That. Bootstap's site doesn't look like the default. Especially with the inclusion of colored images, that banner now and several other elements that most "built with bootstrap" sites lack.
If you're not digging through the source you'd probably think it was a lightly styled Bootstrap site as many of the same tells are present (black top navbar, etc).
However, I think there is some massive confirmation bias at work. If a site customizes Bootstrap and it looks nice nobody credits it as a 'Bootstrap Looking' site, so as a result it is only when the defaults are used that people really pick up on it.
That coupled with the fact that there are many more Bootstrap sites kicking around out there I think has led to the misconception about "Bootstrap Looking" sites.
We run the resource page listed in the article [1] and as a result of that it is quite possible I've looked at more sites built with Bootstrap than even the creators.
From this I've really found two things:
One, I think there is some massive confirmation bias at work. If a site customizes Bootstrap and it looks nice nobody credits it as a 'Bootstrap Looking' site, so as a result it is only when the defaults are used that people really pick up on it.
Second, the alternative to a site built with Bootstrap is typically not a beautiful custom designed front end, but a pretty rough looking unstyled, inconsistent mess.
Bootstrap is the new baseline for what a website should look like, it should be customized, it can be improved but there is now zero excuse for it looking worse.
Not wanting to be too critical, but there's lots of talk about "not wanting to look Bootstrappy" (or to a lesser extent, "Foundationy") — in that without customisation sites using them can look cookie-cutter.
This is ugly - I'd rather see sites using Bootstrap or Foundation than this, however solid the codebase is.
To be honest, the appearance of Bootstrap is what I like the least about it at this point. Too few people customize the UI, and we're seeing a lot of similar sites as a result. The last thing I want is to see more sites that look like Bootstrap. Might be interesting to start developing Bootstrap themes so we get some design variety yet keep the friendly gridding and robustness.
Agreed. More sites need to move away from the default styles and should use Bootstrap for what its great at being -- a structural foundation.
I run a little marketplace for Bootstrap themes called WrapBootstrap - http://wrapbootstrap.com/ - I just sold the 100th theme today so more people are taking customization seriously within the Bootstrap community than before.
You can also check out Bootswatch - http://bootswatch.com/ - He provides free color themes that you can use to skin Bootstrap with.
People should definitely be using Bootstrap for its technical merit and not for its default styles.
Maybe it was the same (overused) restaurant wordpress theme that has nothing to do with Bootstrap? Sites looking similar was an 'issue' well before Bootstrap.
Of course I understand the sentiment that everyone wants their site to look fully custom and not like it came from any particular framework, but it's hard to resist the irony that the first thing they have to say is "Hardly looks like a ‘Bootstrap site’ at all."
Honestly I think the biggest problem with Bootstrap is that everyone uses Bootstrap (because it's so nicely done) and therefore your site looks like the other million sites on the web that use it.
It comes down to the same issues that I have with templates of tumblr,posterous and wp. They all look the same. I think bootstrap should be used as a way to jumpstart the design process and not built a WHOLE website using the components bootstrap provides.
When I see that grey-black gradient nav bar i go "Haizz yet another bootstrap site."
I have visited about 20 - 30 websites in last month that were all very obviously built with bootstrap. I can't remember even one of them (apart from the one in the topic). Because they looked and felt alike.
I think first impressions matter, and if a website/app won't make a good one on me, then they lost me as their potential customer.
The way bootstrap is built (LESS) - it allows to customize pretty much anything, widths, margins, borders, colors... To me it's just lazy if developers leave everything to the defaults and put the website/app on the web, and "see how it goes", then build on that.
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