds up my sites, and coding it from scratch would take a lot more time. Also a lot more learning if you do not know how to code responsive designs, although as stated there would be some learning with Zurb, once you have it you're pretty much sorted. Some issues I've run into are using multiple instances of things on the same page, such as their Orbit slider which can't be done (they say). It is responsive though. I'm sticking with them for now as they updated recently and things like that keep me happy.

[conradical]

Pick one that is the easiest to follow. I am all for the do not use frameworks and stuff but there is a lot to learn from them. Yes, eventually you should write your own or develop a system that you can pick up and not reinvent the wheel every time you start a new project.

I avoided all these systems till I gave bootstrap a go - that too was way too bloated for my taste but I persevered and learned and in the process I sort of developed a grid boilerplate so to speak that when I start a new project, I have my basic CSS written out and am not writing float:left's and clear floats and widths etc for each new project.

So bottom line is, pick an easy one, sift out the crap work on your own. The trick is to keep it simple, readable and reusable.