A New Level of Designing Websites
26 Feb 2026
I’m Impressed
As a person who has known basic web development skills of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for quite some time now, I could say that working with Bootstrap 5 has become a whole new level in how we design websites. It might be kind of boring to you guys now, but for me, it was like discovering fire for the first time. It was a really interesting yet complicated way to design a website, and the best way to understand how Bootstrap works it to simply replicate an already existing website. For me, it was a fun way to “get your feet wet” in a way to understand how bootstrap syntax works and notice any pattern from within it.
The Realization
When I got more into Bootstrap 5, things got complicated really fast, and the next thing I know, we were recreating websites of our choice and solidifying our knowledge with really cool webpages that were difficult to implement in Bootstrap. The image on the bottom is my recreation of implementing the Maui Brewing Co front page. There are still some major differences compared to the actual front page website, but overall I felt pround in learning that Bootstrap can make really good looking websites like the one below. I hope that one day I will be able to create really nice webpages that are user-friendly and visually appealing to the audience. Websites like VS Code, Github, or even Foxglove inspired me to continue and learn more about what software engineering has to offer.
The Substitution
Noticing how Bootstrap gets complicated fast, it is no brainer that there are easy to implement website creators like Wix, Wordpress, or even Google Sites that does all the formatting and allignment for you, where all the user has to do is just design the website based on how you like it. No experience in coding needed! So then this raises the question of why learn Bootstrap if there are services that make creating and designing websites easier? Personally, I need to put this type of skill on my resume, but formally, I believe that learning Bootstrap will open door towards other CSS frameworks like Semantic UI, for instance. Plus, you have complete control on how you want to design your website, where services like Wix might impose some limitations on how you format or align, or add things to a webpage.
I know recently, the University of Hawaii at Manoa ITS department recommended departmental sites to switch to Cascade, which is a built in UH content managment system (CMS) to manage sites affiliated to UH. This is really nice since it is organized and centrialized but then you start to realize how it can be difficult in formatting or alligning items when your giving only a template to work off of. It can be quite difficult, and the limitations can limit creativity, which is why Bootstrap is used and why I am really interested to learn more in one day, creating attrachting webpages.