IST 686 Blog #2 - Assessing Corporate or Organization Blogging

Blogs: A Great Resource to Learn How to Code

Web development has been a passion of mine ever since I got into the iSchool three years ago. As I got my feet wet in the world of web development towards the end of my freshman year, I’ve been on the lookout out for resources to pick up the necessary skills needed to succeed in the web development industry. While the things I learnt in the classroom as well as the various web development books that I bought definitely helped get me started, I wanted to venture deeper into web development. I naturally turned to the Internet to look for more resources to learn from. Throughout this process, I stumbled across a myriad of tutorials and blogs that I follow even till this day. Now that I think about, I'm actually really surprised at how much I've learnt through web development blogs, especially when I started getting into backend development and responsive design (which is essentially web design/development for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers). Online blogs are a great resource to learn how to code.

Bootstrap and Foundation: The leading responsive-development frameworks

Two of my favorite blogs are the Bootstrap by Twitter and Foundation by Zurb. Both Bootstrap and Foundation are Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) frameworks that utilize a “grid” system allow for a standardized and efficient manner of web development. Web developers like using either of these frameworks because the grid system shortens the time needed to develop web applications or websites while also providing instant responsive design. Both these frameworks also give a lot of flexibility in that it gives advanced developers the ability to really customize the framework and it also making it easy for beginner or novice developers to get around things.

The grid system responds to the screen size of your web-viewing device

Both these blogs serve similar purposes – to promote the various features each framework provides as well as to educate new developers on how the framework actually works. Written mostly by developers of the framework, these blogs feature examples of existing websites and applications that utilize these frameworks. For example Foundation might blog about a website that uses the Foundation framework while Bootstrap on the other hand might blog about a mobile application that is available on iOS or Android. These examples help showcase what developers can potentially accomplish with the framework. Both Bootstrap and Foundation blog very frequently (almost on a daily basis), so it provides developers with a great resource to learn from.

Foundation and Bootstrap also utilize their blog to inform users of the updates and patches they have released to their respective framework. These blog posts also contain a considerable amount of detail documentation to ensure that developers of all background understand the changes that have been made as well as how they can effectively utilize these upgrades to better enhance their websites or web applications. Most importantly, the majority of Foundation and Bootstrap's blog posts are about how their framework meets the demands of today's web development environment.

Foundation by Zurb

The difference between coding with Foundation or Bootstrap is essentially minimal so it all really boils down to personal preference. I myself like Foundation better and so I follow the Zurb Foundation blog a lot more closely than I do the Bootstrap blog. One of the biggest issues I have with learning to code from online resources is that they often intimidate me with sophisticated writing as well as confusing descriptions. This intimidation ultimately turns me off from reading the rest of the blog or tutorial. What I really love about the Foundation blog is that it comes across as your typical blog that you might come across on the web. While the target audience of the blog is web developers, it features graphic images as well as descriptive and uncomplicated write-ups. This makes understanding the purpose of the blog post much easier and it also encourages me to click on the follow-up links to the tutorials and templates that the bloggers attach to at the bottom of each blog post. I like to think that it is the simplistic style of writing used in the Foundation blog as the reason why I prefer using Foundation to Bootstrap.

The Foundation Blog – Nicely written and easy to understand

What I also love about the Foundation blog is that the blog posts aren’t just limited to the Foundation framework itself or the topic of responsive design. The blog also features topics such as web design concepts, web development tricks as well as shortcuts, career advice, and even eCommerce strategies. From time to time, Foundation might also blog about current affairs that affect the web development industry while also sharing their thoughts on the issue. So not only does Foundation provide me with a great resource to learn how to code, it also keeps me on the loop of things in regards to what’s happening around the world of web design and development.

Bootstrap by Twitter

The Bootstrap blog on the other hand comes across as a lot more technical resource. While the blog posts do read a lot like the Foundation blog in that it is rather informally feature and it also features images and videos, it also includes code snippets that developers can directly copy from to use in their own work so that they do not necessarily have to start from scratch. The blog posts are really long and even though it does use a rather informal writing style, it can come across as a bit intimidating for beginner and novice programmers, which is why I never really went through the Bootstrap blog when I first started getting into responsive web design a year ago. Despite all that, the writing on the Bootstrap blog is incredibly detailed and descriptive and I’ve found that spending some time to re-read the blog posts actually provides a great learning experience.

Code snippets developers can copy from and use in their own projects

Even though I personally prefer using Foundation, majority of websites that feature responsive design utilize Bootstrap. This comes as no surprise, especially since Twitter developed Bootstrap after all so it is easy to imagine how the Twitter brand name would naturally attract more users. The Bootstrap blog naturally uses this to their advantage as they constantly blog about big name companies that utilize the Bootstrap framework to build their websites and mobile applications. Reading these blog posts is a great way to find out the trends and developments of web design, especially checking out the websites of big-named corporations. 

Conclusion

The world of web development is constantly changing and so developers have to constantly keep their eyes open with the latest web development technologies. Under the advice of my professors and my supervisors at work, I've been following web development blogs to keep tabs on the development of the industry. While blogs like Foundation and Bootstrap are a great way to keep up with things, they also provide a solid learning resource to pick up and improve coding skills.

Throughout my time following blogs like Foundation and Bootstrap, I have learnt to challenge myself by crossing over and applying the lessons I’ve learnt from each blog. For example I might look at a template provided by the Bootstrap blog and I would try to replicate the template using the Foundation framework. In that sense reading these types of blogs fosters creativity by encourages developers to think outside of the box, which ultimately leads to learning.

Moreover, reading web development blogs has kept me up to date with the world of web development. Despite the fact that I consider myself more of a developer than a designer, going through the examples posted in these blogs gives me the chance to tap into my artistic side as it gives me inspiration and design ideas for future projects. Blog posts about current affairs on the web development industry are also great places to ensure that my coding skills are up to par with the industry’s demands. Most importantly these posts ensures that I am completely familiar with both Foundation and Bootstrap's features and how these features meet the demands of the world of web development.

All in all, blogs can make absolutely great learning resources to pick up web development skills while staying up to date with the ever-changing world of web design and development.

Foundation by Zurb Blog: http://zurb.com/blog

Bootstrap by Twitter: http://blog.getbootstrap.com/