93. Nathan Curtis, Co-founder of EightShapes: Balancing reuse and customization in UI Design
Dec 13, 2023
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Nathan Curtis, co-founder of EightShapes, explores the balance between reuse and customization in UI design. They discuss the challenges of design systems, scale and composition of UI design components, theming challenges, and balancing customization and design tools.
Composability in design systems allows for flexibility and customization, balancing the reuse of components with solving specific problems.
Design systems should strike a balance between creating reusable components and allowing users to make their own modifications, considering business outcomes and desired level of reuse.
Deep dives
Composability in Design Systems
Composability in design systems refers to the ability to create flexible and less restrictive systems that allow for the reuse of smaller components to build larger ones. It arises from the need to accommodate the diverse and increasing complexity of different teams and their requirements. Composability offers the freedom to control and arrange components in ways that suit specific needs and solve problems. However, it also challenges design systems professionals as it requires giving up some control and allowing for user creativity within the confines of the system.
The Need for Composability in Design Systems
Composability addresses the widening funnel of needs in design systems as they expand across various teams and projects. By allowing for the flexibility to compose smaller components into larger ones, it offers a solution to the increasing diversity of needs within an organization. Composability allows teams to customize and arrange elements such as filters, search bars, or panels according to the specific context and requirements of their projects. It enables them to create unique compositions while still benefiting from shared components and patterns.
Balancing Reusability and Customization
Composability introduces a tension between creating reusable components and accommodating customization and extension. While some components can be designed with a high level of flexibility, providing users with the freedom to build their own versions, others may have more defined structures and configurations that align with specific use cases. It is important for design systems to strike a balance between creating reusable components and allowing users to make their own judgments and modifications, while considering the intended business outcomes and the level of reuse desired.
Architecture and Organization of Composable Components
When implementing composable components, it is crucial to consider the architecture and organization of the system. Design systems may provide a range of pre-configured templates or patterns that offer solutions to common use cases while allowing for customization. While some core parts, such as title, subtitle, and predefined styles, can be reusable, other components within a card or row structure may require customization based on individual projects. Designing components in this way supports the idea of creating an assembly of building blocks that can be combined and tailored to meet specific needs.
Chris Strahl sits with Nathan Curtis as he explores the delicate balance between reusing existing components and creating customized solutions in UI design. They unpack the complexities of design systems, touching on everything from color selection to ensuring functional and aesthetic harmony, providing insights on principled design choices in a world where reuse and customization are equally important.
Nathan co-founded EightShapes with Dan Brown near Washington, DC in 2006. He’s passionate about information architecture, user experience design, and front end development, and leads and consults with design systems teams to chart a strategic path and optimize operations. He wrote Modular Web Design in 2009, blogs about design systems regularly, and speaks at events worldwide.
Host
Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.
Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.
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