What’s Foundation?
Foundation is the first and most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world. It lets you quickly prototype and create sites and apps that work on any device (smartphones up through desktops and TV displays) with a library of tested components.
Foundation doesn’t require any particular back end. In fact, Foundation has been used with dozens of back-end and CMS technologies, and Foundation is used by hundreds of thousands of sites every day to deliver rock-solid responsive sites.
What are Front-end Frameworks?
Just like there are frameworks for building native app interfaces (like Xcode for iOS), Foundation is a framework to build the front-end, or client-facing part, of a website or web application. Foundation runs entirely in the browser, so it’s easy for a Design or UX specialist to get into and work on locally without involving IT.
Foundation is Mobile First
Mobile First is two parts technology and two parts philosophy. Foundation is built in such a way that it encourages a mobile-first approach, designing your site or app for the small device first, then expanding that to include larger displays and more full-featured devices. While it’s not required, building this way in Foundation is relatively simple and introduces really useful constraints in product design. We’ve found it to be a big win in designing effective, ubiquitously available products.
What technology is used in Foundation?
Foundation is built with HTML, CSS and Javascript, the core components of the Web. While Foundation is fairly cutting-edge, we use bulletproof technology like jQuery, HTML5 Boilerplate and Normalizr as our baseline. We then layer on top components and plugins designed to work well in all of our supported browsers and devices.
Since Foundation only uses front-end technology, it has no incompatibilities with back-end or server technology and has been used with everything from Wordpress and Drupal to .Net.
Why use Foundation?
Foundation, amongst all of the responsive front-end frameworks out there, is the only framework professionally supported by an organization (ZURB), which also uses the framework every day for clients ranging from small startups to huge enterprises. Foundation has been tried and tested for years. It's gone through five major iterations and many point releases to ensure it works everywhere, and we’ll keep improving it.
Having trouble convincing your team?
From huge brands to scrappy startups, millions of designers and developers have used Foundation and created amazing websites and apps! Foundation is the right solution for your next project. Check out our slides from the All Things Open Conference 2016.