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Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

getflakes.com

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Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#21

Post by forgotAgain »

rrrx3 wrote: post #5

I'd like to understand more about the rationale that led you down the path of creating this. In my years in enterprise, user and market research has driven the push to create UIs that are more compelling, that make users feel more at home and comfortable (as they would be with mobile and consumer products), while maintaining a more narrow focus on tasks instead of providing a generic one-size fits all paradigm. This…

From my experience I disagree. Simpler and well known are more welcome in the enterprise and business in general. As an example consider the protests raised about the Office 2007 ribbon. An internal application cannot afford that type of resistance.

If you had said simpler and more efficient interfaces I would have agreed. Current ERP and CRM applications try to put too much in front of the user at one time. It's better to have micro-applications that match a particular function. This looks like a good idea for that.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#24

Post by sensecall »

krat0sprakhar wrote: post #3

This is a pleasant change. My goto framework for internal apps is Bootstrap (no surprise there) although I actually end up using only a handful of elements. Flakes looks like a good enough collection of elements to cover 95% of my use cases. Definitely going to use this in my next app. Thanks for sharing!

If you use Bootstrap Sass, you could look into only including the components that you actually use – can help reduce Bootstrap bloat big time.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#26

Post by tracker1 »

josekpaul wrote: post #10

I really like gridforms for dense data-entry forms ( http://kumailht.com/gridforms/ ).

Agreed, was coming in here to comment on as much. I don't think anything on the demos really stood out quite as much as the grid forms does. It's closer to what people who might be replacing a paper form would probably like.

Whenever I'm designing a system that is replacing paper, though it's been a long while. I find it best to start with as close to the paper version as practical. There's a lot to be said for making something that is familiar.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#27

Post by raziel2p »

toddsiegel wrote: post #13

This is really cool and a nice start. One big thing we are dealing with in our internal app are responsive tables. We display some data in tables, but it almost always looks like crap on a small screen. There are a few different ways to solve this. Sometimes it makes sense to hide or abbreviate columns other times the table should neatly convert to a list. This is tougher. I also like your search & filters design. I…

I think colours for names of buttons are OK. I hate having to jump between CSS frameworks and trying to remember what the correct class is - danger? Warning? Error? I know what I want is red, and any time I want to change the class of a button or message/alert your core intent is to change the colour - so you might as well skip that abstraction IMO.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#28

Post by khalilravanna »

buckbova wrote: post #23
rikkus wrote: post #22

Went to this page: http://getflakes.com/preview/browsing-data.html The 'Next' button on the grid seems to be broken. No javascript error in console. Current stable Chrome, Windows.

I suspect it's not meant to be completely functional.

Yep. Looks like the only thing with any functionality attached is the search. Which is funny because with the search at the top of the page I could see how it would lead one to believe that the rest of the buttons might have functionality attached to them as well.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#29

Post by snlacks »

I wish more things looked like this at work. There's apps that look like native apps, there's bootstrap apps, there's all the custom CSS floating around, there's whatever's new, there's the stock CSS sheet that comes with the plugins...

Keeping to principles like this at work or for work environments would make it so much easier to have unity. I'm not saying everything should look like this, but that not everything needs to stand out for the sake of standing out. Using the same app every day undoes the need for over the top "visual cues" and complex overlays and material concepts. We need fast, interchangeable stuff, that works with large amounts of data/fields/etc when the content doesn't fit looking like apple.com. :)

I wish you guys luck, and I'll give it a shot the first chance I get.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#30

Post by alanning »

Very nice work. Given the prevalence of Bootstrap and Foundation, it would probably help adoption if there were options with those as the base styling lib.

I know there is a lot of work in the custom sass here and this is currently a one-man project. May be a good candidate for a "Roadmap" and "How you can help" section in the repo's Readme.

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