Shared Components Beyond the Design System
summary
Argues that higher‑level shared components should live in separate repos, publish as packages, and be built with layered extensibility: sensible defaults for the 80% case, mid‑layer customization, and a hard‑mode escape hatch. Gives concrete wins: Atlassian’s create menu and Admin UI Kit filter controller used by multiple apps, a shared navigation that supports drag‑preview and custom React item rendering, Relay‑based data loading with an Apollo provider fallback, plus tests, docs, SemVer, and governance.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction: Beyond the Design System
- 1:32Start with Your Consumers
- 3:08Where Shared Components Should Live
- 4:21Six Principles for Better Shared Components
- 5:51Layered Extensibility: Make the Easy Path Easy
- 7:18Real-World Example: Atlassian Navigation
- 9:36Layered Extensibility Beyond the Front End
- 12:18Avoid the "Homework Car" Anti-Pattern
- 13:20Be Opinionated & Include Batteries
- 15:13Always Provide an Escape Hatch
- 16:26Keep Shared Components Maintainable
- 18:20Building a Healthy Component Ecosystem
- 20:37Key Takeaways & Final Thoughts
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