Frameworks Evolve

Foundation and Bootstrap go mobile-first as 320 and up is replaced. Foundation 4 and the upcoming Bootstrap 3 are going mobile-first, while mobile-first pioneer 320 And Up has been replaced by Rock Hammer.

Luke Wroblewski convinced ZURB that mobile-first was the way to go, according to ZURB partner Jonathan Smiley. Smiley said the knock-on effects were superior mobile experiences on older devices and forcing good product decisions, too.

Responding to complaints about presentational mark-up, Smiley said Foundation 4 was more semantic: "Instead of rows and columns, you create the meaningful structure your page requires, then attach row or column styles to it in the SCSS." The result is more readable mark-up, for both people and machines.

Bootstrap creator Mark Otto said he had similar goals: "We went mobile-first as a reflection of device usage trends and because of practicality — it's easier to scale up than up and down. Also, the grid's been simplified into a single, fluid, mobile-first system that works everywhere."

Responding to industry criticism regarding frameworks being unsuitable for live sites, Otto admitted there are trade-offs: "Much of Bootstrap's appeal is its prescriptive aesthetics, and many folks use it because of this, but others want to go further." He said future iterations will provide additional control. However, Smiley fiercely defended Foundation, as it's used for ZURB client websites.

However, 320 And Up creator Andy Clarke saw limitations elsewhere in the design process. Clarke's new toolkit, primarily for OS X app Hammer, concentrates on visual design. "Rock Hammer makes it easy to style design elements that make up websites—typography, colour themes, textural stuff—and you're not creating a Photoshop comp," he said. He added that designers "shouldn't need to code but should be able to move beyond this PSD phase and create something of the web" Perhaps other frameworks will again follow his lead during their next revisions.