Retool lets teams build internal tools quickly without extensive coding. It speeds up development and reduces resource costs for companies needing fast, functional internal tools. What if you want another tool that has a drag-and-drop interface, and enough flexibility to create dashboards, CRMs, and admin panels efficiently? Here are top alternatives to Retool that you should consider. Let’s explore them.

UXPin Merge is perfect for creating polished, customer-facing applications with minimal design handoff issues. By bridging design and code, the tool enhances collaboration, speeds up development, and maintains design consistency across all project stages. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

UXPin Merge

UXPin Merge allows designers to create high-fidelity, code-based prototypes that feel like the final product, enhancing collaboration with developers and ensuring faster, more accurate releases.

With access to pre-built and custom components, designers can mimic real user interactions, providing an authentic user experience. Once approved, the design’s auto-generated specs and production-ready code streamline the development process, saving time by reducing the need for translating designs into code.

Retool is tailored to data-driven workflows rather than full product design. UXPin Merge’s focus on production-quality prototypes makes it the superior choice for companies needing robust, design-to-development alignment for customer-facing applications.

Appsmith

Appsmith is a powerful alternative to Retool for building internal tools, particularly for developers seeking an open-source, highly customizable solution. With Appsmith, users can drag and drop components, connect to various data sources, and apply custom JavaScript, offering flexibility similar to Retool but with more control and adaptability.

Appsmith’s open-source nature allows teams to fully customize and self-host their applications, making it ideal for organizations that need control over deployments and advanced custom features.

Budibase

Budibase enables teams to rapidly create custom internal tools with interactive components and flexible data integrations. By leveraging pre-built templates and UI elements, teams can build high-fidelity prototypes that closely resemble final applications, improving collaboration and accelerating the release cycle.

Budibase connects the finished tool to databases, APIs, and other data sources, reducing the development time by simplifying data handling and minimizing the need for repetitive code—making it an efficient solution for fast, production-ready deployments.

Budibase stands out over Retool for teams looking for an open-source, self-hosted platform with more control over customization and deployment. Unlike Retool, which is more focused on data-driven internal tools, Budibase allows users to build internal apps with more flexibility, including custom workflows, form creation, and even user-facing portals.

Additionally, Budibase’s open-source foundation makes it adaptable and cost-effective, giving organizations greater control over security, scalability, and extended custom features without vendor lock-in.

Bubble

Bubble empowers non-developers to build interactive, high-fidelity web applications without coding. By using its drag-and-drop editor and extensive library of components, teams can create prototypes and functional applications that mimic the final product experience. Bubble’s seamless data management and workflow automation allow for realistic interactions, speeding up the development process from idea to launch. 

Bubble applications are production-ready, offering a smooth path to deployment without needing translation from design to code, making it an ideal tool for quickly launching customer-facing applications.

UI Bakery

UI Bakery is a no-code/low-code platform that enables users to create custom internal tools and business applications using a visual interface. With a drag-and-drop editor, pre-built UI components, and integration capabilities for databases and APIs, teams can quickly prototype and build interactive applications that feel like the final product. 

UI Bakery simplifies deployment, supporting efficient handoffs and enabling production-ready applications with minimal coding, making it ideal for businesses that need rapid internal tool development without extensive engineering resources.

DronaHQ

DronaHQ empowers teams to build custom internal tools and applications with a no-code/low-code approach. With its drag-and-drop interface and a library of ready-to-use components, teams can create functional, high-fidelity prototypes that replicate the final user experience.

DronaHQ integrates seamlessly with databases and APIs, allowing teams to connect data sources directly and manage workflows efficiently. This streamlines the transition from design to production, making it ideal for rapidly deploying business tools that are user-ready without extensive back-end development.

Plasmic

Plasmic allows teams to create custom, high-quality front ends visually, combining the ease of no-code with full-code flexibility.

With a rich library of components, seamless integrations, and responsive design capabilities, Plasmic enables the rapid creation of pixel-perfect prototypes and applications that can connect directly to APIs and data sources. This approach streamlines collaboration and allows developers to add custom logic, making it ideal for quickly deploying production-ready web experiences or user-facing applications with full design control.

Which Retool alternative is best for collaboration?

For collaboration, UXPin Merge stands out as the best option. It allows designers and developers to work with the same production-ready code components, ensuring design consistency and reducing handoff friction. This makes it highly effective for teams that need to stay aligned on complex projects and design systems.

Plasmic also ranks highly for collaborative design, allowing designers and developers to work together on flexible front ends while accommodating custom code.

Retool and DronaHQ support collaboration for internal tools but primarily focus on data integration rather than design-development collaboration.

Which Retool Alternative is Best for UI Exploration?

For UI exploration, Plasmic and UXPin Merge are excellent Retool alternatives. Plasmic offers a flexible visual editor that’s ideal for exploring various UI layouts and designs with pixel-perfect control, making it especially useful for front-end designers seeking creative freedom.

UXPin Merge, while not no-code, allows designers to experiment with real production components, so it’s powerful for high-fidelity UI exploration within the constraints of a design system. Both tools enable iterative design, bridging creativity with functionality for more polished UI exploration.

Which is Best for Building Apps Quickly?

For building apps quickly, Bubble, and DronaHQ are among the best options.

• Bubble is great for non-technical users creating full web applications, including customer-facing ones, without writing code.
• DronaHQ offers a no-code/low-code environment with drag-and-drop components, making it a solid choice for rapid internal tool and business app development.

Each has strengths for specific app types, but all prioritize fast deployment.

Which Retool Competitor is Best for Rapid Prototyping?

For rapid prototyping, UXPin Merge, Plasmic, and Bubble are top choices:

• UXPin Merge: Ideal for high-fidelity prototypes using real code components, making it perfect for quickly testing realistic UI designs.
• Plasmic: Offers flexible UI exploration with a visual editor, great for quickly iterating on complex front-end designs.
• Bubble: Allows non-developers to rapidly build functional prototypes of full web applications, including both front-end and back-end elements, without coding.

Each tool supports fast iteration, enabling teams to test ideas and gather feedback quickly.

Why Should You Give UXPin Merge a Chance?

Considering tools like Retool, Appsmith, Budibase, or Bubble makes sense if you’re exploring options for building internal tools, dashboards, or simple apps quickly, especially when low-code or no-code functionality is needed.

While these tools can help teams create data-driven internal applications without extensive coding, UXPin uniquely empowers teams focused on high-fidelity, customer-facing product design. UXPin provides a streamlined design-to-development process using production-ready components, ensuring that prototypes match final product quality—ideal for polished, consistent user experiences. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post Retool Alternatives for 2025 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

A CRUD app is an application that performs the basic operations of Create, Read, Update, and Delete on data. That’s why it’s abbreviated into CRUD. The four operations represent the fundamental actions that can be performed on most database management systems and are essential for managing data within an application.

CRUD operations are most commonly used in cases where there is a need to manage and manipulate data. Its use spans across various industries, such as task management tools, booking and reservations systems, CMS platforms, and more.

Build an interactive prototype of admin panels, internal tools or any other user interface without a designer. Drag and drop pre-built components on the canvas and create beautiful interfaces that are ready for development. Discover UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is a CRUD app?

A CRUD application is a foundational software app designed to perform fundamental operations on data that form the basis of data management in various platforms, providing end users with the ability to interact, organize, and maintain data efficiently.

The acronym CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update and Delete — four actions that represents the core operations performed on data. In the acronym, “Create” involves adding new data, “Read” focuses on retrieving and displaying existing data, “Update” allows for modifying existing data, and “Delete” provides the capability to remove unwanted or obsolete data.

From content management systems to e-commerce websites, CRUD apps empower end users to interact, organize, and maintain data efficiently, forming the backbone of dynamic and responsive user experiences.

In essence, a CRUD app is the engine driving data interactions, enabling users to systematically and intuitively create, retrieve, update, and delete information. Understanding these fundamental operations is key to grasping the essence of data management in the digital realm.

What are 4 CRUD operations?

Here’s a breakdown of each CRUD operation:

1. Create Operation: Adding new data or records to the system. In a CRUD app, this could be, for example, creating a new user account, adding a new product to an inventory, or creating a new post in a blogging platform.
2. Read Operation: Reading or retrieving data from the database is the second operation. This includes fetching and displaying information. In a CRUD app, reading may involve displaying a list of all user accounts, showing details of a specific product or presenting a feed of posts.
3. Update Operation: Modifying existing data in the system to keep it current. This could include editing user information, changing the details of a product, or updating the content of a post.
4. Delete Operation: Removing unwanted or obsolete data from the system. This could be deleting a user account, removing a product from inventory, or deleting a post.

Breaking CRUD operations into distinct categories enhances front-end and back-end development practices by promoting clarity, modularity, reusability, and maintainability. It aligns with best practices in software engineering and contributes to the overall efficiency and robustness of a software application.

Each operation has a clear and specific purpose, making it easier for fullstack developers and stakeholders to comprehend the system’s functionality. They all can be implemented independently, allowing for easier maintenance, updates, and scalability.

What’s more, developers can create standardized functions or components for each CRUD operation, making it possible to reuse these elements across different parts of the application or in future projects.

Breaking CRUD into discrete operations also makes sense from the end user’s perspective. It allows for granular control over user permissions. Different roles or users can be granted or restricted access to specific CRUD functionalities based on their responsibilities and requirements.

Plus, CRUD operations help users easily grasp the distinct actions they can perform—create, read, update, or delete. It contributes to creating more user-friendly applications with clear and intuitive interfaces.

Breaking Down the CRUD Functions in Design

Based on the article by Tanya Anokhina, here are CRUD functions explanations for designers:

1. Create: This involves designing ways for users to add new content. Think of “+” buttons or “New” prompts that lead users into a smooth content-creation experience. Entry points should be easy to spot and accessible, and actions like autosave can prevent accidental data loss.
2. Read: Design readable displays of user-generated content, like lists or grids, with helpful previews or thumbnails. Users should be able to easily navigate, sort, or filter content to quickly find what they need.
3. Update: Updating or editing content should feel natural. Inline editing, undo functions, and clear “Save” and “Cancel” options protect users from making accidental changes. Consider modal dialogs for focused editing, especially for content that’s crucial or complex.
4. Delete: Since user-generated content is often valuable, design deletion workflows that help users avoid mistakes. Use “Recently Deleted” sections, confirmation prompts, or undo options to allow recovery of deleted data.

What are examples of CRUD apps?

Here are some common examples of CRUD applications that most of us heard about.

WordPress

• Type of application: Content Management System
• CRUD Operations:
  • Create: Authors can create new blog posts, pages, and media content.
  • Read: Users can read published content on the website.
  • Update: Authors can edit and update existing posts and pages.
  • Delete: Unwanted or outdated content can be deleted.

Salesforce

• Type of application: CRM System
• CRUD Operations:
  • Create: Sales representatives can create new customer records.
  • Read: Users can view customer profiles and interactions.
  • Update: Sales teams can update customer details based on new information.
  • Delete: Remove records for customers who are no longer relevant.

Shopify

• Type of application: eCommerce platform
• CRUD Operations:
  • Create: Merchants can add new products to the inventory.
  • Read: Shoppers can view product listings.
  • Update: Merchants can update product details, prices, and availability.
  • Delete: Remove products that are discontinued or out of stock.

Facebook

• Type of application: Social Media Platform
• CRUD Operations:
  • Create: Users can create new posts, upload photos, and add comments.
  • Read: Users can view posts, photos, and comments from their friends.
  • Update: Users can edit or update their own posts and profile information.
  • Delete: Remove posts, comments, or even the entire account.

Trello

• Type of application: Task Management Application
• CRUD Operations:
  • Create: Users can create new tasks, boards, and cards.
  • Read: Team members can view tasks, boards, and project progress.
  • Update: Users can edit and update task details, due dates, and assignments.
  • Delete: Tasks that are completed or no longer relevant can be archived or deleted.

What are the equivalents to CRUD operations?

In the world of web development, equivalents to CRUD exist with slight variations in function names and operations. For instance, SQL, a widely-used language for interacting with databases, refers to these functions as Insert, Select, Update, and Delete.

In NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra, and CouchDB), however, the expressions corresponding to CRUD operations are based on the specific database and its query language. For example, in MongoDB, you have insertOne, find, updateOne, and deleteOne.

Cassandra uses CQL (Cassandra Query Language) with INSERT INTO, SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE FROM. CouchDB employs HTTP methods like POST, GET, PUT, and DELETE.

While the specific names and syntax may vary across different databases and programming languages, the basic CRUD actions performed—creating, reading, updating, and deleting data—are essentially equivalent or analogous.

What are the steps of building CRUD apps?

Here is an overview of developing a crud app. The process involves prototyping phase – a very important step. Why is that? Prototyping ensures that the app will be a user-centric, reliable, and scalable solution that stands the test of time.

Gather requirements

Before you will build a Crud app, sit down with your team and decide what your app needs to do, outlining the specific information you intend to handle through each CRUD operation. This initial step lays the foundation for a robust and efficient application that seamlessly manages data interactions.

The easiest way of gathering requirements is design thinking workshop, a structured meeting during which you discuss what needs to be built and how, imagining user journeys and user requirements, as well as technical constraints and business objectives. In design thinking, user, business, and technical requirements are translated into desirability, feasibility, and viability.

Learn about design thinking workshops here.

Design a Prototype of a Crud App

An aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly interface is the face of any successful CRUD app. Leverage UXPin Merge to build prototypes that function like an end-product. Craft screens that cater to each CRUD operation—creation, reading, updating, and deleting data.

Why would you start with a design? The design-centric approach ensures that you can test the design before committing resources to building it. It allows you to check if what you want to design is intuitive to the end-users. What’s more, it helps you make sure you’re creating an app that you actually need. Lastly, it ensures that your design is feasible as UXPin Merge is a design tool for designing with real React components that will be building blocks of your app.

Set Up Database

Are you happy with your design? Great! The next step is installing and configuring a database based on your data model. Let’s say you picked MongoDB. It’s high time to install and configure it

Build API endpoints and Connect them with UI

Develop dedicated routes and controllers to facilitate smooth communication between the user interface and the database. Embed proper validation and error-handling mechanisms, ensuring the reliability and security of your app as it processes data through each CRUD functions.

Then, build a front-end based on your design and connect the interface with API endpoints.

Test your Crud app

Validate each CRUD operation extensively to ensure they function as anticipated. This testing phase also encompasses ensuring data integrity and addressing potential edge cases. Rigorous testing guarantees that your app is not only user-friendly but also robust, resilient, and capable of handling various scenarios.

Deploy the app

The final step in the journey of crafting a CRUD app is its deployment. Make your app accessible to the public by deploying it to a server or a cloud platform. This ensures that users worldwide can benefit from the functionality you’ve meticulously designed. Deployment is the culmination of your efforts, transforming the app from a local development environment into a valuable asset in the digital realm.

How tools like AI Component Creator streamline CRUD UI creation?

Tools like UXPin’s AI Component Creator can streamline CRUD app design by automating repetitive UI elements, such as buttons, forms, and modals, for creating, updating, and deleting data. This automation enhances prototyping speed, allowing designers to focus on user experience rather than manual component setup.

Additionally, the AI ensures that all CRUD components adhere to design system standards, maintaining visual consistency across the app. For designers, this means faster, more cohesive CRUD interfaces that are ready for real-world testing and deployment.

Build an interface of a CRUD app with UXPin Merge

Time to build your own CRUD app. Start by planning its interface. Use UXPin Merge to quickly assemble an interactive, fully functional prototype of a Crud app that you can test and show to other team members. Try a design tool that’s made with developers in mind. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post What is a CRUD App? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

ReactJS is the most popular front-end library in the world. The library’s component-based methodology allows the development team to build and reuse components throughout a project, resulting in less programming from scratch and faster development.

We’ve put together 15 React websites and web apps to demonstrate what’s possible with this versatile framework. We also showcase tools product developers use to achieve specific outcomes or optimize ReactJS website performance.

Use ReactJS throughout the product development process–from early-stage prototyping to final front-end development. UXPin Merge is a revolutionary design technology that allows you to bring React-based components to a design tool. Learn more about Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What Can You Build With ReactJS?

React developers use the framework for everything from simple landing pages and websites to complex games, social networking platforms, and enterprise applications. React’s flexibility and versatility make it the preferred choice for many projects, including responsive websites and cross-platform apps.

The component-based web development approach makes it easy for developers to build user interfaces and move elements around to make changes and iterate faster than using a standard HTML, CSS, and Javascript workflow.

React is written in Javascript, the most widely used programming language, so it’s relatively easy to learn and boasts one of the biggest developer communities in the world.

When you should and shouldn’t use React

React works best for single-page applications and complex web-based projects–for example, social media platforms, news publications, and SaaS products. Those sites handle a lot of data and interactions.

Don’t use React for native apps and small websites that don’t handle much data. Native applications and small websites are instances where you might want to choose a different front-end technology. For example, React Native and Flutter are better for native iOS and Android apps. 

15 Examples of React Websites

We’ve included a mix of enterprises, startups, SaaS companies, small businesses, and others that use React in their tech stack. This list demonstrates React’s versatility for websites and web applications built using the powerful Javascript library.

Facebook

Facebook is the most famous React website example because parent company Meta developed the front-end library in 2012 and still maintains it as an open-source project.

Meta initially used React for the Facebook newsfeed but now uses the library across its product ecosystem. React was a game changer for Facebook because when someone liked a post, only the component changed rather than a full page reload, resulting in significantly better performance and fewer resources.

Meta uses React Native–the mobile version of React–for Facebook, Facebook Ads Manager, and Oculus’ iOS and Android apps.

Repeat

SaaS platform Repeat uses NextJS for its website and web application. NextJS allows you to create fullstack web applications, extending what’s possible with “vanilla React.”

Repeat’s homepage is full of motion and immersive animations made possible by NextJS’s powerful features, like rending, routing, and asset optimization.

PayPal

PayPal uses a React version of Microsoft’s Fluent Design for its 60+ internal products. These products include a lot of dashboards and data visualizations necessary for daily operations.

PayPal also uses UXPin Merge, allowing the company’s design teams to prototype and test using React components. This code-to-design workflow bridges the gap between design and development, so designers and software engineers work with the same component library.

Netflix

Netflix uses React and React Redux for state management. According to the official Netflix Technology Blog, “React enabled us to build JavaScript UI code that can be executed in both server (e.g., Node.js) and client contexts.”

Performance is crucial for Netflix as users expect HD videos to load fast. Developers use the virtual DOM to reduce latency from live DOM manipulation. 

Netflix also uses React’s Component and Mixin APIs to “create reusable views, share common functionality, and patterns to facilitate feature extension.” This functionality enables Netflix to A/B test components to determine the best solutions during user testing.

Product Hunt

Product Hunt is another React/NextJS user. Like Facebook, Product Hunt must handle microinteractions for each post, including upvotes and comments.

Puma Campaigns

Gatsby is a front-end technology built on React which makes it possible to develop high-performing websites and landing pages. Puma uses Gatsby for its campaign landing pages, including this one for the Velocity running shoes.

Gatsby allows devs to build React websites and applications using popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Netlify, Drupal, and Contentful, to name a few, for content management. This framework gives developers the versatility of React with the convenience of their content team’s preferred CMS.

SEO is a big problem for single-page application frameworks like React and Angular. Gatsby helps to solve this problem with its SEO Component, which enables search engines to index the website’s content and individual pages.

Puma also uses React Native for its iOS and Android applications.

TeamPassword

Password-management startup TeamPassword uses a customized version of the MUI design system–an open-source React component library developed using Material Design used by many B2B enterprise and SaaS providers.

TeamPassword’s developers chose React as it was easier to maintain than their old framework. The 2-person engineering team also uses UXPin Merge, which allows them to import their React library from its private repository into UXPin’s design editor for prototyping and testing.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Association (BBC) was an early adopter of React and even hosted a workshop in 2015 introducing people to the front-end library and its capabilities.

In 2022, with the help of Vercel, the BBC rebuilt its website using NextJS and Vercel. The rebuild resulted in significant performance benefits, with HMR (Hot Module Replacement) reduced from 1.3s to 131ms–a staggering achievement for a website as large and complex as the BBC.

Airbnb

Airbnb uses React for some of its product ecosystems, including Airbnb.io, its open-source project famous for developing Lottie–an open-source animation tool for Android, iOS, and React Native mobile applications.

Airbnb.io is a website developed using Gatsby featuring the company’s blog posts and details about its open-source projects with links to the GitHub repos.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare migrated from Backbone and Marionette to React and Redux in 2015 to develop its cf-ui design system. The multi-brand design system serves Cloudflare’s internal and external websites and products.

Since Cloudflare had to rebuild its component library, the team focused on accessibility, creating three open-source projects in the process: 

• react-modal2,
• a11y-focus-store,
• a11y-focus-scope.

UberEATS

Uber uses React Native for its UberEATS web-based restaurant dashboard. The team needed to develop a web application restaurants could access via a tablet and decided to use React Native. The single-page web application communicates with three parties in the UberEATS marketplace and connects to restaurant receipt printers.

Uber also developed Base Web, an open-source design system for building ReactJS websites and web apps. The highly customizable design system boasts an extensive UI component library with theming capabilities.

Related content: Learn about design operations at Uber.

Shopify

Shopify uses React for its website and web application and React Native for its mobile applications. Developers can build React apps for Shopify using its famous Polaris Design System.

Skyscanner

Skyscanner is one of the most widely used travel websites, with over 40 million monthly visits. The website connects to hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels to show users trip data in seconds.

Skyscanner uses React and React Native for its website and product ecosystem. The company’s Backpack design system features an extensive UI library with web and native components.

Pinterest

Pinterest is another social media platform using React. The company’s Gestalt design system features components for its React web app and React Native mobile applications (iOS and Android).

Pinterest is another example where React provides massive performance benefits for single-page applications. The website’s famous infinite scroll uses lazy loading to display six columns of images and video with impressive speed.

Cuckoo

Cuckoo is a UK-based broadband supplier that uses React and NextJS for its website. The website has a fair amount of animations, including a large revolving sequence in the hero. These animations do not impact the website’s performance, a product of using NextJS.

Create React Website UI Fast

Build UI design 8.6x faster with UXPin Merge – a drag-and-drop UI builder that makes you use coded React components to create beautiful and fully interactive layouts fast. Then, copy the code off your design directly to Stackblitz or export it to any other dev environment. Start your free trial to test AI Component Assistant, pre-built layouts, and open-source libraries. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post 15 Examples of Reactjs Websites appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

There is no denying the immense popularity and practicality of React. For a long time, most web design was built with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. React brought a much-needed sigh of relief for developers with its ease of use. The reusable components, great developer tools, and extensive ecosystem are some of the most loved features of React.

Instead of the traditional approach of directly manipulating the DOM, React introduced a useful level of abstraction in the form of the virtual DOM concept. 

The library is being actively developed and maintained by React developers at the tech giant Facebook. This provides it with a much-needed edge over other frameworks and libraries.  Countless contributors in the JavaScript community also regularly contribute to refining and improving React. 

All these factors allow React to maintain its popularity among developers even though newer frameworks are constantly emerging and competing for recognition amongst frontend developers.

Design patterns not only speed up the development process but also make the code easier to read and As React continues to dominate the front-end development landscape, building scalable, maintainable, and reusable components is essential for any modern application.

We’ll explore 11 essential React design patterns that every developer should know, complete with practical examples and real-world use cases. Whether you’re working on a small project or a complex application, understanding these patterns will help you build more robust and efficient React apps.

Build prototypes with UI components from a Git repository, Storybook or through an npm. Bring the components to our design editor and create stunning layouts without designers. Request access to UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What are React Design Patterns?

React design patterns are repeatable solutions to commonly occurring problems in software development of React application. They serve as a basic template upon which you can build up the program’s functionality according to the given requirements. 

As a React developer, you will use design patterns for at least two reasons:

• React design patterns offer a common platform for developers
• React design patterns ensure best practices

Let’s explore what it means in detail.

Role #1: They offer a common platform to developers

Design patterns provide standard terminology and solutions to known problems. Let us take the example of the Singleton pattern that we mentioned above. 

This pattern postulates the use of a single object. Developers implementing this pattern can easily communicate to other developers that a particular program follows the singleton pattern and they will understand what this means. 

Role #2: They ensure best practices

Design patterns have been created as a result of extensive research and testing. They not only allow developers to become easily accustomed to the development environment but also ensure that the best practices are being followed.

This results in fewer errors and saves time during debugging and figuring out problems that could have been easily avoided if an appropriate design pattern had been implemented.

Like every other good programming library, React makes extensive use of design patterns to provide developers a powerful tool. By properly following the React philosophy, developers can produce some extraordinary applications.  

Now that you have an understanding of design patterns. Let us move on to some of the most widely used design patterns available in React.js. 

Why Do You Need React Design Patterns?

• Efficiency: Patterns allow you to create reusable components, reducing duplication and improving development speed.
• Maintainability: Structured patterns make code easier to understand and maintain, especially in large applications.
• Scalability: Well-structured components make it easier to scale your application as it grows in complexity.

1. Container and Presentational Pattern

The Container and Presentational pattern is one of the most popular in React applications. It separates the logic (state management) from the presentation (UI rendering), making components more reusable and easier to maintain.

Example:

// Container Component
class UserContainer extends React.Component {
  state = { user: null };

  componentDidMount() {
    fetchUser().then(user => this.setState({ user }));
  }

  render() {
    return <UserProfile user={this.state.user} />;
  }
}

// Presentational Component
const UserProfile = ({ user }) => (
  <div>
    {user ? <p>{user.name}</p> : <p>Loading...</p>}
  </div>
);

Use Case: The container manages data-fetching logic, while the presentational component only focuses on displaying the UI. This separation enhances maintainability and simplifies testing.

2. Compound Components

Compound components are a flexible pattern where multiple components work together as a single unit, allowing users to customize how child components are rendered within a parent component.

Example:

const Dropdown = ({ children }) => {
  const [isOpen, setIsOpen] = useState(false);

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => setIsOpen(!isOpen)}>Toggle</button>
      {isOpen && <div>{children}</div>}
    </div>
  );
};

const DropdownItem = ({ children }) => <div>{children}</div>;

// Usage
<Dropdown>
  <DropdownItem>Item 1</DropdownItem>
  <DropdownItem>Item 2</DropdownItem>
</Dropdown>

Use Case: This pattern is ideal for building complex UI components like dropdowns, modals, or tabs, where the parent controls the logic and the children define their content.

3. Higher-Order Components (HOCs)

A Higher-Order Component (HOC) is an advanced pattern for reusing component logic. It takes a component as input and returns a new component with additional functionality.

Example:

const withUserData = (Component) => {
  return class extends React.Component {
    state = { user: null };

    componentDidMount() {
      fetchUser().then(user => this.setState({ user }));
    }

    render() {
      return <Component user={this.state.user} {...this.props} />;
    }
  };
};

const UserProfile = ({ user }) => <div>{user ? user.name : "Loading..."}</div>;

const UserProfileWithUserData = withUserData(UserProfile);

Use Case: HOCs are commonly used for adding logic such as authentication, data fetching, or tracking user activity across multiple components without duplicating code.

4. Render Props

The Render Props pattern involves passing a function (or render prop) as a child to a component, allowing for dynamic rendering based on the internal state of the parent component.

Example:

class MouseTracker extends React.Component {
  state = { x: 0, y: 0 };

  handleMouseMove = (event) => {
    this.setState({ x: event.clientX, y: event.clientY });
  };

  render() {
    return (
      <div onMouseMove={this.handleMouseMove}>
        {this.props.render(this.state)}
      </div>
    );
  }
}

// Usage
<MouseTracker render={({ x, y }) => <p>Mouse position: {x}, {y}</p>} />

Use Case: Render props allow you to share logic and state between components in a flexible way, making them highly reusable and adaptable to different scenarios.

5. Hooks Pattern

React Hooks offer a modern way to manage state and side effects in functional components, replacing the need for class components.

Example:

const UserProfile = () => {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchUser().then(user => setUser(user));
  }, []);

  return <div>{user ? user.name : "Loading..."}</div>;
};

Use Case: Hooks like useState and useEffect simplify state management and side effects, allowing for cleaner and more concise functional components.

6. Custom Hooks

Custom Hooks are a powerful extension of the Hooks pattern, allowing you to encapsulate reusable logic and state management into functions.

Example:

const useFetchUser = () => {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchUser().then(user => setUser(user));
  }, []);

  return user;
};

const UserProfile = () => {
  const user = useFetchUser();

  return <div>{user ? user.name : "Loading..."}</div>;
};

Use Case: Custom Hooks allow you to reuse complex logic (such as fetching data) across multiple components while keeping the code clean and DRY.

7. Context API

The Context API is useful for passing data through the component tree without having to manually pass props at every level, solving the problem of “prop drilling.”

Example:

const UserContext = React.createContext();

const UserProvider = ({ children }) => {
  const [user, setUser] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchUser().then(user => setUser(user));
  }, []);

  return (
    <UserContext.Provider value={user}>
      {children}
    </UserContext.Provider>
  );
};

const UserProfile = () => {
  const user = useContext(UserContext);
  return <div>{user ? user.name : "Loading..."}</div>;
};

Use Case: Use the Context API when you need to share state (like theme or user data) across deeply nested components.

8. Controlled vs. Uncontrolled Components

In React, Controlled Components rely on React state to control form inputs, while Uncontrolled Components handle their own state internally.

Example:

// Controlled
const ControlledInput = () => {
  const [value, setValue] = useState("");

  return <input value={value} onChange={(e) => setValue(e.target.value)} />;
};

// Uncontrolled
const UncontrolledInput = () => {
  const inputRef = useRef();

  return <input ref={inputRef} />;
};

Use Case: Controlled components are ideal for form inputs where you need full control over the input’s value, while uncontrolled components are useful for simple use cases or when you need direct DOM access.

9. Portals

Portals allow you to render components outside the main DOM hierarchy, which is useful for creating modals, tooltips, or dropdowns.

Example:

const Modal = ({ children }) => {
  return ReactDOM.createPortal(
    <div className="modal">{children}</div>,
    document.getElementById('modal-root')
  );
};

Use Case: Use Portals when you need to render components in a different part of the DOM, such as modals that overlay the entire screen.

10. Lazy Loading

React.lazy allows you to lazy load components, improving the performance of your app by splitting the code into chunks.

Example:

const LazyComponent = React.lazy(() => import('./LazyComponent'));

const App = () => (
  <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
    <LazyComponent />
  </Suspense>
);

Use Case: Lazy loading is ideal for optimizing performance by loading components only when they’re needed, improving initial load times.

11. Error Boundaries

Error Boundaries catch JavaScript errors anywhere in the component tree, preventing the entire app from crashing and providing fallback UIs.

Example:

class ErrorBoundary extends React.Component {
  state = { hasError: false };

  static getDerivedStateFromError() {
    return { hasError: true };
  }

  render() {
    if (this.state.hasError) {
      return <h1>Something went wrong.</h1>;
    }

    return this.props.children;
  }
}

Use Case: Use error boundaries to catch and handle errors gracefully, ensuring your app doesn’t break entirely when an error occurs.

5 Books for Learning React Design Patterns

To deepen your understanding of React design patterns and improve your skills, there are several highly recommended books:

1. “Learning React” by Alex Banks and Eve Porcello – A great introduction to React, this book covers React fundamentals and goes into design patterns such as functional components, hooks, and higher-order components. It’s a perfect starting point for anyone looking to understand the core principles of React.
2. “React Design Patterns and Best Practices” by Michele Bertoli – Focuses specifically on design patterns in React, exploring key patterns like presentational and container components, higher-order components, and render props. It also offers guidance on structuring and organizing large applications for scalability.
3. “Fullstack React: The Complete Guide to ReactJS and Friends” by Anthony Accomazzo et al. –This comprehensive guide walks you through React from the basics to more advanced topics, including React patterns. It’s a practical resource with plenty of code examples that focus on building full-stack React applications.
4. “Mastering React” by Adam Horton and Ryan Vice – Aimed at intermediate to advanced React developers, this book delves into advanced React concepts and design patterns, focusing on performance optimization, state management, and testing.
5. “JavaScript Patterns” by Stoyan Stefanov – While not solely focused on React, this book is a great resource for learning JavaScript design patterns that are applicable in React development, such as the module pattern, the factory pattern, and the singleton pattern.

Best Courses for React Design Patterns

1. Udemy

React: The Complete Guide (incl Hooks, React Router, Redux) by Maximilian Schwarzmüller

This course has over 400,000 students, with high ratings (4.7/5 stars). It’s widely recommended because it offers comprehensive coverage of React, including fundamentals and design patterns. Many developers cite this course as their go-to for learning React deeply and broadly. Plus, Maximilian is a well-respected instructor in the web development community.

2. Egghead.io

Advanced React Component Patterns by Kent C. Dodds

Kent C. Dodds is a well-known expert in the React ecosystem and a contributor to the React community. His courses on Egghead.io are often praised for being focused, concise, and covering advanced topics like compound components, render props, and hooks. His practical, real-world approach makes this course one of the most recommended for developers looking to master React design patterns.

3. Frontend Masters

Intermediate React by Brian Holt

Brian Holt is another highly respected instructor. His Frontend Masters courses are known for their deep dive into modern React practices, including patterns like hooks and state management. Developers frequently recommend this course because it bridges the gap between beginner and advanced React knowledge, with a focus on scalable, maintainable code.

Use Most Common React Design Patterns

React has proven to be a highly popular library. The community is among the fastest-growing developer communities online.

You will also find lots of useful web development resources available online that make it easy to learn react.js and adapt to it.

The power of React is due to its amazing features and the robust architecture that it offers. One of the most prominent and widely loved features of React is its design patterns.

Design patterns are in fact what gives this library its extraordinary practicality and usefulness. They make code optimization and maintenance easier.

They allow developers to create apps that are flexible in nature, deliver better performance, and produce a codebase that is easier to maintain.

We have discussed a few popular React design patterns like stateless functions, render props, controlled components, conditional rendering, and react hooks. 

However, it must be noted that react design patterns are not just limited to these patterns and there are several different design patterns that you can implement. Once you get familiar with the usage of the common design patterns, it will become easier to graduate to others. 

Build React-Based Prototypes with UXPin Merge

Capturing the true essence of React application development can be made easier by the use of the right technology. With UXPin Merge, you use React code components in UXPin to build powerful prototypes. You can easily put together code-based prototypes that are pure code. Try it for free.

The post The Best React Design Patterns You Should Know About in 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Modern websites and apps rely on front-end frameworks to develop, maintain, and scale user interfaces. React’s Javascript library is arguably the most popular front-end framework with many component libraries to build digital products.

We’re going to explore the top React UI libraries and how to choose the right one for your next project.

With UXPin Merge, you can sync any React component library and assemble production-ready layouts super fast. Check out the build-in MUI, Ant design, and React Bootstrap components that are available for free in UXPin’s editor. Drag and drop them on the canvas and simplify React UI design. Try UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is React Component library?

A React component library is a collection of pre-built UI components specifically designed for use with React applications. These libraries contain reusable components that cover a wide range of UI elements, such as buttons, forms, modals, navigation bars, cards, and more.

React component libraries aim to streamline the development process by providing ready-made components that adhere to best practices in terms of design, accessibility, and functionality.

What to consider when choosing a React component library

Below are six things to consider when choosing a React library for your next project. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and some of these factors may not apply to the product you’re building. 

1. Popularity

GitHub’s star rating allows you to quickly compare each React UI library’s popularity. The weekly downloads on npm also show how many people use the component library. Generally speaking, a React library’s popularity means it’s well established and serves its purpose.

2. Issues

Like star rating, a library’s GitHub issues can tell you a lot about its popularity and how well it’s maintained. Even if the library has minimal issues, do any of these affect the product you’re trying to build? 

3. Documentation & Support

Documentation is an important consideration when choosing a React UI library. You want to avoid running to Stack Overflow every time you run into trouble or want to know how to use specific components. Good documentation is updated regularly and gives you a comprehensive understanding of the library.

You also want to know if the React library has support directly from the creators or via a dedicated community forum. There are times when you need expert advice to overcome challenges. The ability to reach out for help (even if that means paying) is crucial to get issues sorted quickly and keep the project moving.

4. Customization

One of the downsides to using a component library is its constraints and lack of customization. For some projects, customization isn’t a factor, but if you’re looking to develop a unique UI, the ability to build your own design system is vital.

Explore the library’s documentation to see if they offer instructions for customizing the components and how easily you can achieve your desired results.

5. Browser or Device Compatibility

Depending on the app you’re designing, you’ll want to know the component library’s browser and mobile compatibility. The quickest way to research browser/device compatibility is by searching GitHub’s issues or Stack Overflow.

6. Accessibility

Accessibility is a time-consuming but necessary consideration for digital product design. If a React library hasn’t considered accessibility when designing components, then it’s something you’re going to have to do yourself, which takes us back to points 3 and 4–documentation and customization.

Which is the best React component library?

The best React component library for your project depends on your specific needs and preferences. It’s recommended to evaluate each library based on factors such as documentation quality, community support, active development, and alignment with your project requirements before making a decision.

Comparing the libraries involves assessing various aspects such as design philosophy, component offerings, theming capabilities, documentation, community support, and ecosystem. Take Material-UI (MUI) and Ant Design as examples.

Material-UI provides a comprehensive set of React components following the Material Design system. It includes components like buttons, cards, forms, navigation, and more, with a wide range of customization options.

Ant Design offers a rich collection of components tailored for enterprise applications, including layouts, forms, navigation, data display, and more. It provides components specific to data visualization and business logic.

5 React Component Libraries

These are our five best React UI libraries for 2024.

Note: Information regarding GitHub stars and NPM downloads are accurate as of March 2024.

MUI (Material-UI)

• GitHub Stars: 91.3k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 3.4M
• Official website: mui.com

MUI is one of the most comprehensive and widely used React component libraries. The library is built on Google’s Material Design UI, one of the most extensive UI kits in the world.

MUI – Components

MUI has a massive component library for designers to build everything from mobile and web applications, websites, and even wearable apps. 

MUI Core features fundamental UI components you see in everyday digital products, while MUI X offers a list of advanced React components for building complex user interfaces, like data tables, data pickers, charts, and more.

For those of you who would like to try design with MUI code components, sign up for a UXPin trial and get 14-day access to UXPin. Read more about MUI 5 Kit in UXPin.

MUI – Theming & Customization

One of MUI’s biggest appeals is the ability to theme and customize components. Designers can use MUI as a foundation to scale designs fast but also adapt the library to build a custom design system for their product or organization.

Designers can also take advantage of Material Design and MUI’s comprehensive guidelines to avoid usability issues when customizing components.

MUI also has a template marketplace to purchase React theme templates for dashboards, eCommerce websites, landing pages, and more.

MUI – Documentation

MUI’s documentation is as detailed and comprehensive as its component library. Its curators have taken great care to provide designers and developers with step-by-step instructions and guidelines for installation, usage, customization, accessibility, and more.

There are also tons of videos on YouTube from MUI’s large community of users and contributors offering best practices, tutorials, tips and tricks, how-to guides, and more.

Where to get MUI components from?

You can get MUI components from the following sources:

1. UXPin’s Built-In MUI Kit: Access pre-built MUI components directly in the UXPin Editor.
2. MUI Website: Download components and get design inspiration from the official MUI library.
3. AI Component Creator: Use UXPin’s AI tool to generate custom MUI components from text prompts or images.

These options provide flexibility whether you need ready-made components or custom-coded solutions.

How to generate MUI components with AI?

You can use AI to generate MUI components that you need. The AI Component Creator by UXPin is an advanced tool that helps designers generate fully coded UI components from images, text prompts, or existing elements. It supports React-based libraries like MUI.

By leveraging AI, this tool bridges the gap between design and development, streamlining workflows and eliminating the need for manual coding. It’s perfect for creating consistent, scalable UI components in seconds.

To generate MUI components using UXPin’s AI Component Creator:

1. Get an OpenAI API Key from the OpenAI website.
2. Enable the AI Component Creator by contacting UXPin support if you have the Merge AI plan or Merge enabled.
3. Open the AI Component Creator from the Editor’s Quick Tools panel.
4. Paste your API key in the Settings tab.
5. In the Prompt tab, write a description of the component you want or upload an image.
6. Select MUI as your library, and let the AI generate your MUI component!

For more details, visit the documentation.

React-Bootstrap

• GitHub Stars: 22.2k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 1.3M
• Official website: react-bootstrap.github.io

Founded in 2011, Bootstrap is one of the oldest and most popular open-source CSS frameworks for websites and web applications. Bootstrap was one of the first CSS frameworks to prioritize mobile-first web development, allowing designers to build and scale responsive websites quickly.

React-Bootstrap replaced Bootstrap Javascript while ditching resource-heavy dependencies like JQuery to build a comprehensive but simplistic React component library.

React-Bootstrap – Components

If you’re familiar with Bootstrap, then you’ll instantly recognize React-Bootstrap’s generic-looking component library. Like its CSS predecessor, React-Bootstrap features UI components that favor web design rather than mobile applications.

React-Bootstrap – Theming & Customization

React-Bootstrap is very generic with minimal styling, making it easy for designers to tweak and customize. Bootstrap’s defined classes and variants make it easy to select and customize components using CSS.

Due to Bootstrap’s long history and wide usage, you can find tons of free and premium React-Bootstrap themes and templates for everything from admin dashboards to multiple purpose websites, eCommerce, landing pages, and more.

React-Bootstrap – Documentation

React-Bootstrap has excellent documentation, albeit not as detailed and comprehensive as MUI. React-Bootstrap’s simplicity and naming convention make it one of the easiest React libraries to understand, use, and customize.

Bootstrap is also featured extensively on Stack Overflow, so you’ll likely find answers to most issues. There are also loads of blogs and YouTube videos offering advice, tutorials, design projects, and more.

Where to Get React-Bootstrap Components

You can get React-Bootstrap components from the following sources:

1. UXPin’s Built-In React-Bootstrap Kit: Access pre-built React-Bootstrap components directly within the UXPin Editor.
2. React-Bootstrap Website: Explore and download components from the official React-Bootstrap library.
3. AI Component Creator: Use UXPin’s AI tool to generate custom React-Bootstrap components from text prompts or images.

These options provide flexibility, whether you need ready-made components or custom AI-generated solutions.

How to Generate React-Bootstrap Components with AI

You can leverage AI to create React-Bootstrap components easily with UXPin’s AI Component Creator. This tool converts images, text prompts, or static elements into fully coded React-Bootstrap components, simplifying the design-to-development process.

To generate React-Bootstrap components:

1. Get an OpenAI API Key from the OpenAI website.
2. Enable the AI Component Creator by contacting UXPin support if you have the Merge AI plan or Merge enabled.
3. Open the AI Component Creator from the Editor’s Quick Tools panel.
4. Paste your API key in the Settings tab.
5. In the Prompt tab, write a description of the component you want or upload an image.
6. Select React-Bootstrap as your library, and let the AI generate your component!

For more details, visit UXPin’s AI Component Creator documentation.

Semantic UI React

• GitHub Stars: 13.2k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 253k
• Official website: react.semantic-ui.com

Semantic UI React is a popular alternative to React-Bootstrap. Like React-Bootstrap, Semantic UI started as an open-source CSS framework that its contributors used to build React components.

Semantic UI React – Components

Semantic UI React offers an extensive range of UI components for websites and web applications. The components provide cleaner, more modern styling than Bootstrap while remaining minimalist and simplistic.

Semantic UI React uses the FontAwesome icon set, including over 1,600 free icons and 7,864 Pro (paid).

Semantic UI React – Theming & Customization

Semantic UI uses an intuitive, straightforward naming convention that makes it easy to customize components. The documentation also provides a step-by-step guide for theming with Semantic UI React. Unlike MUI and React-Bootstrap, Semantic has very few template options. 

Semantic UI React – Documentation

Semantic UI React’s interactive documentation provides you with CodeSandbox examples to inspect the code and play around with components. 

The docs also allow you to switch between an example, code, and props to visualize the component from multiple angles.

Ant Design (AntD)

• GitHub Stars: 89.9k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 1.2M
• Official website: ant.design/docs/react/introduce

Ant Design (AntD) is another popular, widely used React component library developed by Ant Group–parent company to Alibaba, China’s biggest online marketplace. Like MUI, AntD offers a vast component library for both web and mobile applications.

AntD is the only React library featured in this article that uses TypeScript – a form of Javascript.

Ant Design – Components

AntD has a massive component library for desktop and mobile, including UI patterns like infinite scroll and pull-to-refresh for mobile devices. Ant Design ProComponents offers a range of advanced React UI elements ( similar to MUI X) for building complex interfaces.

You can also find a vast library of pre-made templates and scaffolds to kick start your project and build UIs much faster.

Ant Design – Theming & Customization

AntD uses design tokens or variables for devs to customize and theme components. The UI library uses Less and provides a complete list of all AntD variables in GitHub.

Ant Design – Documentation

AntD’s comprehensive documentation provides step-by-step instructions for using and customizing. You can also inspect each component in CodeSandBox, CodePen, or StackBlitz.

Where to Get Ant Design Components

You can get Ant Design components from the following sources:

1. UXPin’s Built-In Ant Design Kit: Access pre-built Ant Design components directly within the UXPin Editor.
2. Ant Design Website: Download components and explore design inspiration from the official Ant Design library.
3. AI Component Creator: Use UXPin’s AI tool to generate custom Ant Design components from text prompts or images.

These options allow you to choose between ready-made components or custom AI-generated solutions to meet your project needs.

How to Generate Ant Design Components with AI

You can easily generate Ant Design components using UXPin’s AI Component Creator. This tool leverages AI to convert images, text prompts, or static elements into code-backed Ant Design components—eliminating manual coding and streamlining design-to-development workflows.

To generate Ant Design components:

1. Get an OpenAI API Key from the OpenAI website.
2. Enable the AI Component Creator by contacting UXPin support if you have the Merge AI plan or Merge enabled.
3. Open the AI Component Creator from the Editor’s Quick Tools panel.
4. Paste your API key in the Settings tab.
5. In the Prompt tab, write a description of the component you want or upload an image.
6. Select Ant Design as your library, and let the AI generate your component!

For more details, visit UXPin’s AI Component Creator documentation.

Chakra UI

• GitHub Stars: 36.4k
• Weekly NPM Downloads: 523K
• Official website: chakra-ui.com

Chakra UI is a Nigerian-based React component library founded by Segun Adebayo. You can choose between Chakra’s free component library or Chakra UI Pro, which offers pre-made complex UI components to build interfaces faster.

Chakra UI – Components

Chakra UI’s component library caters to web-based applications and websites. The library offers the choice between TypeScript or Javascript React components, depending on your preference. Chakra’s designers follow WAI-ARIA standards, so every element is accessible.

The stylish UI components look similar to Semantic UI, with dark and light options available.

Chakra UI – Theming & Customization

Chakra’s designers created the UI library to be fully customized using variables to meet product and brand requirements. Charka also integrates with Create React App, Framer Motion, React Hook Form, and React Table to extend the library’s usage and customization.

Chakra UI – Documentation

Chakra UI has excellent documentation with guides, video tutorials, examples, FAQs, links to connect with core team members, and an active Discord community. 

Chakra’s users are extremely passionate and enthusiastic about the React library, and there’s always someone to connect with to ask questions.

Design Using React Components With UXPin Merge

One of the challenges of using a React library is that only few tools allow you to design UIs with real components. UXPin Merge allows you to assemble layouts with React components from Git repo, Storybook, or npm. See how it works. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post 5 Best React Component Libraries of 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Storybook has become THE DevOps tool for developing and maintaining design systems. The platform’s excellent documentation, intuitive UI, built-in testing, and collaborative features make it the perfect tool for building and releasing components.

Understanding how Storybook works can help designers collaborate with front-end devs better and leverage the platform’s features to improve prototyping and testing.

One of Storybooks best features for design teams is its ability to sync a component library with UXPin using Merge technology. Merge creates a drag-and-drop design environment for assembling layouts fast. Discover UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Storybook?

Storybook is an open-source tool for building, developing, and testing UI components in isolation. It provides a dedicated environment where designers and developers can create, preview, and document components without dealing with the complexities of integrating business logic or data. This isolation allows teams to focus on designing UIs, exploring edge cases, and ensuring consistency across projects.

Storybook integrates with various tools, making it a versatile solution for component-based workflows in React, Vue, and Angular—ideal for teams using UXPin to build comprehensive design systems.

Why Do Devs use Storybook for Design Systems?

These are a few reasons why Storybook Design Systems are so popular among developers.

Reason #1: Developing and testing components in isolation

Storybook enables engineers to develop UI components in isolation. This development workflow is great for design systems and component-driven front-end frameworks like React–which many organizations use for their component libraries.

Before Storybook, engineers would use sandbox platforms like CodePen and CodeSandbox to build and test components in isolation. Storybook offers this sandbox-style development environment with an intuitive user interface for engineers and stakeholders to view, test, and approve UI elements. They can also combine components and build little prototype patterns for testing.

Reason #2: Quality Assurance

Developing in isolation also benefits design system quality assurance. Engineers can invite designers, product managers, and other stakeholders to test and submit feedback on new UI elements before release.

Reason #3: Documentation

Documentation is crucial for component libraries, but it’s often the last thing anyone wants to think about because it’s time-consuming.

Storybook’s DocsPage is a “zero-config default documentation” that automates basic doc creation. Product and engineering teams can expand this documentation to create usage and guideline information.

Reason #4: Single source of truth

Managing the codebase for cross-platform applications is challenging. Storybook provides a single source of truth for testing components and patterns for each platform from a centralized environment.

This centralized environment maximizes consistency, as engineers can view components and patterns side-by-side and collaborate with developers responsible for each platform–iOS, Web, Android, etc.

Reason #5: Accessibility

Storybook’s A11y Accessibility add-on enables engineers to automate accessibility testing. The add-on creates a new Accessibility tab for each element showing WCAG standards in three categories:

• Violations: accessibility issues to resolve
• Passed: standards met
• Incomplete: A checklist of accessibility to-dos

How Do Devs Work With a Design System in Storybook?

Storybook’s docs outline a standard five-step design system workflow:

1. Build
2. Document
3. Review
4. Test
5. Distribute

Build Storybook Design System

Once engineers have set up Storybook and connected to a GitHub repository, they begin developing each component and its variants. For example, a button might have several states, sizes, types, etc.

During the build process, engineers can install Storybook add-ons to automate workflows, integrate with other tools, or enhance the Storybook environment.

Document Storybook Design System

Engineers can add comments to components during the build process to enrich the automatically generated documentation. This example from Storybook’s docs demonstrates how these comments appear in your Storybook UI.

This documentation is crucial for the next step, Review, because it shows stakeholders how front-end developers interpret designs and what each ‘prop’ represents.

Review Storybook Design System

The component is now staged and ready to be promoted to the design system. Engineers can invite designers, product managers, and other stakeholders to review the element to ensure it meets interactive and aesthetic expectations.

Traditionally, engineers would have to create a staging environment or meet with stakeholders to present the component. With Storybook, it’s as easy as visiting a website, making the review process more accessible. Stakeholders can log in on their own time, interact with the component, read the docs, and leave feedback.

If there are any changes, engineers may iterate steps one to three until the new components meet all stakeholder’s expectations.

Test Storybook Design System

Jest and Playwright power Storybook’s framework-agnostic testing. When engineers commit the component, Storybook tests its code to ensure there are no programming errors, including:

• Visual tests (visual regression tests): creates screenshots of every commit and compares them to catch UI inconsistencies.
• Accessibility tests: runs code against WCAG standards and reports any issues.
• Interaction tests: checks interactivity and states to ensure there are issues with links or functionality.
• Test coverage: examines code against industry standards, including conditions, logic branches, functions, and variables.
• Snapshot tests: identifies markup changes by comparing rendered code to the baseline.

Distribute Storybook Design System

The final step is to update the design system package on GitHub. Once complete, it’ll automatically sync the changes to npm. Engineers can install the updated npm package to use the new component(s).

Syncing Design With Storybook Through UXPin Merge

If your design team works with UXPin Merge, these engineering changes will also be distributed to UXPin’s design editor and notify team members of the latest design system release.

UXPin’s Version Control allows designers to change to the latest release whenever they choose and switch to earlier versions of the design system.

How to Sync Storybook Design System with UXPin

1. Prepare Your Resources
   • Ensure you have access to UXPin’s Merge technology.
   • Obtain your Storybook URL (either public or private).
2. Integrate with UXPin
   • Open a UXPin prototype and go to the Design System Libraries.
   • Click + New Library and select Import Components from Storybook.
3. For Private Storybook
   • Install @uxpin/storybook-deployer:bashSkopiuj kodyarn add -D @uxpin/storybook-deployer npm install @uxpin/storybook-deployer --save-dev
   • Deploy using:bashSkopiuj kodnpx uxpin-storybook-deployer -t TOKEN -s path/to/your/storybook

For more details, visit UXPin Storybook Integration.

What is UXPin Merge?

UXPin Merge is a technology that bridges (or Merges) the gap between design and development. Organizations can sync a design system hosted in a repository to UXPin’s design editor so designers can use the same component library as engineers to build fully functioning prototypes.

Merge components are fully interactive and include React props (or Args for Storybook) defined by the design system, including colors, typography, states, sizes, etc. These props appear in UXPin’s Properties Panel so designers can adjust components to meet prototyping requirements while maintaining absolute consistency and zero drift.

Enhanced testing and stakeholder feedback

Merge prototypes look and function like the final product because they use the same components. For example, a button in Storybook will render exactly the same in UXPin, including interactivity and styling. 

Usability participants and stakeholders can interact with these UI elements and Merge prototypes like they would the final product, giving design teams accurate, actionable testing insights.

“It’s been so helpful for us to have these high-fidelity prototypes built with UXPin. We build high-fidelity prototypes much quicker, and we get immediate feedback after the session. If there’s something we can fix immediately, we make that change before the next participant and get feedback much faster than before.” Erica Rider – UX Lead EPX at PayPal, talking about how UXPin Merge enhances user testing.

Scaling component libraries with UXPin Patterns

Design systems evolve as products grow and scale. The design system team is constantly making changes and promoting new UI elements and patterns.

UXPin Patterns enables design teams to create new patterns for the design system–as one-offs or as a best new practice. Designers can combine UI elements (atoms and molecules) from the design system to create new patterns or use UXPin’s npm integration to import components from open-source libraries if the current library doesn’t support their needs.

Designers can save and share these patterns across the organization, so teams can continue prototyping while they wait for the DS team to follow governance procedures to develop and release the new component–following the five-step Storybook development process outlined above.

Stage four design system maturity with UXPin Merge

Iress achieved stage three design system maturity in 2017. For the next few years, the design system team searched for a design tool to take them to the next and final maturity level–Stage Four – Fully Integrated:

• Design in (no) code
• No design drift
• Consistent design
• Seamless (no) handoff

Merge solves these four design system challenges by default.

• Designers use ready-made components with styling and interactive properties–no designing from scratch. Drag and drop UI elements to design new products.
• No code development. Engineers install a package and copy prototypes that use the exact same UI library. UXPin renders JSX for each component, so engineers copy/paste to apply styling and interactivity.
• Drift is nonexistent when everyone uses the same component library (design and engineering teams) with the same constraints.
• Using the same components with built-in constraints ensures ultimate consistency across design teams.
• With Merge, there’s a seamless handoff because designers and engineers use the same single source of truth. Designers don’t have to explain UIs or provide endless documentation explaining their prototypes–they already look and function like the final product.

UXPin reduces the four stages of design system maturity to just two.

1. Design your library using UXPin’s design editor.
2. Convert designs to code components, add them to a repository, and sync back to UXPin using Merge. Iterate to scale.

Take your product development to the next level by Merging the two best design and engineering tools for design systems. Request access to UXPin Merge.

The post How Storybook Helps Developers With Design Systems? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Are you ready to elevate your design workflow to the next level? In this comprehensive tutorial, we’ll delve into the world of UXPin Merge, empowering you to seamlessly integrate your React app components into the UXPin editor for high-fidelity prototypes.

Gone are the days of static designs. With UXPin Merge, you can dynamically link your React components, ensuring that your prototypes are always in sync with the latest developments in your codebase.

Get ready to unlock the full potential of UXPin Merge – let’s dive in! If you want to get a personalized walkthrough of the tool, request access to UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is UXPin Merge?

UXPin Merge is a technology for designing with coded UI components that are backed with production-ready code. It’s part of UXPin – a code-based design tool for highly realistic and accurate prototyping. With this tech, you can grab all the specs, JSX code, and any other asset and hand them over for developer to make the entire product development workflow faster.

UXPin Merge tutorial – How to use this technology?

UXPin Merge technology works like a drag-and-drop UI builder. You take a component out of the design library in UXPin and put it on the canvas. Then, after you’ve done arranging the layout and setting up components props, you can copy a ready React code (or CSS code for Tailwind library) to your development environment or open it in StackBlitz.

You can build anything you like. From simple dashboards that automate your team operations to more complex, e-commerce stores which front-end is decoupled from the back-end. UXPin has a few templates and patterns to get you started.

We highly recommend you watch a video tutorial of how to use UXPin Merge presented by a real-life web developer, Rachel. She did a wonderful job of walking you through all the panels, functionalities, and features of Merge technology, and she also shows you how to do a design handoff with UXPin Merge.

Watch it on Youtube. Here’s the full playlist of UXPin Merge tutorial.

How to Use UXPin Merge on Trial: A Step-by-Step Guide

UXPin Merge allows you to design using code-backed components, bridging the gap between design and development by using components from your codebase in the design environment. With Merge, you can ensure consistency between design and production, making design-to-development handoffs seamless.

If you’re on a trial version of UXPin and want to explore Merge, follow these steps to get started:

Step 1: Sign Up for a UXPin Trial

1. Go to the UXPin website.
2. Click on Start Free Trial and create an account using your email address.
3. Once registered, you will be directed to your UXPin dashboard.

Note: Merge technology is available in the Advanced and Enterprise plans. During the trial, you should have access to Merge’s basic functionality.

Step 2: Set Up a New Project with Merge

1. From your dashboard, click on New Project.
2. Select Design with Merge Components.
3. Choose between:
   • Use Existing Libraries: This option allows you to access UXPin’s built-in component libraries (e.g., MUI or Ant Design).
   • Connect Your Repository: If you want to use your own code components, you can connect a Git repository.

For the trial, select Use Existing Libraries to explore the built-in options.

Step 3: Explore the Pre-Built Libraries

1. Once you’ve selected Use Existing Libraries, UXPin will provide access to pre-built component libraries like Material UI, Bootstrap, or Ant Design.
2. Browse through the component options available.
3. Drag and drop components onto your canvas to start designing your UI.

This is a great way to see how code-based components function in a design environment.

Step 4: Create a Prototype Using Merge Components

1. Drag a component, such as a button or input field, from the library onto the canvas.
2. Click on the component to open the Properties Panel on the right side.
3. Modify the component properties (e.g., colors, size, content) using the same props and configurations that developers would use in the codebase.

Because you’re working with real code components, any adjustments you make in UXPin reflect exactly how the component will behave in production.

Step 5: Test Interactivity and States

1. Select a component on the canvas, such as a button.
2. Click on the States button in the Properties Panel.
3. Add different states like hover, active, or disabled, and link them to interactions or triggers (e.g., onClick).
4. Preview your prototype by clicking the Preview button at the top-right corner to see how your interactions and states behave in real-time.

Step 6: Use Get Code Mode for Developer Handoff

1. Click on Get Code Mode in the top toolbar.
2. In Spec Mode, you can view all the details that developers need, including CSS properties, spacing, color values, and component details.
3. If you’re using your own component library, developers can copy JSX or React code directly from the prototype.

This ensures that what you designed in UXPin is exactly what will be built in production.

Step 7: Preview and Share Your Design

1. Click the Preview button to see your prototype in action.
2. Share the preview link with stakeholders, developers, or teammates for feedback and testing.

Tips for Using UXPin Merge Effectively

• Experiment with Pre-Built Libraries: During your trial, explore the built-in libraries to see how code-based components work. This will help you get a feel for how to integrate your own components in the future.
• Use Get Code Mode: Get Code Mode is your best friend for developer handoff. Make sure you understand how to access properties and details for each component.
• Test Interactions and States: Use interactions and states to create high-fidelity prototypes that mimic user flows and conditions. This helps you better understand the behavior of your components.

How to integrate your own components, step by step

UXPin Merge supports Storybook components and React components from open-source libraries.

We want to give more details and show you how easy it is to integrate a React-based library into Merge to design with code on a day-to-day basis. All that without learning how to code!

UXPin Merge allows users to import their existing custom React components in a seamless fashion to create interactive prototypes using real code, which is unlike anything else traditional design tools offer.

This eliminates the need for designers to manually maintain a “second” design system within their design tool and instead provides the entire team with a single source of truth. The result? The disconnect between designers and developers is gone when building digital products. 

We want to save you time so we’ve designed this tutorial to integrate Mozilla’s React Todo App example with Merge. After the integration, you’ll be able to use the app’s components to design an interactive Todo list prototype within UXPin!

Remember to start by requesting access to Merge – you can do it here. After the verification process and the setup, you’ll be ready to design with code! Also, don’t worry about integrating with GitHub – we don’t have any requirement of where the codebase should be located, so you can use whatever you want!

The components

The Todo app has three React components:

1. Form – create a todo item.

2. FilterButton – filter todos by their current state.

3. Todo – a todo list item.

These components are in the `src/components` directory and are outlined in the screenshot below:

When this tutorial is completed, a designer will be able to create a prototype with these components. Your real-world custom design system (DS) likely has many more than three components. However, the concepts we’ll illustrate in this tutorial should apply to your DS as well.

Set up UXPin Merge

To begin, fork then clones the following link https://github.com/mdn/todo-react. Then install our UXPin Merge NodeJS package, which includes our CLI.

1. Navigate into your project folder cd todo-react
2. Install UXPin Merge and It’s CLI NodeJS bundle with: yarn add @uxpin/merge-cli–dev
3. Ignore the UXPin Merge build directory with: echo ‘/.uxpin-merge’ >> .gitignore

A custom design system requires two additional config files:

1. uxpin.webpack.config.js
2. uxpin.config.js

UXPin typically doesn’t need to use your entire existing Webpack build process. We’ll use a more minimal and default build for UXPin. Create a uxpin.webpack.config.js file and paste the following code into it:

const path = require("path");
const webpack = require("webpack");
 
module.exports = {
    output: {
      path: path.resolve(__dirname, "build"),
      filename: "bundle.js",
      publicPath: "/"
    },
    resolve: {
      modules: [__dirname, "node_modules"],
      extensions: ["*", ".js", ".jsx"]
    },
    devtool: "source-map",
    module: {
      rules: [
        {
          test: /\.(s*)css$/,
          use: [
            {
              loader: 'style-loader'
            },
            {
              loader: 'css-loader',
              options: {
                importLoaders: 2
              }
            },
          ]
        },
        {
          loader: "babel-loader",
          test: /\.js?$/,
          exclude: /node_modules/,
          options: {
            presets: ['@babel/preset-env', '@babel/preset-react'],
          }
        },
      ]
    }
}

For components you want to use in UXPin Merge, you must specify their file directory in the uxpin.config.js file at the top of the directory of the repo. As you can see in the code snippet below, we’ve only added the ‘Form’ component src/components/Form.js  for now and will add the other components later in the tutorial. 

Create a uxpin.config.js and paste the following content into the file:

module.exports = {
  components: {
    categories: [
      {
        name: 'General',
        include: [
          'src/components/Form.js',
        ]
      }
    ],
    webpackConfig: 'uxpin.webpack.config.js',
  },
  name: 'Learn UXPin Merge - React Todo list tutorial'
};


Lastly, Babel-loader will be used by Webpack to create the app bundle. To install babel use the following commands: yarn add babel-loader –dev then yarn install .

CONGRATULATIONS👏 You’re all good to go and have the minimum configuration required to view the Form component.

Experimental Mode

Using the settings provided in `uxpin.webpack.config.js`, Experimental mode bundles your components and opens a browser window. You can lay out components in a similar fashion as the UXPin Editor. After Experimental Mode loads, drag and drop the Form component from the sidebar onto the project canvas:

We have the Form component but it lacks styling. For that, we’ll create a Global Wrapper Component.

Using a Global Wrapper Component to apply CSS styles

Just like your custom design system, this Todo app contains global styles. These are specified in the `src/index.css` file. All of our components need the styles specified in this file. We can load this file via a Global Wrapper Component. This component will wrap around every component we drag onto the UXPin canvas.

Create a wrapper file:

Copy and paste the following into `UXPinWrapper.js`:

import React from "react";
import '../index.css';

export default function UXPinWrapper({ children }) {
  return children;
}

The `import ‘../index.css’;` line ensures our CSS styles are loaded prior to rendering each component.

We need to tell UXPin to use this wrapper file. Add the following to uxpin.config.js:

wrapper: 'src/wrapper/UXPinWrapper.js',

Experimental mode should open a new browser window with a styled Form component:

Adding the FilterButton with a customizable name

Now we’ll work on adding the FilterButton to UXPin Merge. These buttons are displayed below the Form component:

Adding this component will be similar to the Form component. However, I’d also like to give designers the ability to specify the text that is displayed within the button. We’ll do that via the `prop-types` package.

Component propTypes are mapped to the UXPin properties panel when editing a component. The existing FilterButton component doesn’t use prop-types so let’s add this to `FilterButton.js`:

import React from "react";
+ import PropTypes from 'prop-types';

function FilterButton(props) {
  return (
@@ -15,4 +16,9 @@ function FilterButton(props) {
  );
}

+ FilterButton.propTypes = {
+   name: PropTypes.string
+ }

+FilterButton.defaultProps = {
+  name: 'Button Name'
+};

export default FilterButton;

Two of our three components are now working with UXPin Merge. We have one component remaining: the Todo component.

Adding the Todo component with a wrapper

We’re moving on to our final component: the Todo. These are displayed within the list of todo items in the UI:

When adding the FilterButton, we edited the FilterButton.js file to add propTypes. What if you want to isolate your Merge-specific changes and don’t want to modify the source code of your components? We can create a wrapper that is specific to the Todo component for this. It’s similar in concept to the Global wrapper component we used to apply CSS styles but will be specific to the Todo component.

Type the following:

mkdir -p src/components/merge/todo 

touch src/components/merge/todo/Todo.js

Copy and paste the following code into Todo.js. 

import React from 'react';
import PropTypes from 'prop-types';

// Import the original component
import TodoM from '../../Todo';

function Todo(props) {
  return <TodoM {...props}/>
}

Todo.propTypes = {
  /**
   * If `true`, the todo will be marked as completed.
   */
  completed: PropTypes.bool,

  /**
   * The name of the todo.
   */
   name: PropTypes.string,

  toggleTaskCompleted: PropTypes.func,
}

Todo.defaultProps = {
  name: 'Do Laundry'
};

export default Todo;

We’re importing the original Todo component as `TodoM` and returning this component in our newly defined `Todo` function. We specify propTypes just like we did with the FilterButton component on our newly defined `Todo` wrapper function.

Add ‘src/components/merge/todo/Todo.js’ to uxpin.config.js and restart using ./node_modules/@uxpin/merge-cli/bin/uxpin-merge –disable-tunneling. After Experimental launches a new window, click-and-drag the Todo component onto the canvas:

You’ll see the Todo component along with the default “Do Laundry” todo name. This default name is only applied when using Merge.

Pushing to UXPin

Until you push your design system to UXPin the components are only visible to you. To let your design team use these components we need to push the component bundle to UXPin. Creating and pushing a Merge design library requires two steps:

1. Create the library within the UXPin UI

1. Go to your UXPin account

2. Enter the UXPin Editor

3. Create a new library

4. Select the option import React components

5. Copy the Auth token (don’t share it with anyone and do not place it in any files checked into git repository. This token provides direct access to the library on your account.) The process looks like this:

2. Push the library via the uxpin-merge CLI

Using the token created from the previous stop, run the following from within the project repo:

./node_modules/@uxpin/merge-cli/bin/uxpin-merge push –token YOUR TOKEN 

Your design team can now access the Merge library.

Using the Merge library within UXPin

Now that the Merge design library has been pushed its time to test it out within the UXPin editor:

• Reload the UXPin Editor in your browser.
• Select the “Learn UXPin Merge” design system in the bottom left corner of the editor.
• Click and drag the components from the sidebar to the canvas.

You should have a solid looking prototype:

How does a designer hand off a prototype back to a developer?

Previewing and Exporting

Now that we’ve built a quick prototype in UXPin we’re ready to export it back to our app. We can preview the output and then use Spec mode to copy and paste the JSX code for our components.

Click the play button in the upper right corner of the editor. Once the preview loads click the “Spec” link at the top. You can now click on the components and view the JSX code to generate them in the right panel:

It’s great to push an initial version of our design system. However, you’ll likely need to push out quite a few updates over time.

Pushing an Update

The FilterButton has a “pressed” state to indicate the currently active filter. Looking at the live React app, here’s the difference between the pressed and not-pressed state:

Let’s add support for this state. Make the following change to `src/components/FilterButton.js`:

FilterButton.propTypes = {
-   name: PropTypes.string
+   name: PropTypes.string,
+   isPressed: PropTypes.bool
}

Commit the change to git and push to UXPin:

Merge components are automatically synced to the most recently pushed code. To show the latest, reload the tab showing the UXPin editor. Select a FilterButton. In the right panel of the editor you should see a new “isPressed” property.

Select it to activate this state:

Follow this same flow (git commit + uxpin-push) when you make future changes. Prototypes will automatically use the latest pushed version of components.

Speed up building your product by 8.6x

You’ve taken a React app and pushed its components to UXPin Merge. You’ve also learned how to push updates when you modify components or add new ones. Now your design team can use these components to create high-fidelity prototypes within the UXPin editor.

You can browse the source code for this project on GitHub. To learn more advanced Merge techniques see our Merge docs or reach out to us at hello@uxpin.com.

Don’t have UXPin Merge yet? First, remember to go through the process of requesting access to make the most of designing with code! Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Design with Code – UXPin Merge Tutorial appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

HTML and CSS are the core technologies behind every website, each serving a unique purpose. HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, provides the structure and content, laying out the framework for a webpage. CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is responsible for styling and layout, bringing your HTML to life with colors, fonts, and layouts.

Understanding the differences between HTML and CSS is crucial for any web designer or developer. In this article, we’ll break down these two essential languages and explore how they work together to create beautiful, functional websites. 

UXPin is a prototyping tool that leverages both HTML and CSS to help designers create interactive, code-based prototypes. Try UXPin for free.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is HTML?

HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the standard markup language used to create and structure content on the web. It acts as the backbone of all web pages, providing a framework that defines the layout and organization of a website. HTML uses a series of elements or tags to specify different parts of a webpage, such as headings, paragraphs, links, images, and lists. Each element tells the browser how to display the content on the page.

Developed in the early 1990s, HTML has evolved significantly, with the latest version being HTML5. This version introduced a range of new features and capabilities, such as improved support for multimedia, better semantic elements, and more powerful forms, enhancing both user experience and website functionality.

At its core, HTML is all about structure. For example, an HTML file starts with a <!DOCTYPE html> declaration, followed by the <html> tag, which encompasses the entire document. Inside the <html> tag, you’ll find the <head> and <body> tags. The <head> contains meta-information like the title and links to stylesheets, while the <body> includes all the visible content on the page.

Example of HTML code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>My First Web Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>This is my first web page using HTML.</p>
  </body>
</html>

In this example, the <h1> tag is used to create a heading, while the <p> tag creates a paragraph. These HTML elements are the basic building blocks of web pages, and they form the structure that CSS and JavaScript can later style and enhance.

Understanding HTML is crucial for anyone involved in web design or development. It’s not just about creating content but also about ensuring that content is well-structured and accessible to all users, including those using screen readers or other assistive technologies. Additionally, well-structured HTML helps search engines understand and index your content effectively, which is vital for SEO.

In summary, HTML lays the foundation for all web content, providing the essential structure that defines how information is organized and displayed. Whether you’re creating a simple webpage or a complex web application, mastering HTML is a fundamental step in building a successful online presence.

What is CSS?

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the language used to describe the presentation and design of a webpage. While HTML provides the structure and content of a webpage, CSS is responsible for its visual style, including layout, colors, fonts, and spacing. In essence, CSS brings HTML to life, transforming plain text into visually engaging content that enhances the user experience.

CSS was first introduced in the mid-1990s to address the limitations of HTML when it came to styling and design.

Before CSS, all styling had to be done directly within HTML, leading to repetitive and cumbersome code. CSS revolutionized web design by allowing designers to separate content from presentation, making it easier to maintain and update websites. The latest version, CSS3, has introduced advanced features like animations, gradients, transitions, and flexible layouts, enabling more dynamic and responsive web designs.

The core concept of CSS is its cascading nature, where styles are applied based on a hierarchy of rules and priorities. A simple CSS rule consists of a selector, which targets an HTML element, and a declaration block, which contains one or more declarations specifying the styling properties for that element.

Example of CSS code

body {
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  background-color: #f0f0f0;
}
h1 {
  color: #333333;
  text-align: center;
}

In this example, the body selector applies a default font and background color to the entire webpage, while the h1 selector styles all <h1> headings with a specific text color and alignment. This approach allows for consistent styling across a site and makes it easier to change the look and feel by simply modifying the CSS code.

CSS also supports different ways to apply styles: inline, internal, and external. Inline styles are applied directly within HTML elements, internal styles are defined within a <style> tag in the <head> section of an HTML document, and external styles are linked through a separate CSS file. External stylesheets are the most efficient way to manage styles across multiple pages, promoting cleaner code and easier updates.

By separating content from design, CSS empowers designers to create visually appealing and user-friendly websites without altering the underlying HTML structure. It also plays a crucial role in responsive web design, allowing pages to adapt to various screen sizes and devices. With media queries and flexible grid layouts, CSS makes it possible to design sites that look great on desktops, tablets, and smartphones alike.

In conclusion, CSS is an essential tool for web designers and developers, providing the means to control the visual presentation of a website. By mastering CSS, you can create more dynamic, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing web experiences that engage users and enhance the overall effectiveness of your site.

HTML vs CSS – 5 Key Differences

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are two fundamental technologies that work together to create and style web pages, but they serve distinct purposes and have different roles in web development. Understanding their differences is essential for anyone looking to build or design websites.

Purpose and Function

The primary difference between HTML and CSS lies in their purpose. HTML is a markup language used to structure and organize content on the web. It defines the elements of a webpage, such as headings, paragraphs, images, links, and lists, and establishes the framework for how the content is displayed in a browser.

In contrast, CSS is a style sheet language used to control the presentation and layout of HTML elements. CSS defines the visual aspects of a webpage, such as colors, fonts, spacing, and positioning, allowing designers to separate content from design.

Syntax and Structure

HTML and CSS also differ in their syntax and structure. HTML uses a tag-based syntax, where elements are enclosed in angle brackets (e.g., <h1>, <p>, <div>), and often come in pairs with opening and closing tags (e.g., <p>…</p>).

These tags provide the instructions for browsers on how to display content. CSS, on the other hand, uses a rule-based syntax. Each rule consists of a selector (e.g., p, .class, #id) that targets HTML elements, and a declaration block that contains one or more declarations defining the styling properties (e.g., color: blue; font-size: 16px;). This separation allows CSS to be more flexible and reusable, as a single style sheet can be applied to multiple HTML documents.

Dependency and Relationship

HTML and CSS have a complementary yet interdependent relationship. HTML can exist without CSS, but a webpage created solely with HTML would be plain and lack visual appeal. Conversely, CSS needs HTML to function, as it relies on HTML elements to apply styles.

Together, they create a complete and cohesive web page: HTML provides the structure and content, while CSS adds the style and visual enhancement. This separation of concerns is a key principle in web development, promoting clean, maintainable, and scalable code.

Implementation and Maintenance

Another key difference is how HTML and CSS are implemented and maintained. HTML is written directly within the HTML file of a webpage, making it integral to the content. CSS can be implemented in three ways: inline (within HTML elements), internal (within a <style> tag in the HTML document), or external (in a separate CSS file linked to the HTML document).

External CSS files are the most efficient way to manage styles across multiple pages, as they allow for centralized control over the design. This approach makes it easier to update and maintain the website’s appearance, as changes to a single CSS file can instantly affect the entire site.

Impact on User Experience and SEO

HTML and CSS also differ in their impact on user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). Well-structured HTML is crucial for accessibility and SEO, as it helps search engines understand and index the content of a webpage. Proper use of semantic HTML tags (e.g., <header>, <article>, <footer>) improves the accessibility of a webpage for screen readers and enhances SEO by giving search engines more context about the content.

CSS, while not directly affecting SEO, plays a vital role in user experience. It ensures that a webpage is visually appealing and responsive, adapting to different screen sizes and devices, which can reduce bounce rates and improve overall engagement.

How HTML and CSS Work Together

HTML and CSS are designed to work in tandem to create visually appealing and well-structured web pages. While HTML provides the foundational structure and content of a webpage, CSS enhances the visual appearance by applying styles to the HTML elements. This combination of structure and style is what brings a webpage to life, offering both functionality and aesthetics.

Separation of Content and Presentation

One of the core principles of modern web development is the separation of content and presentation, which is achieved through the use of HTML and CSS together. HTML focuses on defining the content and structure of a webpage using tags and elements. These elements outline where different pieces of content, such as text, images, and links, should appear.

CSS, on the other hand, is used to style these HTML elements, specifying how they should look and behave on the page. By keeping HTML and CSS separate, developers can maintain cleaner, more organized code, making it easier to update and modify either the content or the styling without affecting the other.

Applying CSS to HTML

CSS can be applied to HTML in several ways: inline, internal, and external. Inline CSS is added directly within the HTML element using the style attribute, allowing for quick and specific styling. Internal CSS is defined within a <style> tag in the <head> section of an HTML document, which applies styles to that specific page. External CSS involves linking an HTML document to a separate CSS file using the <link> tag.

External stylesheets are the most efficient method, especially for larger websites, as they allow for consistent styling across multiple pages and easier maintenance. For example, with an external CSS file, a single change in the CSS can be reflected on every page that uses that stylesheet.

Cascading and Inheritance

The “Cascading” in Cascading Style Sheets refers to how CSS rules are applied to HTML elements based on a hierarchy of rules and priorities. When multiple CSS rules could apply to an element, the browser determines which rules take precedence based on specificity, importance, and source order. This cascading nature allows for flexible and precise control over styling.

CSS also supports inheritance, where certain properties defined for a parent element are automatically passed down to its child elements, reducing the need for redundant code and making it easier to maintain a consistent design throughout a webpage.

Example of HTML and CSS Working Together

To illustrate how HTML and CSS work together, consider a simple example of a webpage with a header and a paragraph:

HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Welcome to My Website</h1>
    <p>This is a simple example of HTML and CSS working together.</p>
  </body>
</html>

CSS (styles.css)

body {
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  background-color: #f0f0f0;
  color: #333;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 20px;
}
h1 {
  color: #005f99;
  text-align: center;
}
p {
  font-size: 16px;
  line-height: 1.5;
}

In this example, the HTML file structures the content using <h1> for the header and <p> for the paragraph. The CSS file (styles.css) then styles these elements, setting the background color of the page, the font family, and the specific styles for the <h1> and <p> elements.

The HTML and CSS files work together seamlessly, with HTML providing the content and CSS enhancing the presentation.

Enhancing User Experience with HTML and CSS

By working together, HTML and CSS allow developers to create web pages that are both functional and visually engaging. HTML provides the semantic structure that search engines and assistive technologies rely on, improving accessibility and SEO. CSS enhances this structure with styling that makes the content more appealing and easier to navigate. Together, they ensure that web pages look good and perform well across a variety of devices and screen sizes, enhancing the overall user experience.

In summary, HTML and CSS are two complementary technologies that work together to build the modern web. HTML defines the content and structure of a webpage, while CSS provides the styling and layout, making the web visually appealing. By understanding how they interact, web designers and developers can create efficient, maintainable, and beautiful websites that meet both functional and aesthetic needs.

HTML vs CSS – Still Relevant in 2024?

Despite the rapid evolution of web development, HTML and CSS remain fundamental technologies in 2024. As the building blocks of the web, HTML structures content, while CSS handles styling and layout, making them essential for creating all websites and web applications. They have adapted well to new demands, with HTML5 and CSS3 introducing features like responsive design, advanced layouts, and multimedia support, ensuring compatibility with modern web standards.

HTML and CSS are also crucial for SEO and accessibility. HTML provides the semantic structure that search engines and assistive technologies rely on, while CSS allows for visual adjustments that enhance usability. Their universal compatibility across browsers ensures that websites reach a wide audience, making them indispensable tools in any developer’s toolkit.

Learning HTML and CSS is still a fundamental skill for web developers, as they form the foundation for more advanced technologies. As web development continues to evolve, HTML and CSS remain relevant, adaptable, and essential for creating interactive, user-friendly websites.

Build Code-Backed Prototypes with UXPin

In summary, while HTML and CSS are both essential for building and designing websites, they have distinct roles and functions. HTML provides the structure and content of a webpage, while CSS controls its presentation and style. Understanding these key differences allows web designers and developers to use both technologies effectively, creating web pages that are not only functional and accessible but also visually engaging and responsive.

UXPin uses real HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create interactive prototypes. When you design in UXPin, you’re not just creating visual representations of your interface; you’re actually building it with code. This means the elements you design in UXPin behave as they would in a real web environment, offering a true-to-life user experience. For instance, buttons created in UXPin will have actual HTML and CSS properties that you can inspect and modify. Try UXPin for free.

The post HTML vs CSS – Web Development Foundations in 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

As web development increasingly moves toward component-based architecture, two powerful technologies often dominate the conversation: React and Web Components. But when it comes to deciding between React vs Web Components, how do you know which is the best fit for your project?

React is widely used for building dynamic, interactive user interfaces, thanks to its extensive ecosystem and developer-friendly tools. Meanwhile, Web Components offer a framework-agnostic, native approach to creating reusable UI elements that work seamlessly across various platforms.

Supercharge your design and development process with UXPin Merge—an advanced drag-and-drop React UI builder that allows you to design with fully interactive React components, straight from the codebase. Enable live, functional prototypes and closing the gap between design and development. Request access to UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What are Web Components?

Web Components are a set of standardized web platform APIs that enable developers to create reusable, encapsulated, and self-contained custom elements. These elements can be integrated across various frameworks or even in standalone projects, making them highly versatile.

At their core, Web Components rely on three main technologies:

• Custom Elements: Allow you to define new HTML tags with their own behavior.
• Shadow DOM: Provides strict encapsulation of styles and content, ensuring components don’t interfere with other elements on the page.
• HTML Templates: Allow developers to pre-define reusable content structures, rendered only when activated by JavaScript.

Native Browser Support

One of Web Components’ greatest advantages is their native support in modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. Because they are part of the web standard, Web Components don’t require additional frameworks or libraries to function. They are ideal for projects that require cross-browser compatibility and reusable components across different environments.

Key Benefits of Web Components

• Reusability: Create once, reuse anywhere. Custom elements are perfect for building consistent UI components across multiple projects or teams.
• Encapsulation: Thanks to the Shadow DOM, Web Components ensure that styles and scripts are self-contained and don’t interfere with the broader application.
• Framework-Agnostic: Web Components work in any framework or even standalone projects, making them a flexible choice for long-term scalability.

What is React?

React is a popular JavaScript library developed by Facebook in 2013. It is used to build dynamic user interfaces, especially for single-page applications (SPAs). React’s component-based structure, combined with its Virtual DOM, makes it an excellent choice for applications where the user interface frequently changes.

React allows developers to create reusable components that manage their own state, making UI development simpler and more efficient.

Virtual DOM and Component-Based Architecture

React’s Virtual DOM optimizes UI performance by only re-rendering parts of the DOM that have changed, making it highly efficient in dynamic environments. React’s component-based architecture allows developers to create self-contained UI elements that can be easily reused and scaled across large projects.

Key Benefits of React

• Vast Ecosystem: With a huge range of libraries and tools, React’s ecosystem offers solutions for routing, state management, and more.
• Developer Tools: React comes with powerful debugging tools like React DevTools, making it easier to inspect components and track state changes.
• Community Support: React’s large community ensures a wealth of resources, plugins, and tutorials, keeping it on the cutting edge of front-end development.

Key Differences Between React vs Web Components

When comparing React vs Web Components, several factors come into play, such as how each technology functions, their architecture, and ease of use.

Native vs Library-Driven

Web Components are built into the browser as native APIs, meaning they work out of the box without requiring third-party libraries. In contrast, React is a JavaScript library that needs to be installed and imported into the project. While React offers more control and features, Web Components provide a more lightweight, framework-independent solution.

Encapsulation

Web Components leverage the Shadow DOM for strict encapsulation, ensuring that styles and content remain isolated from the rest of the application. In contrast, React uses CSS-in-JS or scoped CSS for styling, offering flexibility but sometimes leading to more complex styling systems in large applications.

Learning Curve

Web Components have a lower learning curve for developers familiar with standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. React, however, requires developers to learn new concepts such as JSX, component lifecycle methods, and state management libraries, making its learning curve steeper, especially for newcomers.

Performance

React uses the Virtual DOM, which improves performance by optimizing UI updates. This makes it ideal for applications that require frequent interface changes. Web Components, by contrast, interact directly with the native DOM, which can be slower for dynamic updates but is excellent for reusable, self-contained elements.

Ecosystem and Support

React’s extensive ecosystem and large community make it easy to find solutions for common development challenges. While Web Components have a smaller, growing community, React currently offers more resources, libraries, and plugins, making it a better choice for larger-scale projects.

When to Use Web Components vs React

Best for Web Components

Web Components are perfect for reusable elements that need to work across multiple projects and frameworks. For instance, if you’re building a design system or want to create UI elements that can be reused in different environments (React, Angular, or plain JavaScript), Web Components are the ideal solution.

They are also a great choice when you want to minimize dependencies and avoid locking into a specific framework.

Best for React

React excels in dynamic, data-driven applications like social media platforms, dashboards, and e-commerce sites. Its Virtual DOM ensures optimal performance for applications with frequent updates. Additionally, React’s vast ecosystem provides out-of-the-box solutions for tasks like state management (Redux) and routing (React Router).

Can You Use Web Components and React Together?

Yes! Web Components can be seamlessly integrated into React applications. Since Web Components are framework-agnostic, they can be treated like native HTML elements in a React project. This allows you to leverage the power of Web Components within a React-based UI, creating reusable, consistent elements across different platforms.

Conversely, while using React components inside Web Components is less common, it can be done with extra configuration.

Leverage Both React and Web Components with UXPin Merge

Whether you’re working with React or Web Components, UXPin Merge allows you to integrate real, functional components directly into your design environment. Designers can use a drag-and-drop interface to work with fully interactive React components, bridging the gap between design and development.

UXPin Merge ensures that your design system, whether built with Web Components or React, remains in sync with the codebase, making collaboration smoother and more efficient.

FAQs: React vs Web Components

Can Web Components be used with React?

Yes, Web Components are framework-agnostic and can be easily used in React applications as custom HTML elements.

What is the key difference between React and Web Components?

The key difference is that React is a JavaScript library requiring installation, while Web Components are native browser technologies.

Which is better for performance: React or Web Components?

React’s Virtual DOM optimizes performance for dynamic interfaces, while Web Components offer native browser interaction, making them better for reusable UI elements.

Choosing Between React vs Web Components

In the battle of React vs Web Components, the right choice depends on your project’s needs. Web Components are ideal for framework-agnostic, reusable elements, while React excels in dynamic, single-page applications with frequent updates.

However, combining both technologies is also possible, giving you the flexibility to build scalable, maintainable applications. To further streamline your process, try UXPin Merge, where you can design using real, interactive components from React or Web Components—supercharging collaboration between designers and developers. Request access to UXPin Merge.

The post React vs Web Components – Which Is Best for Your Project? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Today we’re sharing a guest post by Nick Moore that originated from collaboration with StackBlitz. Build code-backed prototypes and open them in StackBlitz in one click. Request access to UXPin Merge.

If you know how to ride a bike now and wait five years to ride one again, you’ll likely do just fine once you get back on. Bicycles are intuitive once you’ve learned how to ride them, and the basic design is unlikely to change over time and across bicycles. Reaching this level of usability in software is a little more difficult. 

Developers and designers often have to iterate too rapidly to reach bicycle-level reliability, but the intuitive experience of a user logging onto your app as if they were hopping on a bicycle is still something we should aim for—and design systems are the best way to do so. 

Even though it’s a high bar, this level of usability pays dividends. Users will adopt your app more readily (reducing churn), use it to greater effect (and feel the benefits), and strengthen your marketing efforts as engaged users recommend and amplify your app. 

Building and using a design system is one of the best ways to clear this high bar because design systems allow development and design teams to build and ship quickly while relying on standardized components that reduce friction and confusion. 

If you’ve ever encountered a bad design system, then you know the issue: A great one can lift you up, but a bad one can hold you back. 

The key is to treat your design system like a fully-fledged product that must remain effective and dependable over time. Without enough investment, design systems will only offer marginal help; with enough investment, design systems can provide consistency and stability while improving the pace of development.

Build responsive layouts fast! Try UXPin Merge, a technology that helps designers and developers create prototypes that are production-ready from the start. With our integration, open UXPin Merge prototypes in StackBlitz with one click. Request access to UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

Build design systems via iteration, not waterfall

For developers, design systems often feel like intrusions from the outside in. The design systems team might have their best interests at heart, but developers know that a bad process with good intentions will still likely lead to a bad product. 

After all, developers are well-versed in building a product and iterating over time, with user feedback informing every iteration. Any whiff of a waterfall or waterfall-esque process – where teams build a product in a silo and release it all at once – will make them justifiably skeptical. 

The solution is to focus on simplicity over comprehensiveness—at least at first—and build design systems bit by bit over time. By breaking the problem down, platform teams can build simple but essential features, prove the concept’s value, and get feedback that will inform the rest of the work. 

Slack provides a good example of this methodology. Back in 2016, millions of people were using Slack, and the company’s codebase was, according to Zack Sultan, Lead Product Designer at Slack, “built in a way that favored time-to-market over maintainability, consistency, or reusability.”

Like many young companies, Slack prioritized finding and pursuing product/market fit before building a codebase suited for scalability and reliability. Some companies encounter breaking issues first and decide to reassess potential tech debt issues, but Slack kept ahead of itself. 

“We never encountered a single breaking point in our user interface,” Sultan writes, “but rather a slowly cascading series of inconsistencies, quirks, and discrepancies.” The momentum of the business was growing, and as Slack added more product teams (and more products and features), components started to drift. 

(Source)

Questions soon abounded, Sultan writes. “What does a button look like in Slack? How do you build it? What words do you put in it? It was up to individual teams to make these decisions.”

Many companies correctly notice the problem and then build a mediocre solution by asking a group of developers to cook up a new design system in isolation. Some slowing down is to be expected as companies grow, but a design system developed this way can cause development to come to a screeching halt. 

Slack was wary of this potential and focused on finding ways to rebuild and standardize its components without slowing down overall development. “It was a bit like taking a car engine apart piece by piece, and cleaning, repairing, and replacing each part while it accelerated down the highway,” Sultan writes. 

(Source)

Like building a minimum viable product (MVP), design systems need to have core features built well and not many features built poorly. Early on, you’re looking to demonstrate value–not comprehensiveness–even if it means building one single component really well.

“Just one component, thoroughly documented, was immediately valuable,” Sultan writes. By building components one at a time and ensuring each was complete and well done, they were able to create a “virtuous cycle for the system.” 

The value of each component, as simple and small as each isolated chunk was, demonstrated the value of the work as a whole. Developers remained invested throughout, and Slack eventually launched its design system, Slack Kit.

Maintain design systems or lose them to tech debt

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that the platform team and design team have worked together – alongside developer feedback – to build the perfect design system. Every developer takes a look and gives it a thumbs up. 

Why, then, could you take any one of those developers aside and hear some wariness in their voice when they talk about actually using the design system?

The issue is that developers are very familiar with what happens when a product doesn’t have a maintenance plan. They’ve built products that have fallen by the wayside and created beloved internal tools that managers deprioritized until they died. Eventually, even a great product will fall prey to tech debt if there’s no plan to keep it alive. 

For teams building design systems, the solution is to build a flexible design system that they can iterate, maintain, and update over time. 

Design systems, by their nature, tend to offer some level of standardization, but over-focusing on standardization can lead to an overly rigid system. If the design system is good, people might not complain at first, but if even a good system is hard to keep up to date and hard to use in non-standard scenarios, people will eventually stop using it. 

Instead, platform teams need to build design systems with maintenance as a first principle and map each component across a spectrum of flexibility. 

To make this a little less abstract, let’s look at an example from Spotify. 

The team behind Encore, Spotify’s design system, faced the same issue we’ve talked about here. As the product changes and the development team grows, writes Charlie Backus, design systems engineer at Spotify, “it can sometimes seem like the team is outgrowing the current set of components and styles.”

(Source)

As you can see in the selection above, there was a dire need for consistency, despite an equal need for teams to remain creative and driven. 

To find a balance, Backus recommends teams develop “an abstract shared vocabulary around component properties” or ensure that the “base properties remain accessible for modification by end consumers.”

The best way to think about this strategy is to imagine a spectrum between configuration (high-abstraction components that developers pass additional parameters to in order to add varied behaviors) and customization (low-abstraction components that developers just add custom styles to). 

(Source)

This spectrum-based approach is useful because it forces teams to think about tradeoffs ahead of time. 

On the one hand, as Backus writes, “A more abstract configuration approach can increase consistency and maintainability but at the risk of the system being a bottleneck for outgoing features.” By increasing abstraction, a design system can make development more consistent but potentially slow down development. 

On the other hand, Backus continues, “The less abstract customization approach enables quicker feature development; however, the overall consistency of the product can suffer as a result.” Speed increases, in this case, but the likelihood of inconsistencies increases, too. 

Backus recommends thinking about maturity to find your spot on the spectrum for any given component. “The more mature a product or feature is, the more beneficial and feasible a configuration approach is. However, the iterative and low-level nature of customization makes it more suitable for prototyping and features which are bespoke, or are still subject to change.”

Like in the Slack example, we’re incorporating concerns that lie outside the immediate purview of the design system. With Slack, they were thinking about the growth of the company, and with Spotify, they were thinking about the growth of features. Mature, well-tested, well-known features can be standardized, but new, still-growing, and one-off features require more flexibility. 

Avoid rework by aligning developers and designers

Developers and designers alike often decry meetings, wishing they had more time and space to work. Don’t get us wrong – too many meetings can be a huge drag on focus – but a good meeting can also save you a lot of work. An aligned team, delayed by a meeting, will always be more effective than an unaligned team working hard on the wrong things.

This dynamic is true within teams and departments, but alignment issues can be much more severe between different departments. A development team and design team working on different things, for example, can end up negating each other’s work if the designs are for a feature that isn’t built yet and the feature is built for a design that hasn’t been sketched yet. 

Design systems magnify this issue. If a design system isn’t well thought out, all the effort toward building one can be wasted if developers and designers don’t start out using it in an aligned way and maintain alignment over time.

As we said in the first section, the design system can’t feel like a third party designed from the outside in. In the same way, it can’t be a tool that developers and designers only call on occasionally or when absolutely necessary. Instead, a design system should be a language for the design and development teams—both a result of alignment and an anchor that continuously shows how well the teams are aligned.

To see what we mean when we refer to design systems as language, look at Airbnb. Back in 2016, Airbnb was growing rapidly and adding feature after feature. Karri Saarinen, then Principal Designer at Airbnb, writes, “One-off solutions aren’t inherently bad, but if they aren’t built upon a solid foundation, we eventually find ourselves having to pay back accrued technical and design debts.”

To reset these efforts and ensure ongoing sustainability, the Airbnb team looked toward language as a guiding metaphor. “Visual language is like any other language,” Saarinen writes. “Misunderstandings arise if the language is not shared and understood by everyone using it. As a product or team grows, the challenges within these modalities compound.”

Airbnb built a new language via a new design system by looking at where their old designs failed. “We started by auditing and printing out many of our designs, both old and new,”  Saarinen writes. “Laying the flows side by side on a board, we could see where and how the experiences were breaking and where we needed to start making changes.”

By focusing on the miscommunications first, Airbnb was able to build a language that used a consensus understanding of shared components as its foundation. 

(Source)

“We felt that we were all working together towards the same idea,” Saarinen writes. “Reviewing our collective work at the end of each day, we began to see patterns emerge. We course-corrected when necessary and started defining our standardized components.” 

The team knew they were onto something when, even before the design system was finalized, productivity and consistency sped up in tandem. “One day,” Saarinen remembers, “While putting together a last-minute prototype, our team was able to create nearly 50 screens within just a few hours by using the framework our library provided.” 

The early and ongoing boosts to productivity and standardization were a result of building a design system like a shared language. By thinking of the design system first and foremost as a way for developers, designers, and others to communicate and understand each other, the entire company benefited. 

Treat your design system like a basecamp

One of the biggest worries developers can feel when a platform team or engineering leader proposes a design system is the tension between the freedom to do new work and the restraints standardization can impose. 

Developers often fear that design systems, even when they introduce welcome consistency, can inhibit experimental and exploratory work. Ultimately, developers want to code, and design systems can sometimes feel like a way of reducing coding to boilerplate work. 

With this fear and its real risks in mind, companies have to take a different approach to making design systems work for developers: Design systems should be like basecamps for developers and designers on the frontiers of exploration. 

The base camp is more stable than the frontier, and the work done there is more routine. In this metaphor, the ultimate purpose of the design system is to give designers and developers resources so that they can explore further with every trek. The design system acts as a dependable foundation, but it doesn’t replace all the work that needs to be done. 

With the lessons we’ve outlined here—iterating over time, thinking carefully about flexibility and maintenance, and aligning developers and designers—you can create a design system that developers trust, one they will gladly return to before exploring further. 

Create fully functional, production-ready prototypes from the start. With UXPin Merge, what you design is exactly what gets built—eliminating handoff issues and speeding up development. Plus, with our seamless integration, you can open your UXPin Merge prototypes in StackBlitz with a single click for an even smoother workflow. Ready to elevate your design and development process? Request access to UXPin Merge today.

The post Design System Tips from Developer’s Point of View appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

The design system revolution of the last decade has brought with it all sorts of tools and strategies to enhance product development workflows.

Design tokens are one of those tools many design systems, including Google’s Material Design 3 and MUI, have adopted to make UI elements easier to implement, manage, and update.

Announcement: UXPin’s design tokens for colors are in beta! Sign up to get notified when they will be officially released: Design tokens in UXPin.

Optimize your design operations across the entire organizations. Use UXPin Merge, a revolutionary design technology for helping teams use React components in design and development. Learn more about Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What is a Design Token?

Design tokens contain UI data like colors, fonts, spacing, animations, assets, etc. for styling and building cross-platform user interfaces. Instead of hard-coding static values for every operating system, a design token contains multiple formats, allowing front-end developers to use the same variable, whether they’re building an iOS or Android, and even web application.

One of the challenges with cross-platform product development is that operating systems use different style properties and formats. For example, UXPin’s website uses yellow for CTAs. The hex code for this yellow is #FCC821, which you can represent in several ways:

• RGB (CSS): rgb(252, 200, 33)
• RGBA: rgba(252, 200, 33, 1)
• Octal (Android/Flutter): 77144041

Instead of using these static properties, designers and engineers reference a token like “uxpin.cta.primary,” representing all four color codes. The color will always be the same regardless of the platform or programming language.

Design tokens within CSS

To implement design tokens in CSS, they are often converted into CSS variables (also known as custom properties). CSS variables allow you to define reusable values that can be applied throughout your stylesheet, making it easier to maintain and update styles consistently.

Example of Design Tokens as CSS Variables

/* Define Design Tokens as CSS Variables */
:root {
  --color-primary: #007bff;
  --color-secondary: #6c757d;
  --font-size-base: 16px;
  --font-family-base: 'Arial, sans-serif';
  --spacing-small: 8px;
  --spacing-medium: 16px;
}

/* Applying Design Tokens in CSS */
body {
  font-size: var(--font-size-base);
  font-family: var(--font-family-base);
  color: var(--color-primary);
  padding: var(--spacing-medium);
}

button {
  background-color: var(--color-primary);
  color: var(--color-secondary);
  padding: var(--spacing-small) var(--spacing-medium);
}

Here’s a section you can add to your blog post about Design Tokens within CSS:

Design Tokens within CSS

Design tokens are a crucial part of modern design systems, helping to maintain consistency and scalability across digital products. When used within CSS, design tokens ensure that your styles are cohesive and easy to manage, allowing for a more efficient and streamlined development process.

What are Design Tokens?

Design tokens are the smallest, repeatable elements of a design system that store visual properties such as colors, typography, spacing, and shadows. They act as a bridge between design and code, providing a single source of truth that can be used across various platforms and technologies.

Using Design Tokens in CSS

To implement design tokens in CSS, they are often converted into CSS variables (also known as custom properties). CSS variables allow you to define reusable values that can be applied throughout your stylesheet, making it easier to maintain and update styles consistently.

Example of Design Tokens as CSS Variables

/* Define Design Tokens as CSS Variables */
:root {
  --color-primary: #007bff;
  --color-secondary: #6c757d;
  --font-size-base: 16px;
  --font-family-base: 'Arial, sans-serif';
  --spacing-small: 8px;
  --spacing-medium: 16px;
}

/* Applying Design Tokens in CSS */
body {
  font-size: var(--font-size-base);
  font-family: var(--font-family-base);
  color: var(--color-primary);
  padding: var(--spacing-medium);
}

button {
  background-color: var(--color-primary);
  color: var(--color-secondary);
  padding: var(--spacing-small) var(--spacing-medium);
}

In this example, design tokens for colors, typography, and spacing are defined as CSS variables. These tokens are then applied throughout the CSS to style elements consistently. If you need to update a style, such as changing the primary color, you only need to update the variable definition, and the change will automatically apply everywhere the token is used.

Types of Design Tokens

Organizations use these design tokens for many style properties, including color palette, size, spacing, assets, and drop shadows, to name a few. When we’re at it – here are the primary types of design tokens:

1. Color Tokens: Define the color palette used in a design system. Examples include primary colors, secondary colors, background colors, text colors, border colors, etc.
   • Examples:
     • color-primary: #007bff
     • color-background: #f8f9fa
2. Typography Tokens: Specify text-related properties. These include font families, font sizes, line heights, letter spacing, and font weights.
   • Examples:
     • font-family-body: 'Roboto', sans-serif
     • font-size-heading: 24px
3. Spacing Tokens: Govern the spacing system, including margins, paddings, and gaps. They ensure consistent spacing throughout the design.
   • Examples:
     • spacing-small: 4px
     • spacing-large: 16px
4. Sizing Tokens: Define sizes for components and elements. These can include widths, heights, and maximum and minimum sizes.
   • Examples:
     • size-button-height: 48px
     • size-avatar-small: 32px
5. Border Tokens: Specify border properties, such as width, style, and radius.
   • Examples:
     • border-width-thin: 1px
     • border-radius-medium: 8px
6. Shadow Tokens: Describe the shadow effects used in the design system, including color, offset, blur, and spread.
   • Examples:
     • shadow-small: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)
     • shadow-large: 0 4px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)
7. Opacity Tokens: Define the opacity levels for elements.
   • Examples:
     • opacity-low: 0.3
     • opacity-high: 0.9
8. Breakpoints Tokens: Specify the breakpoints for responsive design, dictating how the design adapts to different screen sizes.
   • Examples:
     • breakpoint-mobile: 480px
     • breakpoint-desktop: 1024px
9. Duration Tokens: Govern the timing of animations and transitions.
   • Examples:
     • duration-short: 200ms
     • duration-long: 600ms
10. Easing Tokens: Define the easing functions for animations and transitions.
    • Examples:
      • easing-in-out: cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)
      • easing-bounce: cubic-bezier(0.68, -0.55, 0.27, 1.55)

Where did Design Tokens Come from?

It is said that design tokens were pioneered by Salesforce. In a 2014 article published in Salesforce Designer, Salesforce UX VP Sönke Rohde described how the company uses design tokens to apply the same design principles across multiple platforms and software.

“At Salesforce, we face this very challenge, and we came up with an agnostic solution: we define our design in a single location and use a system to cascade it down to all platforms. We call it our Single Source of Truth. It’s basically a set of JSON files which contain name-value pairs describing our design tokens.” excerpt from Living Design System by Sönke Rohde.

Instead of using static style properties, engineers reference the design token, which pulls the correct value, depending on the platform, from a JSON file. To automate this process, Salesforce developed Theo–“an abstraction for transforming and formatting design tokens.”

What is the Difference between Atomic Design and Tokens?

Atomic design and design tokens are both concepts used in design systems, but they address different aspects of design consistency and scalability.

Atomic design is a methodology for creating design systems developed by Brad Frost. It breaks down user interfaces into smaller, reusable components called atoms, molecules, organisms, templates, and pages (in ascending order of complexity). Atoms are the basic building blocks like buttons, input fields, icons, etc. Molecules are combinations of atoms, organisms are combinations of molecules, and so on.

Design tokens are a set of variables that define design properties such as colors, typography, spacing, etc., in a design system. They are abstract representations of visual design decisions. Rather than hardcoding specific values (like a hex code for a color) directly into UI components, design tokens provide a centralized way to manage and update design properties across an entire design system.

Design tokens deal with the abstraction and management of design properties. They abstract design decisions into variables, allowing for easier maintenance, scalability, and consistency. They provide a single source of truth for design-related values.

3 Design Tokens Examples

Here are three examples of design tokens for typography. These tokens help ensure that typography styles are consistent across different components and platforms.

Design Token Example #1: Font Family

{
  "font-family": {
    "base": "Roboto, Arial, sans-serif",
    "heading": "Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif",
    "monospace": "'Courier New', Courier, monospace"
  }
}

Design Token Example #2: Font Size

{
  "font-size": {
    "base": "16px",
    "small": "14px",
    "large": "24px",
    "heading": {
      "h1": "32px",
      "h2": "28px",
      "h3": "24px"
    }
  }
}

Design Token Example #3: Line Hight

{
  "line-height": {
    "base": "1.5",
    "tight": "1.25",
    "loose": "1.75",
    "heading": {
      "h1": "1.2",
      "h2": "1.3",
      "h3": "1.4"
    }
  }
}

Are Design Tokens Right for You?

Google’s Material Design 3 documentation offers a list of scenarios where design tokens are most helpful:

• You use a design system for more than one platform or product
• You want an easy way to maintain and update your product’s styles
• You plan to update your product design or build new products and features

Material Design also lists two instances where design tokens might be “less helpful:”

• You don’t plan to change your product in the next few years
• Your product does not have a design system

Benefits of Using Design Tokens

We’ve identified three key benefits to using design tokens.

1. Having a Single Source of Truth

Design tokens are most beneficial for creating a single source of truth–which is what drove Salesforce to start using them. Everyone must speak the same design language when multiple product teams, engineers, and UX designers work on the same product.

Design tokens allow teams to speak the same language, no matter their role, platform, programming language, or responsibilities.

2. Maintaining UI Consistency

UI consistency is a significant challenge when designing at scale. It’s not uncommon for designers to accidentally use slightly different sizing, brand colors, and spacing for a single product! These inconsistencies cause usability issues, increasing engineering and UX debt with every release.

Design tokens eliminate these inconsistencies so that every designer uses the same styles and properties–another single source of truth benefit!

3. Getting Flexibility to Scale

Design tokens give products and design systems flexibility to make changes and scale. If teams need to add platform-specific properties, they simply update the design token.

For example, Android uses octal color codes instead of HEX or RGB. To adapt a design system to accommodate Android, the DS team can add octal codes to each design token to maintain a single source of truth.

These tokens allow engineers to deliver new projects significantly faster with fewer errors or inconsistencies.

This flexibility is also helpful when making changes. For example, if a product changes its typeface from Montserrat to Roboto, the team only has to update the typography token to implement a product-wide change.

How to define a design token structure

While there are no rules for defining your design token structure, this example from Amazon’s Style Dictionary makes the most sense. Many organizations use a similar format for their design tokens.

Amazon’s Style Dictionary uses a hierarchical design token structure:

1. Category (color, time, line-height, size, asset, content, etc.)
2. Type
3. Item
4. Sub-Item
5. State

If we wanted to create a design token for a primary active button using this structure, it might look like color_background_button_primary_active or perhaps shortened color-bg-btn-primary-active. This token will contain every type of color code necessary for cross-platform implementation.

The key to a design token structure is consistency. It must use a predictable naming convention so users can easily find tokens and scale the system.

Architecting Tokens with Options and Decisions

UX expert and founder of eightshapes, Nathan Curtis, wrote an excellent article on architecting tokens. Nathan says the first step is to segment your design tokens into Options (or choices) and Decisions.

• Options: Creates the base token values. Tokens define what Style Dictionary describes above as categories–color, time, asset, content, etc.

• Decisions: Decisions use your Options to create properties for components. For example, interactive color, background color, text color, etc.

The benefit of this system is that if you want to change your white to a different shade, replacing the HEX code under the color Option will automatically sync to every design token and associated UI element. 

Nathan’s methodology also makes it easy to scale because you simply use your Options to create more Decisions. You can read Nathan’s full article for detailed instructions on architecting tokens.

Tips on Design Token Naming Conventions

Naming conventions are a crucial aspect of any design system, ensuring clarity, consistency, and ease of use across design and development teams. A well-thought-out naming convention helps communicate the purpose and function of design tokens, components, and styles, making it easier for team members to understand and use the system effectively. Here are some tips for creating effective naming conventions for your design system:

1. Be Descriptive and Concise

Names should clearly describe the element’s purpose or function without being overly verbose. Aim for a balance between specificity and brevity to ensure names are easy to read and understand.

Example:

• Use color-primary instead of main-blue-color.

2. Use Consistent Patterns

Establish a consistent naming pattern or structure that applies across all elements in your design system. This uniformity helps users quickly recognize the type of element they are working with and understand its role in the system.

Example:

• Use a pattern like [category]-[modifier], such as color-primary, spacing-small, or font-heading-large.

3. Avoid Ambiguity

Names should be clear and unambiguous, avoiding terms that could be interpreted in multiple ways. This helps prevent confusion and ensures that everyone on the team understands what each token or component represents.

Example:

• Instead of button-color, use button-background-color to clarify that the token refers to the button’s background color, not its text or border.

4. Reflect the Design Intent

Names should reflect the design intent rather than specific values. This approach allows for more flexibility and scalability, as the underlying values can change without requiring renaming.

Example:

• Use spacing-medium instead of spacing-16px. This way, if you decide to change the medium spacing from 16px to 20px, you don’t have to rename the token.

5. Align with Your Brand and Language

Ensure that your naming conventions align with your brand’s voice and the terminology used within your organization. This alignment creates a cohesive experience for both the design and development teams and ensures consistency in communication.

Example:

• If your brand uses specific terminology for sizes (e.g., compact, regular, spacious), incorporate these terms into your token names, like spacing-compact or button-size-regular.

6. Include Context When Necessary

When tokens or components could be used in multiple contexts, include contextual information in the name to clarify their use. This is particularly important for tokens that might have different values or meanings depending on the context.

Example:

• Use card-background-color instead of just background-color to specify that the token is for card components.

7. Use Common Abbreviations Sparingly

While abbreviations can save space, overusing them can make your names cryptic and harder to understand. Use common abbreviations where they add clarity and avoid using less common or internal jargon that might confuse new team members.

Example:

• bg for background is a common abbreviation and widely understood, so bg-color-primary is acceptable. However, avoid using abbreviations like clr for color.

8. Document Naming Conventions

Document your naming conventions and provide examples in your design system documentation. This helps ensure that everyone on your team understands the rules and follows them consistently.

Example Documentation Excerpt:

• “All color tokens should follow the pattern color-[modifier], where [modifier] describes the usage (e.g., primary, secondary, error). Example: color-primary, color-error.”

9. Plan for Scalability

As your design system evolves, new components and tokens will be added. Choose naming conventions that can easily accommodate growth and changes without requiring extensive renaming or restructuring.

Example:

• Instead of naming a token button-small, which might be limiting, use button-size-small to leave room for adding other size-related tokens, like button-size-large.

How Design Tokens Work in Practice

In an informative article, Design Tokens for Dummies, Louis Chenais outlines a typical design change workflow with vs. without design tokens.

The Traditional Workflow–Without Design Tokens

1. Designer updates a style in a design tool
2. Designer documents the changes for the design handoff
3. Engineer updates the component’s properties (CSS, LESS, SASS, etc.)
4. The design team confirms the changes during quality assurance (QA)

There are several problems with this workflow:

• It creates more work and attention to detail during the design handoff.
• It’s prone to errors and miscommunication.
• Creates more tickets, thus increasing technical debt.
• It costs unnecessary time and money making the changes and fixing any corresponding errors.

The Design Token Way

1. Designer updates a syle in a design tool.
2. A design tokens generator updates a centralized repository creating platform-specific files (JSON/YAML).
3. Engineers pull the new repo, add any new tokens, and automatically update the project’s styles.

Using design tokens reduces documentation for design handoffs and saves programming time for engineers. This automated system significantly reduces human error, streamlining the development and QA process.

A Single Source of Truth With UXPin Merge

As digital products get more complex, designers and engineers must find solutions to integrate workflows–a problem UXPin has solved with our revolutionary Merge technology.

Merge allows you to import a component library from a repository to UXPin’s design editor so designers can use the same UI elements engineers use to develop the final product.

Merge components have the same fidelity and functionality as those in the repository. The design system team can use React props (or Args for our Storybook integration) to restrict changes or provide designers with the flexibility to make design decisions.

Whenever engineers make changes to the repository, they automatically sync to UXPin, notifying designers of the update. Merge comes with version control, allowing designers to switch to an earlier version–helpful for updating older projects.

Take your product development to new heights and create a single source of truth with UXPin Merge. Visit our Merge page for more information and details to request access.

The post What Are Design Tokens? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Now that UXPin has a Storybook integration that breaks down design-dev inconsistencies and makes it easier than ever to manage your UI components library, you might want to take some time to look at Storybook examples.

Plenty of world-renowned websites use Storybook. Look at some of the best Storybook examples that you can use as inspiration for developing your digital products.

Take UI components directly from Storybook and import them to UXPin. Design interactive and visually stunning layouts without extensive design skills. Discover UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Storybook?

Storybook is an open-source tool for developing UI components in isolation for React, Vue, Angular, and other frameworks. It allows developers to build, test, and document components in a standalone environment outside of the main application, promoting better modularity and reusability.

It enhances the efficiency of UI development by providing a focused environment for creating, testing, and documenting UI components, making it easier for developers to build consistent and robust user interfaces.

BBC iPlayer Web

BBC iPlayer Web switched to Storybook when it needed more custom components. Preview their Storybook here: BBC iPlayer Storybook.

A growing number of movie and television show producers now have streaming platforms that let people watch specific content when they like. BBC iPlayer Web makes it incredibly easy for viewers to find specific types of content by title, category, or topic.

When the streaming service started, it built its back end with Node.js. It didn’t take long, though, before the development team decided to make the migration to React. React components were an obvious improvement as the platform grew.

Around 2019, though, the team realized that its approach didn’t work as well as expected. The UX professionals and developers didn’t have a common language that helped them work toward goals. They also found it difficult to locate the components they needed to add content and update the website’s appearance.

Ultimately, the BBC iPlayer Web team realized that they were spending way too much time maintaining their component library.

Storybook became a significant tool that helped them address these problems.

BBC iPlayer Web has a public design system, so you can look at it to learn a few tricks and find inspiration when you feel stuck on a project.

The design system includes everything from iconography to navigation.

Spend some time browsing BBC iPlayer’s Storybook example. Then, visit the website. You will immediately see how the designers and developers combined components to create a tool that works exceptionally well for viewers.

Related reading: Top 9 Design System Examples

The Guardian

The Guardian publishes a tremendous number of articles daily. It’s often one of the first news outlets to report on breaking news. It also has frequent articles about sports, culture, and lifestyle topics. Considering that The Guardian covers events all over the world, it needs a fast, reliable way to turn written text into published web pages.

The Guardian Storybook components library (access the Guardian Storybook here) streamlines the design and publication process. Building the design system, however, must have taken quite a bit of time because it includes every component that the well-designed website could possibly need. It even features slightly different versions of designs. For example, the CaptionBlockComponent Story includes:

• with defaults
• PhotoEssay using html
• when padded
• with width limited
• with credit
• when overlayed

No matter what type of caption block the designers want to include, they just have to search the component library, choose the correct option, and add text for the specific story.

The design team even created multiple donut graphs to fit unique circumstances.

Of course, The Guardian also maintains designs that help readers identify what type of content they’re reading.

A Review headline doesn’t look the same as a Photo Essay headline.

Again, it took a lot of effort to build this Storybook design system. Now that The Guardian editors and publishers have it, though, they can quickly publish coherent content that keeps readers informed without misdirecting them.

Here’s a great video about The Guardian’s Storybook component library.

IBM‘s Carbon Design System in Storybook

Carbon, the design system used by IBM, primarily gets used to build digital products with specific functions, such as adding files to a project, submitting reports, and tracking an activity’s progress. IBM uses Carbon for internal and external products, so you might recognize some of the components in the Storybook UI design system.

This Storybook example contains countless components. You’ll find everything from tabs to pagination. The company just wants to make sure that it has functional tools that share an aesthetic.

The components in Carbon’s design system also tend to have extensive Stories that let coders make subtle changes when necessary.

Even the Basic Checkbox component has 184 lines of JavaScript code in its Story.

A significant advantage of using Storybook is that designers and developers can see how components respond to interactions.

Three interactions with the select button:

The designer or developer can see all of these interactions result from within the same environment. They don’t need to export it to a prototyping app or add it to a designing app. The interactions happen right there to save time and meet expectations.

Salesforce Lightning Design System for React

You can also find a Storybook with components of one of the best design systems – Salesforce Lightning. This design system is based in React, a JavaScript library, which is commonly used for building user interfaces. React is a popular front-end library developed by Facebook that allows developers to create interactive and dynamic UI components.

When we talk about React in the context of design systems, it usually means using React to implement the components and design guidelines provided by the design system.

By leveraging the Salesforce Design System, developers and designers can create applications that not only look great but also provide a consistent and intuitive user experience, ultimately leading to increased user satisfaction and productivity. Additionally, adherence to the design system ensures compatibility and seamless integration with other Salesforce products and services.

Salesforce Lightning Design System was created to be framework agnostic, yet it is still compatible with other front-end frameworks, and developers have the flexibility to choose the technology stack that best suits their needs and preferences.

This Storybook example is based on React and it has UI components such as a data table, checkbox, button, card, carousel, and more.

Audi UI React

Another React-based Storybook is a design system by Audi. Crafted with precision, the Audi Design System serves as the ultimate beacon of truth for our global teams dedicated to crafting Audi’s finest offerings.

From insightful Getting Started guides to indispensable Core Components, this Storybook example empowers every team member, ensuring a unified approach across all Audi products worldwide. The Audi Design System embodies the essence of precision, innovation, and seamless collaboration that the design team at Audi chose as its defining qualities.

It sets the standard for design systems in the automotive industry and beyond. Check out its Storybook to see for yourself. It has navigational, input, text, and many other useful components.

FAQ

1. What is Storybook used for?

Storybook is an open-source tool used for developing, testing, and documenting UI components in isolation. It provides a sandbox environment where developers can create and showcase components independently from the main application. This helps in building components that are reusable, consistent, and well-documented.

Storybook is particularly useful in the development of design systems and component libraries, as it allows developers to visualize and interact with components outside the context of the application, ensuring they function correctly and look as expected. It also supports a range of add-ons for accessibility, responsive design, and performance testing, making it a versatile tool for front-end development.

2. What are some advanced Storybook examples?

Advanced Storybook examples demonstrate the tool’s capability to handle more complex scenarios and enhance the development experience. Here are a few examples:

• Component Interactions: Using Storybook’s Controls add-on, you can create interactive components that respond to user input directly in the Storybook UI. This is useful for testing props and states dynamically.
• Composite Components: Showcase components that are composed of multiple child components, such as a form with inputs, buttons, and validation messages. This helps in understanding how components work together in a real-world context.
• Data Fetching and Mocking: Demonstrate how components behave with data fetching by using tools like MSW (Mock Service Worker) to mock API requests within Storybook. This is particularly useful for testing components that depend on external data sources.
• Theming and Styling: Create stories that demonstrate how components adapt to different themes or styles. This is especially useful for design systems that support dark and light modes or multiple branding themes.
• Accessibility Testing: Use the a11y add-on to automatically check for accessibility issues in your components and display the results directly in Storybook. This ensures your components are usable for all users, including those with disabilities.

3. What are public Storybooks?

Public Storybooks are Storybook instances that are accessible to the public over the internet. They are typically hosted on platforms like GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Vercel, allowing anyone to view and interact with the documented UI components. Public Storybooks are often used by companies and open-source projects to showcase their component libraries or design systems, providing developers and designers with a comprehensive reference for how each component should look and behave.

By sharing a public Storybook, teams can improve collaboration, provide clear documentation, and promote consistency across different projects. Public Storybooks are also valuable for onboarding new team members and for providing external contributors or users with insights into the UI components available within a project.

4. What is the difference between Storybook for React and Storybook for Angular?

Storybook is a versatile tool that supports multiple frameworks, including React and Angular, but the way it integrates and functions with each framework can differ slightly due to the inherent differences between React and Angular themselves.

Nevertheless, the core purpose of Storybook remains the same across both frameworks: to provide a powerful environment for developing, testing, and documenting UI components in isolation. Both Storybook for React and Storybook for Angular offer robust features that cater to the unique needs of their respective frameworks, ensuring that developers can maintain a consistent and efficient workflow.

5. How can I use Storybook with UXPin Merge?

Using Storybook with UXPin Merge allows you to import your React components directly from Storybook into UXPin, enabling a seamless integration between design and development. This integration ensures that designers are working with the exact same components that developers are using in production, leading to more accurate and efficient design processes. Here’s how you can use Storybook with UXPin Merge:

1. Set Up Storybook: Ensure that your React components are documented and organized in Storybook. You should have a well-structured Storybook instance with all the components you want to use in UXPin.
2. Sync Components: Integrate Storybook with UXPin and use UI components in your UXPin design projects, allowing designers to drag and drop components into their prototypes while maintaining full functionality and interactivity.
3. Design and Iterate: With the components imported from Storybook, designers can create high-fidelity prototypes in UXPin that are consistent with the development environment. This integration helps streamline the design-to-development workflow, reducing the risk of inconsistencies and ensuring that both teams are aligned.

Using Storybook with UXPin Merge is a powerful way to bridge the gap between design and development, ensuring that your UI components are consistent, reusable, and accurately represented across all stages of product development.

Try UXPin Merge and Storybook integration for fast prototyping

Use Storybook components to build interactive prototypes 8.6x faster than with vector-based tools like Figma. Import them to UXPin via our integration with Storybook and build products quickly. UXPin Merge’s Storybook integration lets you import your components within one minute. It doesn’t even require any technical knowledge, especially when you maintain a public Storybook design system. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post These Storybook Examples Will Inspire Your Component Library appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Interactions are vital for prototyping because they provide usability participants and stakeholders with a realistic user experience. The problem many designers have is building interactive components is time-consuming, and the results are underwhelming in most design tools.

Discover component-driven prototyping with UXPin Merge and how you can use interactive components to create fully functional prototypes to enhance cross-functional collaboration and user testing. Visit our Merge page for more details and how to request access to this revolutionary UX design technology.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What are Interactive Components?

Interactive components (or interactive elements) are reusable UI elements from a design system and include interactivity by default. This interactivity is a game-changer for designers who usually work with UI kits and have to add interactions for every project.

Design teams can set interactions, states, and other animations to create immersive prototypes that accurately represent the final product.

Interactive Components Benefits

Here are several benefits of interactive components.

1. Fewer Artboards

Traditionally, creating interactions using a design tool required multiple artboards to achieve basic functionality. Designers can achieve the same results with a single artboard using interactive components.

2. Faster Time to Market

Creating fewer artboards means less design work for designers, and interactive components are reusable, so designers only have to set interactions once–saving significant time during the design process.

Once engineers are familiar with the approved components, the design handoff process is much easier, saving further time on project delivery.

The result of all these time savings?–faster time to market.

3. Increased Consistency

UI kits increase design consistency, but they still leave some ambiguity regarding interactions. Designers must set these interactions themselves, leading to errors and inconsistencies–especially if the project doesn’t specify interactivity guidelines!

Interactive components have interactivity “baked in,” so everyone has the same states, microinteractions, and animations. These baked-in interactions increase consistency while enhancing efficiency because designers have fewer setup tasks and errors to fix.

4. Better Testing and Feedback

User and stakeholder feedback is crucial for design projects. This feedback drives decision-making to deliver user-centered products that align with business goals.

Most design tools lack the fidelity and functionality to perform simple interactions engineers achieve with a few lines of code. Interactive components make it easier to replicate code functionality, resulting in immersive, realistic prototypes for usability testing and stakeholders.

5. Increase Design System Adoption

One of the DS team’s jobs is evangelizing the design system to increase adoption. Interactive components are a powerful tool in design system evangelism because they create efficient workflows for product development teams, thus increasing the likelihood of adoption.

6. Scaling Design

At UXPin, we’ve seen how component-driven prototyping and interactive components help scale design. Our favorite example is how PayPal used UXPin Merge to scale its design process without hiring new staff.

Connecting Merge to interactive components hosted in a repository allowed PayPal’s product teams (with little or no UX/design tool experience) to complete 90% of design projects 8X faster than skilled UX designers previously could.

Interactive components made the design process more accessible to non-designers because they reduced the learning curve significantly.

PayPal’s UX team built an interactive component library, including layouts and templates, and used React props to set design system constraints. Product teams simply drag and drop to build prototypes for usability testing and design handoffs.

Interactive components allow orgs to give more UX responsibilities to non-designers, like product teams (or engineers in the case of another UXPin Merge user, TeamPassword), thus scaling design with growing the UX team.

You can create interactions depending on the conditions like click, hover etc. on the ready components!

How to Incorporate Interactive Components in UXPin Prototypes?

To incorporate interactive components into your product prototypes, there are many steps you can take. Make sure that forms can actually be filled out; boxes can be checked; and links can be clicked on.

Make as many components of your design actually workable as you can; this allows users to have the experience of trying to use the product, and it can give you some insight into how your product works and how people will (or want to) use it.

Using Interactive Components in UXPin

Since the first release of UXPin more than a decade ago, interactive components have been core to our design tool, providing designers with a solution to build prototypes that accurately replicate the final product experience.

UXPin has four powerful features to create interactive components:

• States: Create multiple state variants, each with different properties and interactions for a single component.
• Variables: Capture user input data and use it to create personalized, dynamic user experiences.
• Expressions: Javascript-like functions to create complex components and advanced functionality–no code required!
• Conditional Interactions: Set if-then and if-else conditions based on user interactions to create dynamic prototypes with multiple outcomes to accurately replicate the final product experience.

One helpful strategy is including pre-built components (called “forms” at UXPin)  that you can easily drag and drop in our platform. (No need to design these from scratch!) 

Advanced Component Customization with UXPin

In UXPin, components are not just static design elements; they offer advanced customization capabilities that enable designers to create dynamic, interactive prototypes.

Unlike traditional static components, UXPin components can be enhanced with multiple states, conditional logic, and even real data integration. This flexibility allows designers to create high-fidelity prototypes that closely mimic the functionality of the final product.

• Multiple States: Each component in UXPin can have multiple states (e.g., default, hover, active), which can be easily switched within the prototype. This feature allows designers to showcase different interactions and user flows without needing to create separate screens for each variation.
• Conditional Logic: UXPin allows components to change dynamically based on user actions or predefined conditions. For example, a form component can display error messages or success notifications based on the user’s input, providing a realistic preview of the user experience.
• Data Integration: Components in UXPin can integrate with live data, making them highly functional for testing and development. By connecting components to real data sources, designers can create prototypes that behave like real applications, enhancing the accuracy and effectiveness of usability testing.

4 Examples of Interactive Components in UXPin

Here are some interactive component examples from our examples page to see how you can start. For now, let’s see what you can do with states, variables, expressions, and conditional logic.

Example 1: Button

Example 2: Input and text area 

Example 3: Radio button 

Example 4: An interactive sign-up form

→ Download a ready .uxp file to import into your UXPin account. 

Want to create one by yourself? Here’s a tutorial. 

Interactive Components in UXPin Merge

Merge takes component-driven prototyping and interactive components to another level. Instead of designers building components in UXPin, Merge imports a design system library from a repository.

These Merge UI elements are truly interactive components because behind them is code from a front-end framework like React, Vue, Angular, etc. You can import your organization’s design system or use an open-source library.

Designers don’t ever have to see or write code to use Merge components; they only work with the visual elements to build fully functioning prototypes. They also have access to component properties via UXPin’s Properties Panel to make changes within the design system’s constraints.

Learn more about Merge and how to request access.

Designing with Merge Interactive Components

Step 1: Grab Components From the Design System

There are three ways to import interactive components into UXPin using Merge:

• Git Integration: Connect a React component library directly to UXPin
• Storybook: Sync front-end frameworks like Vue, Angular, HTML, Ember, Web Components, and more (see the complete list here)
• npm Integration: Import open-source libraries from the Node Package Manager (npm)–a fantastic DIY option for designers. Read more about the npm Integration and how it works.

Imported Merge components appear in UXPin’s Design System Libraries in the left sidebar. Designers click or drag the UI elements they need from the sidebar to appear on the canvas. They can also use multiple design systems and UXPin elements and even combine them to create new components which they can save as Patterns.

Step 2: Make Changes

When designers click on a Merge component, its properties appear in the righthand Properties Panel. Those with technical skills can switch to JSX and adjust the code directly–a flexible workspace to match your preferred workflow.

Step 3: Share and Test

Designers can use Preview and Share for usability testing or when sharing prototypes with stakeholders. UXPin’s Comments feature allows teams and stakeholders to collaborate on prototypes and assign comments for team members to action.

Step 4: Design Handoff

Preview and Share also features Spec Mode, where engineers can inspect elements and click on Merge components to view and copy JSX changes. Designers can also include prototype documentation with annotations explaining each element and user interface.

Check out Design Handoff: What it Looks Like with UXPin Merge for a short tutorial.

Interactive Components UXPin Merge vs. Figma

Here’s a quick overview of how Figma’s interactive components feature compares to UXPin Merge components.

Single Source of Truth

Figma’s interactive components allow designers to replicate some fundamental interactions. However, organizations must still manage two design systems–one UI kit for designers in Figma and a separate component library hosted in a repository.

The problem with this workflow is it requires additional resources to manage and update two systems while increasing the likelihood of errors.

With Merge, design teams and engineers pull components from the same repository. Designers see visual elements, and engineers use the code behind them. Any changes to the repository automatically sync to UXPin and notify all teams of the update. Designers can also use Version Control to switch between different design system versions.

Fully Interactive

Figma’s interactive components aim to mimic code, whereas code powers Merge, giving design teams fully interactive UI elements.

With Figma’s interactive components, you’re essentially creating states. With Merge, you get complex functionality like real date pickers, data tables, graphs, inputs, responsive design, and much more!

Smoother Design Handoffs and Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design handoffs are seamless, almost non-existent when using Merge because designers and engineers use the same component library. Design teams can’t make changes outside of properties set by the design system, so there are no surprises for engineers.

Merge significantly reduces development time because engineers can copy/paste production-ready code from the repository and grab component props from UXPin to begin front-end development.

Figma’s components are vector-based artboards. Although many plugins convert Figma design files to code, it’s rarely usable, and engineers must still re-program it to meet their product’s format and structure.

In summary, Merge is a code-based technology that syncs design and development to form a single source of truth. Figma’s interactive components offer basic functionality (mostly state variants) that reduces the number of artboards designers use to create interactions.

Use our Figma plugin to copy Figma designs into UXPin. Reach higher interactivity of prototyping.

Bridging Design and Development with UXPin Merge

One of the standout features of UXPin is its Merge technology, which bridges the gap between design and development by allowing designers to use actual code components within their prototypes. This feature ensures that the components in UXPin are the same as those in production, maintaining consistency and reducing the risk of discrepancies between the design and the final product.

• Code-Based Components: With UXPin Merge, designers can import coded components from a repository (like GitHub) and use them directly in their design projects. These components are not just visual representations; they are the actual components that will be used in the final product, complete with all the functionality and interactivity defined by the development team.
• Single Source of Truth: By using code-based components, UXPin ensures that there is a single source of truth for both designers and developers. This approach eliminates the need for redundant handoffs and rework, as any changes made in the design are immediately reflected in the code, and vice versa. This seamless integration fosters better collaboration and streamlines the product development process.

How to Get Started Prototyping With UXPin Merge

Ready to get started with component-driven prototyping in UXPin using Merge? You have two options:

• Open-source libraries: Open-source libraries are best for teams who lack an active dev support or they just want to get some basic understanding of how they can work with components before comitting to them.
• Private design systems: If you’d like to sync your product’s private design system to UXPin, visit our Merge page to request access, and one of UXPin’s technical staff will contact you to help with onboarding.

The post What are Interactive Components? Bring your Prototypes to Life in UXPin appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Most front-end developers constantly seek ways to streamline our workflows and craft responsive, aesthetically pleasing websites. Tailwind CSS, with its utility-first approach, has emerged as a powerful tool to do just that – build website interfaces. If you’re looking to optimize your use of Tailwind, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll explore Tailwind best practices to help you harness the full potential of this utility-first CSS framework.

Bridge the gap between design and development by using fully coded Tailwind components in design. Use UXPin Merge with a built-in Tailwind UI library and empower your team to create consistent, high-quality user interfaces faster than ever before. Make it easier to collaborate, iterate, and innovate. Try UXPin Merge today and see how it can transform your Tailwind development process. Request access now.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Tailwind CSS?

Before diving into the best practices, let’s briefly discuss what Tailwind CSS is. Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework that allows you to design directly in your markup by using classes. Unlike traditional CSS frameworks, which provide pre-designed components, Tailwind gives you low-level utility classes, such as flex, pt-4, text-center, and grid, enabling you to build custom designs without writing any CSS.

Why Tailwind CSS?

1. Flexibility and Customization

Tailwind offers unparalleled flexibility. You aren’t constrained by predefined styles and can customize your user interface to match the design specifications of your project.

2. Rapid Development

With Tailwind, you can build UIs faster. The framework’s utility classes allow for quick iterations and tweaks, enabling you to see changes in real-time as you code.

3. Maintainable Codebase

Using Tailwind leads to a more maintainable codebase. With a consistent set of utility classes, your styles remain clear and predictable, which is especially useful in large projects with multiple contributors.

Best Practices for Using Tailwind CSS

1. Leverage Tailwind’s PurgeCSS

One of the most common concerns with Tailwind is the potential for bloat due to the large number of utility classes. However, by configuring PurgeCSS, you can automatically remove unused CSS, reducing the final file size and improving performance. Tailwind makes it easy to integrate PurgeCSS into your build process:

module.exports = {
  purge: ['./src/**/*.html', './src/**/*.js'],
  // other configurations...
};

By specifying the files where your classes are used, PurgeCSS will strip out any unused styles, ensuring your CSS is as lean as possible.

2. Use Tailwind’s Configuration File

Tailwind’s configuration file (tailwind.config.js) is your best friend when it comes to customizing your design system. This file allows you to extend the default theme, add new utility classes, and even define custom screens and breakpoints.

For example, you can add custom colors to your theme:

module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        brand: {
          light: '#3fbaeb',
          DEFAULT: '#0fa9e6',
          dark: '#0c87b8',
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

This not only keeps your code DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) but also ensures consistency across your project.

3. Adopt a Mobile-First Approach

Tailwind encourages a mobile-first design methodology, which is an industry standard in modern web development. By default, Tailwind’s breakpoints are designed with mobile-first in mind:

<div class="text-center sm:text-left md:text-right">
  <!-- Your content here -->
</div>

In this example, the text is centered by default, left-aligned on small screens (sm), and right-aligned on medium screens (md). This approach ensures that your design adapts gracefully to different screen sizes.

4. Utilize Tailwind UI

To save even more time, consider integrating Tailwind UI, a library of pre-designed components built with Tailwind CSS. Tailwind UI provides a robust set of components, from navigation bars to form elements, which you can easily integrate into your project.

<div class="bg-gray-50">
  <div class="max-w-7xl mx-auto p-4 sm:p-6 lg:p-8">
    <!-- Tailwind UI component here -->
  </div>
</div>

Tailwind UI not only accelerates development but also ensures that your designs adhere to best practices in accessibility and responsiveness.

Try a built-in Tailwind UI library in UXPin Merge, a drag-and-drop design tool that helps you visualize UI with code-backed components that engineers use in production. If you can’t see a component in UXPin, you can use Custom Component and paste in the code from the Tailwind UI website or generate one with AI Component Creator. Try it for free. 

5. Optimize for Performance

Even with PurgeCSS, it’s essential to keep an eye on performance. Tailwind CSS can lead to an excessive number of classes in your markup. While this is generally not an issue, it’s good practice to use reusable components and minimize redundancy.

Moreover, consider using the @apply directive to create reusable styles within your CSS:

.btn-blue {
  @apply bg-blue-500 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded;
}

This approach reduces repetition in your HTML and keeps your codebase cleaner.

6. Stay Organized with Components

As your project grows, it’s crucial to maintain an organized codebase. Tailwind’s utility classes can lead to cluttered HTML if not managed properly. Grouping related classes together and using semantic class names can make your code more readable:

<button class="btn btn-blue">
  Click me
</button>

In this example, btn and btn-blue are reusable classes that encapsulate specific styles. This method enhances readability and simplifies future updates.

7. Integrate with a Design System

To get the most out of Tailwind CSS, integrate it with a design system. Tailwind’s utility-first approach aligns well with modern design systems, allowing you to create a consistent and scalable UI. This integration helps bridge the gap between designers and developers, ensuring that both are on the same page.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Overuse of Utility Classes

While utility classes are powerful, overusing them can lead to verbose and cluttered HTML. Strive for balance by using Tailwind’s @apply directive in your CSS to avoid repetitive code.

2. Ignoring Accessibility

Accessibility should never be an afterthought. Tailwind’s documentation provides guidance on how to build accessible UIs, but it’s your responsibility to implement these practices. Use appropriate ARIA attributes, and always consider users with disabilities.

3. Not Taking Advantage of the Full Ecosystem

Tailwind CSS is part of a larger ecosystem that includes Tailwind UI, Headless UI, and third-party plugins. Ignoring these resources can slow down your development process. Explore and integrate these tools to maximize your efficiency.

Conclusion

Tailwind CSS is a powerful framework that, when used correctly, can significantly enhance your front-end development workflow. By following the best practices outlined in this article—such as leveraging PurgeCSS, customizing the configuration file, and adopting a mobile-first approach—you can build responsive, maintainable, and scalable websites with ease.

Don’t forget to explore Tailwind UI for pre-built components that can save you time and ensure that your designs are both beautiful and functional. Tailwind’s utility-first approach might require a shift in mindset, but once mastered, it will become an indispensable part of your development toolkit.

As you refine your Tailwind CSS skills, why not take your front-end development to the next level with UXPin Merge? UXPin Merge allows you to use Tailwind UI components and create a unified design environment where design and development are perfectly aligned.

Imagine designing with real Tailwind components, complete with all the responsiveness and interactivity built in. No more static mockups or handoffs—just a seamless workflow where your designs are as close to the final product as possible. UXPin Merge ensures that what you design is exactly what you’ll get in production, saving time and reducing errors. Request access to UXPin Merge.

The post Tailwind Best Practices to Follow in 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

When building modern web applications, selecting the right UI library can make a significant difference in both development speed and user experience. For developers working with React, two of the most popular UI frameworks are Chakra UI and Material UI. Both offer extensive component libraries, robust customization options, and active community support, but they cater to different needs and design philosophies.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into a side-by-side comparison of Chakra UI and Material-UI to help you determine which framework best suits your project’s requirements in 2024. Whether you’re seeking a more flexible and minimalistic design approach or a framework that adheres strictly to material design guidelines, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each can empower you to make an informed decision.

Build advanced prototypes with code-backed components. UXPin Merge is a design technology that allows teams to build UI with their apps’ building blocks. It seamlessly integrates with React libraries, making it easier to bring your ideas to life while maintaining consistency and efficiency across your projects. Request access to UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Chakra UI vs Material UI – Feature Comparison

When selecting a UI library for your React projects, it’s essential to understand how each option can align with your design and development goals. Below, we break down the key features of Chakra UI and Material UI to help you decide which framework is the best fit for your needs.

Chakra UI and Material UI as Design Systems

A solid design system is the backbone of a cohesive user experience, and both Chakra UI and MUI (which Material UI is often called) offer robust theming capabilities. Chakra UI focuses on simplicity and flexibility, using design tokens to create a consistent look and feel across your application. Its theming system is intuitive, allowing for easy customization with built-in support for light and dark modes, as well as fine-grained control over typography, colors, and spacing.

Material UI, on the other hand, is built around Google’s Material Design guidelines, providing a more structured approach to design systems. It offers a comprehensive set of design tokens that help maintain visual consistency and coherence, especially for projects that adhere strictly to Material Design principles. The theming capabilities are powerful, allowing you to override almost any style or create custom themes tailored to your brand.

Quality of UI Components

A comprehensive component library is crucial for rapid development and design consistency. Chakra UI provides a wide array of accessible, lightweight components designed with flexibility in mind. Each component is fully customizable, ensuring that you can adapt the look and feel to match your project’s unique style. The library is continuously growing, with a strong focus on community feedback and contributions, making it ideal for developers who value versatility and simplicity.

Material UI offers one of the most extensive component libraries available for React. It provides a rich set of pre-designed components that align with Material Design specifications, ensuring a polished, professional look straight out of the box. MUI is particularly well-suited for projects that require a consistent, standardized design language, making it a great choice for enterprise applications or teams looking for a reliable, well-documented library.

Ease of Customization

Customization is key to creating a unique and engaging user experience, and both libraries excel in this area but with different approaches. Chakra UI is designed with developer experience in mind, offering an easy-to-use API and extensive documentation that make customizing components and themes a breeze. The library provides straightforward mechanisms for altering component styles through props, theme overrides, and style objects, allowing for rapid iterations and adjustments.

MUI also excels in customization, particularly for those familiar with CSS-in-JS. Its styling solution, based on Emotion or styled-components, gives you full control over component appearance, enabling deep customization through theme overrides and CSS variables. This flexibility allows developers to create highly personalized and responsive designs, although the learning curve may be steeper for those new to these styling methods.

Performance

Performance is a critical factor, especially for applications that need to deliver a seamless user experience. Chakra UI is known for its lightweight components and minimalistic approach, which can lead to faster load times and improved performance. The library emphasizes simplicity, which often results in smaller bundle sizes and more efficient rendering, making it an excellent choice for projects where performance is a top priority.

Material UI, while offering a richer set of components, may introduce a slightly larger bundle size due to its comprehensive features and dependencies. However, with careful tree-shaking and optimization, MUI can still deliver performant applications. It’s essential to consider the trade-offs between the out-of-the-box functionality and the potential impact on performance when choosing Material UI.

Accessibility

Accessibility should never be an afterthought, and both Chakra UI and Material UI prioritize building accessible applications. Chakra UI takes accessibility seriously by default, with components designed to be fully accessible and compliant with WAI-ARIA standards. The library’s commitment to accessibility ensures that developers can create inclusive experiences without additional overhead.

MUI also places a strong emphasis on accessibility, with many components built to support keyboard navigation, screen readers, and other assistive technologies. However, achieving full compliance may require additional configuration and testing, especially when deviating from the standard Material Design patterns. Both libraries offer a solid foundation for building accessible applications, but the choice may depend on how much customization and additional accessibility work you are willing to undertake.

By understanding these key features and how they align with your project’s goals, you can make an informed decision on whether Chakra UI or Material UI is the right choice for your next React application.

Chakra UI vs Material UI – Use Case Scenarios

Choosing between Chakra UI and Material UI depends on the specific needs of your project. Here’s when each library might be the better choice:

Use Chakra UI for:

• Custom Design Flexibility: Ideal for projects that need a unique, highly customizable design. Great for startups or applications with distinct branding.
• Performance: Perfect for performance-focused applications like dashboards and SPAs, where lightweight components and fast load times are crucial.
• Rapid Prototyping: Best for quick development cycles and MVPs, where simple APIs and easy customization allow for fast iteration.

Use Material UI for:

• Material Design Compliance: The go-to choice for projects that need to strictly follow Google’s Material Design guidelines, such as enterprise apps or internal tools.
• Rich Component Library: Excellent for applications requiring a wide range of pre-built components with extensive functionality, like CMS or CRM tools.
• Cross-Platform Consistency: Ideal for projects needing a consistent look and feel across different devices and platforms, ensuring brand uniformity.

These scenarios will help you decide whether Chakra UI or Material UI is the best fit for your project, based on your specific requirements and goals.

Community and Ecosystem of Chakra UI vs MUI

Choosing the right UI library often depends on the community support and ecosystem surrounding it.

Popularity and Community Support

Chakra UI

Chakra UI has quickly gained popularity in the React community, with over 37.3k stars on GitHub. It has an active user base, with many developers contributing to its growth through plugins and extensions.

The community is very supportive, often engaging on platforms like Discord and GitHub, where developers can share ideas, seek help, and contribute to the library’s ongoing development. This vibrant community ensures that Chakra UI remains well-maintained and up-to-date, with frequent updates and improvements.

Material UI 

MUI is one of the most established and widely used React UI libraries, with over 92.5k stars on GitHub. It has a large and active community, reflected in its extensive documentation, numerous plugins, and strong presence on forums like Stack Overflow.

Material UI’s long-standing presence has helped it build a robust ecosystem, making it a highly supported option for developers looking for reliable community backing.

Availability of Plugins and Extensions

Chakra UI

Chakra UI has a growing ecosystem with various third-party plugins and extensions that enhance its functionality. While it is relatively newer compared to Material-UI, its modular design encourages developers to create and share plugins, expanding the core library’s capabilities. This community-driven approach ensures that Chakra UI continually evolves with new features and improvements.

Material UI

Material UI boasts a well-established ecosystem of third-party plugins and extensions due to its long-standing presence in the React community. With a wide range of additional component libraries, themes, and utility packages available, developers have access to a broad array of tools to enhance their applications. This extensive ecosystem allows for easy customization and expansion, making Material UI suitable for projects of all sizes.

Documentation and Community Support

Chakra UI

Chakra UI is known for its well-organized and comprehensive documentation, which includes detailed guides, API references, and examples for both beginners and advanced users. The community support is also very responsive, especially on platforms like GitHub and Discord, where maintainers and contributors actively help resolve issues and answer questions.

Material UI

MUI offers extensive documentation that is regularly updated to reflect new features and changes. The documentation includes thorough API references, guides, and examples, making it easy for developers to learn and use the library effectively. The community support is robust, with active participation across various forums, ensuring that developers can find answers and troubleshoot issues quickly.

Real-World Benchmarks: Chakra UI vs. Material-UI

When choosing a UI library, understanding real-world performance and practical applications is key. Here’s how Chakra UI and Material-UI stack up based on performance benchmarks and case studies:

Performance Benchmarks

Chakra UI

• Bundle Size: Chakra UI is known for its lightweight bundle, which is around 279.6 kB minified and 89.0 kB when compressed using GZIP. This compact size makes Chakra UI a great choice for smaller projects or applications where loading speed is a priority. Its minimalistic design ensures that applications built with Chakra UI load quickly and efficiently.
• Performance: Designed with a CSS-in-JS approach, Chakra UI allows for dynamic styling but may introduce some performance overhead in applications that handle a large amount of data or require extensive real-time updates. However, for most small to medium-sized projects, Chakra UI performs exceptionally well, providing a balance between performance and customization​.

Material UI

• Bundle Size: Material-UI’s bundle is slightly larger, coming in at around 335.3 kB minified and 93.7 kB when compressed with GZIP. While this size is larger than Chakra UI, Material-UI employs several optimization techniques like tree-shaking and lazy loading to minimize its impact on performance. These techniques help manage the library’s size effectively, making it a viable choice even for large-scale projects.
• Performance: Material-UI is known for its efficiency in handling large, complex applications. It excels in scenarios that demand a robust UI framework capable of managing numerous components and styles, thanks to its efficient runtime performance. This makes it particularly suitable for enterprise-level applications where a comprehensive set of components and consistent design are crucial​.

Case Studies and Testimonials

Chakra UI

Adopted by companies like Coinbase and Brex, Chakra UI is praised for its simplicity and flexibility. These companies use Chakra UI to create user interfaces that are highly customizable and easy to iterate upon, highlighting its suitability for projects that require quick development and frequent design changes. Developers often commend Chakra UI for its intuitive API and ease of use, which facilitate the creation of accessible, performant user interfaces​.

Material UI

Trusted by major companies such as Spotify, NASA, and Netflix, Material-UI is celebrated for its reliability and ability to handle large-scale, complex applications. These organizations rely on Material-UI for its extensive component library, which adheres strictly to Material Design principles, ensuring a cohesive and polished look across various platforms. Material-UI’s robust community support and detailed documentation further enhance its appeal for developers working on enterprise-level projects​.

Final words – Chakra UI vs Material UI

Chakra UI is ideal for small to medium-sized projects that require a lightweight and highly customizable UI library with an intuitive API. It offers a smaller bundle size, which improves loading times, and built-in support for responsive design, making it a strong choice for performance-focused applications.

However, it may struggle with performance in data-heavy applications due to its CSS-in-JS approach and has fewer pre-styled components compared to MUI.

On the other hand, Material UI is better suited for larger, enterprise-level projects that require a robust, feature-rich UI framework. It provides a comprehensive set of pre-styled components that follow Material Design principles, ensuring consistency and a polished look.

While Material UI has a larger bundle size, it employs optimization techniques to enhance performance in complex applications. It also has a steeper learning curve and offers less flexibility for creating unique designs that deviate from Material Design guidelines. Choosing between these libraries depends on your project’s size, performance needs, and customization requirements.

UXPin Merge is a powerful technology that bridges the gap between design and development by allowing both teams to use the exact same components in their workflows. With Merge, designers can create high-fidelity prototypes using real React components directly from the developer’s codebase, ensuring a true-to-life representation of the final product. This approach eliminates the discrepancies often found between design and development, leading to a more streamlined process and faster iterations. Request access to UXPin Merge.

The post Chakra UI vs Material UI – Detailed Comparison for 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

A React Hook is a special function in React that lets developers use state and other React features without writing a class. It makes code simpler and easier to manage by allowing functionality to be added directly within components.

React Hooks makes the code easier to read and write. It simplifies state management, enhances performance, and helps reuse logic across multiple components, making behavior consistent and easy to predict.

Building a React app? Simplify designing user interface with UXPin Merge. Arrange React components on the design canvas, manage their properties, and copy the code behind them to the dev environment. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is a React Hook?

A React Hook is a special function provided by the React library that allows developers to use state and other React features in functional components.

Before the introduction of hooks, functional components were stateless and lacked lifecycle methods, limiting their capabilities compared to class components. Hooks solve this by enabling state management and access to lifecycle features within functional components, making them more powerful and versatile.

What does a Hook do?

A React Hook is a special function that allows you to “hook into” React features and lifecycle methods within functional components. Hooks enable you to use state, manage side effects, access context, and perform other tasks that were previously only possible with class components.

Why Hooks were introduced?

Hooks were introduced in React 16.8 to address several key issues and enhance the functionality of functional components. 

Before Hooks, functional components were stateless and could not directly handle side effects, which limited their utility. Developers often had to convert functional components to class components to incorporate state or lifecycle methods. Hooks resolved this limitation by enabling functional components to be stateful and manage side effects, making them more powerful and flexible. 

Additionally, sharing stateful logic between class components could be cumbersome and repetitive, often relying on patterns like render props and higher-order components (HOCs) that led to complex and less readable code. 

Hooks improve code reusability and composition by allowing stateful logic to be extracted into reusable functions. They also simplify and clean up the code, eliminating the verbosity and complexity associated with class components and using this keyword. 

By encapsulating and isolating related logic within custom hooks, Hooks enhances the codebase’s maintainability, making it easier to understand and manage. Furthermore, Hooks are backwards-compatible, allowing for gradual adoption. This means existing class components can remain unchanged while new components can be developed using Hooks, facilitating a smoother project transition.

How many Hooks are in React?

In the latest version of React, v18.3.1, a total of 15 React Hooks are available.
Let’s begin by stating some of the most widely used ones.

1. useState
2. useEffect
3. useContext
4. useReducer
5. useMemo
6. useRef
7. useCallback
8. useId
9. useDebugValue
10. useDeferredValue
11. useImperativeHandle
12. useInsertionEffect
13. useLayoutEffect
14. useSyncExternalStore
15. useTransition

Two new hooks on the horizon are currently in an experimental state and outside the scope of this article.

16. useActionState
17. useOptimistic

Types of React Hooks with Examples

Let’s delve into the functionality of each hook through individual examples.

1. useState

useState allows functional components to have state variables.

import React, { useState } from 'react';

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>You clicked {count} times</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>
        Click me
      </button>
    </div>
  );
}

Inside the Counter function, the useState Hook creates a state variable called count, initialized to 0. The setCount function is used to update this state.

When rendered, this component displays the number of times the button has been clicked. Each click updates the count state, causing the component to re-render and display the updated count.

2. useEffect

useEffect performs side effects in functional components, such as data fetching, subscriptions, or manually changing the DOM.

import React, { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

function DataFetcher() {

  const [data, setData] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {

    fetch('https://api.example.com/data')

      .then(response => response.json())

      .then(data => setData(data));

  }, []); // Empty array ensures the effect runs only once

  return (

    <div>

      {data ? <pre>{JSON.stringify(data, null, 2)}</pre> : 'Loading...'}

    </div>

  );

}

The useEffect Hook performs a side effect when the component mounts. The empty dependency array [] ensures this effect runs only once when the component mounts.

When rendered, this component fetches data from the specified API once, updates the state with the fetched data, and displays it. While the data is being fetched, it shows a loading message.

3. useContext

useContext allows functional components to subscribe to context changes.

import React, { useContext } from 'react';

import { ThemeContext } from './ThemeContext';

function ThemedButton() {

  const theme = useContext(ThemeContext);

  return (

    <button style={{ background: theme.background, color: theme.color }}>

      I am styled by theme context!

    </button>

  );

}

Inside the ThemedButton function, the useContext Hook is used to access the current value of ThemeContext. The useContext Hook returns the context value, which is stored in the theme variable.

When rendered, this component displays a button styled according to the theme provided by ThemeContext.

4. useReducer

useReducer manages state with a reducer, an alternative to useState for more complex state logic.

import React, { useReducer } from 'react';

const initialState = { count: 0 };

function reducer(state, action) {

  switch (action.type) {

    case 'increment':

      return { count: state.count + 1 };

    case 'decrement':

      return { count: state.count - 1 };

    default:

      throw new Error();

  }

}

function Counter() {

  const [state, dispatch] = useReducer(reducer, initialState);

  return (

    <div>

      <p>Count: {state.count}</p>

      <button onClick={() => dispatch({ type: 'increment' })}>+</button>

      <button onClick={() => dispatch({ type: 'decrement' })}>-</button>

    </div>

  );

}

Inside the Counter function, the useReducer Hook is used to manage the component’s state. useReducer takes the reducer function and initialState as arguments. It returns the current state (state) and a dispatch function to send actions to the reducer.

When rendered, this component displays the current count and provides buttons to increment and decrement the count, updating the state accordingly.

5. useMemo

useMemo optimizes performance by memoizing a calculated value, preventing expensive recalculations on every render.

import React, { useState, useMemo } from 'react';

// An example function that simulates an expensive calculation
function expensiveCalculation(num) {
  console.log('Calculating...');
  for (let i = 0; i < 1000000000; i++) {} // Simulate a heavy calculation
  return num * 2;
}

function MemoExample() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');

  // useMemo to memoize the result of the expensive calculation
  const calculatedValue = useMemo(() => {
    return expensiveCalculation(count);
  }, [count]); // Only re-calculate if 'count' changes

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useMemo Example</h1>
      <div>
        <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment Count</button>
        <p>Count: {count}</p>
        <p>Calculated Value: {calculatedValue}</p>
      </div>
      <div>
        <input 
          type="text" 
          value={input} 
          onChange={(e) => setInput(e.target.value)} 
          placeholder="Type something..."
        />
        <p>Input: {input}</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default MemoExample;

The useMemo hook is used to memoize the result of expensiveCalculation(count). The function is only called again if the count changes, thus optimizing performance by skipping unnecessary recalculations.

The dependency array [count] ensures that the memoized value is only recalculated when count changes, not when other state variables like input change.

The component includes buttons to increment the count and an input field to show that changes to other state variables do not trigger the expensive calculation.

6. useRef

useRef provides a way to access and persist a mutable value across renders, often used to directly interact with DOM elements.

import React, { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';

function FocusInput() {
  const inputRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Automatically focus the input element when the component mounts
    inputRef.current.focus();
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useRef Example</h1>
      <input ref={inputRef} type="text" placeholder="Focus on mount" />
    </div>
  );
}

export default FocusInput;

The useRef hook creates a reference object (inputRef) that is used to directly access the DOM element. Inside the FocusInput component, the useEffect hook is used to automatically focus the input element when the component mounts.

7. useCallback

This hook memoizes a function, ensuring that the same instance is used across renders unless its dependencies change, which helps optimize performance by preventing unnecessary re-renders or re-executions of effects.

import React, { useState, useCallback } from 'react';

function ChildComponent({ onClick }) {
  return (
    <button onClick={onClick}>Click me</button>
  );
}

function ParentComponent() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  const [text, setText] = useState('');

  // useCallback to memoize the increment function
  const increment = useCallback(() => {
    setCount(prevCount => prevCount + 1);
  }, []); // Empty array ensures the function is memoized only once

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useCallback Example</h1>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <ChildComponent onClick={increment} />
      <input 
        type="text" 
        value={text} 
        onChange={(e) => setText(e.target.value)} 
        placeholder="Type something..."
      />
    </div>
  );
}

export default ParentComponent;

The useCallback hook memoizes the increment function, which increments the count state. This memoization ensures that the increment function maintains the same reference across renders, preventing unnecessary re-renders of the ChildComponent which receives it as a prop.

The useCallback hook takes the function to be memoized as its first argument and an array of dependencies as the second argument. Here, the empty array [] ensures the function is created only once.

This setup optimizes performance by reducing the number of times ChildComponent re-renders, which is especially beneficial in larger applications.

8. useId

The useId hook generates unique IDs that can be used to associate form inputs with their corresponding labels. Inside the Form component, useId is called to create a unique id which is then used to construct id attributes for the form elements.

import React, { useId } from 'react';

function Form() {
  // Generate unique IDs
  const id = useId();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useId Example</h1>
      <form>
        <div>
          <label htmlFor={`${id}-name`}>Name:</label>
          <input id={`${id}-name`} type="text" placeholder="Enter your name" />
        </div>
        <div>
          <label htmlFor={`${id}-email`}>Email:</label>
          <input id={`${id}-email`} type="email" placeholder="Enter your email" />
        </div>
      </form>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Form;

The label elements use the htmlFor attribute to reference these unique IDs, ensuring proper accessibility and form behaviour. 

This approach is particularly useful when creating multiple-form fields that need unique identifiers, avoiding potential conflicts or duplications in the DOM.

9. useDebugValue

This hook provides a way to display custom labels for custom hooks in React DevTools, helping with debugging and understanding the hook’s behaviour.

import React, { useState, useEffect, useDebugValue } from 'react';

// Custom hook that uses useDebugValue
function useFriendStatus(friendID) {
  const [isOnline, setIsOnline] = useState(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    function handleStatusChange(status) {
      setIsOnline(status.isOnline);
    }

    // Simulate subscribing to a friend's status
    const mockAPI = {
      subscribe: (id, callback) => {
        callback({ isOnline: Math.random() > 0.5 });
      },
      unsubscribe: (id, callback) => {},
    };

    mockAPI.subscribe(friendID, handleStatusChange);

    return () => {
      mockAPI.unsubscribe(friendID, handleStatusChange);
    };
  }, [friendID]);

  // Use useDebugValue to display a label in React DevTools
  useDebugValue(isOnline ? 'Online' : 'Offline');

  return isOnline;
}

function FriendListItem({ friend }) {
  const isOnline = useFriendStatus(friend.id);

  return (
    <li style={{ color: isOnline ? 'green' : 'gray' }}>
      {friend.name} {isOnline ? 'Online' : 'Offline'}
    </li>
  );
}

function FriendList() {
  const friends = [
    { id: 1, name: 'Alice' },
    { id: 2, name: 'Bob' },
  ];

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useDebugValue Example</h1>
      <ul>
        {friends.map(friend => (
          <FriendListItem key={friend.id} friend={friend} />
        ))}
      </ul>
    </div>
  );
}

export default FriendList;

The useFriendStatus custom hook manages the online status of a friend by subscribing to and unsubscribing from a simulated API based on the friendID.

Inside useFriendStatus, useDebugValue is used to provide a custom label (‘Online’ or ‘Offline’) for the hook’s value. This label is displayed in React DevTools, making it easier to debug and understand the hook’s behaviour.

The FriendListItem component uses the useFriendStatus hook to get the online status of a friend and styles the friend’s name accordingly. The FriendList component renders a list of friends, demonstrating how useDebugValue can help with debugging custom hooks in a real-world scenario.

Here is how it will show on the React Developer Tools.

10. useDeferredValue

This hook defers the re-rendering of a value to avoid blocking the main thread, useful for improving performance when updating the state with expensive computations or rendering.

import React, { useState, useDeferredValue, useMemo } from 'react';

function List({ items }) {
  const deferredItems = useDeferredValue(items);
  const renderedItems = useMemo(() => {
    return deferredItems.map((item, index) => (
      <li key={index}>{item}</li>
    ));
  }, [deferredItems]);

  return <ul>{renderedItems}</ul>;
}

function App() {
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');
  const [list, setList] = useState([]);

  const handleChange = (e) => {
    setInput(e.target.value);
    const newList = Array.from({ length: 10000 }, (_, index) => `${e.target.value} ${index}`);
    setList(newList);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useDeferredValue Example</h1>
      <input type="text" value={input} onChange={handleChange} placeholder="Type something..." />
      <List items={list} />
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

In this example, the useDeferredValue hook is used to defer the re-rendering of the list state, which contains a large number of items.

The List component receives the list as a prop and uses useDeferredValue to defer the rendering of the items. The deferred value (deferredItems) ensures that the main thread is not blocked by expensive rendering operations, improving performance. The useMemo hook is used to memoize the list of rendered items, preventing unnecessary re-renders.

11. useImperativeHandle

Customizes the instance value that is exposed when using ref with a component. This is useful for controlling what is accessible to parent components, particularly when dealing with complex child component APIs.

import React, { useRef, useImperativeHandle, forwardRef } from 'react';

// Child component that exposes a custom instance value using useImperativeHandle
const CustomInput = forwardRef((props, ref) => {
  const inputRef = useRef();

  useImperativeHandle(ref, () => ({
    focus: () => {
      inputRef.current.focus();
    },
    clear: () => {
      inputRef.current.value = '';
    },
  }));

  return <input ref={inputRef} type="text" placeholder="Enter something" />;
});

function ParentComponent() {
  const inputRef = useRef();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useImperativeHandle Example</h1>
      <CustomInput ref={inputRef} />
      <button onClick={() => inputRef.current.focus()}>Focus Input</button>
      <button onClick={() => inputRef.current.clear()}>Clear Input</button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default ParentComponent;

This example defines a React functional component called ParentComponent that demonstrates the use of the useImperativeHandle hook within a child component named CustomInput. The useImperativeHandle hook is used to expose custom methods (focus and clear) to the parent component through a ref.

Inside the CustomInput component, a local ref (inputRef) is created using useRef to reference the actual input element. The useImperativeHandle hook takes the parent ref and a function that returns an object containing the methods you want to expose. In this case, the focus method sets focus on the input, and the clear method clears the input value.

The ParentComponent uses a ref (inputRef) to interact with the CustomInput component. By clicking the “Focus Input” button, the input field gains focus, and by clicking the “Clear Input” button, the input field is cleared. These interactions are made possible by the custom instance methods defined using useImperativeHandle.

12. useInsertionEffect

It runs a function synchronously before all DOM mutations, ideal for injecting styles or manipulating the DOM in a way that needs to happen before browser painting.

A pitfall of using this: useInsertionEffect is for CSS-in-JS library authors. Unless you are working on a CSS-in-JS library and need a place to inject the styles, you probably want useEffect or useLayoutEffect instead.

import React, { useState, useInsertionEffect } from 'react';

function StyledComponent() {
  const [color, setColor] = useState('blue');

  useInsertionEffect(() => {
    // Inject a style directly into the document head before DOM mutations
    const style = document.createElement('style');
    style.textContent = `
      .dynamic-color {
        color: ${color};
      }
    `;
    document.head.appendChild(style);

    // Clean up the injected style on component unmount
    return () => {
      document.head.removeChild(style);
    };
  }, [color]);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1 className="dynamic-color">useInsertionEffect Example</h1>
      <button onClick={() => setColor('red')}>Change to Red</button>
      <button onClick={() => setColor('green')}>Change to Green</button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default StyledComponent;

This example defines a React functional component called StyledComponent that demonstrates the use of the useInsertionEffect hook. The useInsertionEffect hook is used to inject a style into the document head synchronously before any DOM mutations occur.

Inside the StyledComponent component, the colour state is used to track the colour of the text. The useInsertionEffect hook is triggered whenever the colour state changes. It creates a new <style> element with the updated colour and appends it to the document head. This ensures that the styles are applied before the browser paints the changes.

The component also includes buttons to change the colour of the text, update the colour state and trigger the useInsertionEffect hook to update the styles accordingly. This setup is particularly useful for scenarios where styles need to be injected or manipulated before the DOM is painted, ensuring a smooth and flicker-free user experience.

13. useLayoutEffect

Runs synchronously after all DOM mutations but before the browser paints, useful for reading layout and synchronously re-rendering.

A pitfall of using this: useLayoutEffect can hurt performance. Prefer useEffect when possible.

import React, { useState, useLayoutEffect, useRef } from 'react';

function ResizableBox() {
  const [size, setSize] = useState({ width: 100, height: 100 });
  const boxRef = useRef();

  useLayoutEffect(() => {
    const handleResize = () => {
      const { offsetWidth, offsetHeight } = boxRef.current;
      setSize({ width: offsetWidth, height: offsetHeight });
    };

    window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
    handleResize(); // Initial size update

    return () => window.removeEventListener('resize', handleResize);
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useLayoutEffect Example</h1>
      <div
        ref={boxRef}
        style={{
          width: '50%',
          height: '50%',
          backgroundColor: 'lightblue',
          resize: 'both',
          overflow: 'auto',
        }}
      >
        Resize me!
      </div>
      <p>
        Width: {size.width}px, Height: {size.height}px
      </p>
    </div>
  );
}

export default ResizableBox;

This example defines a React functional component called ResizableBox that demonstrates the use of the useLayoutEffect hook. The useLayoutEffect hook is used to measure and update the size of a resizable box synchronously after DOM mutations but before the browser paints.

Inside the ResizableBox component, the size state is used to track the width and height of the box. The boxRef is a reference to the box element. The useLayoutEffect hook sets up a resize event listener that updates the size state with the current dimensions of the box. It also triggers an initial size update.

The box element is styled to be resizable, and its dimensions are displayed below it. Using useLayoutEffect ensures that the size measurements are accurate and up-to-date before the browser paints, providing a smooth and flicker-free resizing experience.

14. useSyncExternalStore

useSyncExternalStore is used for subscribing to an external store that is not managed by React, ensuring that the component synchronously re-renders with the latest store state.

import React, { useState, useEffect, useSyncExternalStore } from 'react';

// Simulated external store
const store = {
  state: 0,
  listeners: new Set(),
  subscribe(listener) {
    store.listeners.add(listener);
    return () => store.listeners.delete(listener);
  },
  increment() {
    store.state += 1;
    store.listeners.forEach((listener) => listener());
  },
  getState() {
    return store.state;
  },
};

function useStoreState() {
  return useSyncExternalStore(
    (callback) => store.subscribe(callback),
    () => store.getState()
  );
}

function Counter() {
  const state = useStoreState();

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useSyncExternalStore Example</h1>
      <p>Count: {state}</p>
      <button onClick={() => store.increment()}>Increment</button>
    </div>
  );
}

export default Counter;

In this example, a simulated external store is created with a state, a set of listeners, and methods to subscribe to the store, increment the state and get the current state. The useStoreState custom hook uses useSyncExternalStore to subscribe to the store and return to the current state.

Inside the Counter component, the state variable holds the current state from the external store. The component displays the state and includes a button to increment the state. When the button is clicked, the store increment method updates the store state and notifies all subscribed listeners, causing the Counter component to re-render with the new state.

15. useTransition

useTransition allows you to mark state updates as non-urgent, which can help improve UI responsiveness by deferring non-essential updates until more urgent updates have been processed.

import React, { useState, useTransition } from 'react';

function SlowList({ items }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {items.map((item, index) => (
        <li key={index}>{item}</li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  );
}

function App() {
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');
  const [list, setList] = useState([]);
  const [isPending, startTransition] = useTransition();

  const handleChange = (e) => {
    setInput(e.target.value);
    startTransition(() => {
      const newList = Array.from({ length: 20000 }, (_, index) => `${e.target.value} ${index}`);
      setList(newList);
    });
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <h1>useTransition Example</h1>
      <input type="text" value={input} onChange={handleChange} placeholder="Type something..." />
      {isPending ? <p>Loading...</p> : <SlowList items={list} />}
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

This example defines a React functional component called App that demonstrates the use of the useTransition hook. 

Inside the App component, the input state tracks the value of a text input, and the list state holds a large array of items. The isPending state indicates whether a transition is pending, and the startTransition function is used to start the transition.

The handleChange function updates the input state immediately when the user types in the input field. It then uses startTransition to defer the update of the list state, creating a new array of items based on the input value. This defers the expensive operation of generating a large list, improving the responsiveness of the input field.

The SlowList component renders the list of items. While the transition is pending, a loading message is displayed.

Should you learn all React Hooks?

Whether you should learn all React Hooks depends on your specific needs and goals. While it’s beneficial to have a good understanding of the commonly used React Hooks like useState, useEffect, and useContext, you may not necessarily need to learn every single hook in detail, especially if some are more specialized and less commonly used in your projects.

Focus on learning the hooks that are relevant to your current or planned projects. As you gain more experience with React, you can explore additional hooks as needed. It’s also important to stay updated with the React documentation and community to understand new hooks and best practices as they emerge.

React Hooks Best Practices

Here are some best practices for using React Hooks. First, let’s start with the rules for using React Hooks:

1. Only call Hooks at the top level

Do not call Hooks within loops, conditions, nested functions, or try/catch/finally blocks. Instead, ensure that Hooks are always used at the top level of your React function, preceding any early returns. You can learn more about it in detail here.

2. Only call Hooks from React functions

Avoid using Hooks within regular JavaScript functions; instead, utilize them within React function components or custom Hooks. Learn in detail here.

3. Components and Hooks must be pure

Components should be idempotent, returning consistent output based on their inputs (props, state, and context), while side effects are best executed outside the render phase to prevent multiple renders and maintain user experience integrity. React official docs wrote about it in more detail.

4. React calls Components and Hooks

Avoid directly calling component functions outside JSX; instead, use them within JSX elements. Similarly, refrain from passing hooks as regular values; use them exclusively within components to maintain proper functionality. Learn in detail here.

5. Avoid Unnecessary Dependencies in useEffect

Be cautious when adding dependencies to the dependency array of useEffect. Ensure that all dependencies are necessary for the effect to run correctly and avoid unnecessary re-renders.

6. Use Descriptive Names

Choose descriptive names for your custom hooks to make their purpose clear. This improves code readability and helps other developers understand the intent of the hook.

7. Separation of Concerns

Break down complex logic into smaller, reusable hooks. This promotes code modularity and makes it easier to test and maintain your codebase.

8. Keep Hooks Simple

Aim to keep individual hooks focused on a single concern. Avoid creating overly complex hooks that handle multiple unrelated tasks.

9. Document Your Hooks

Provide clear documentation and examples for your custom hooks to help other developers understand how to use them effectively. Include information about parameters, return values, and usage guidelines.

10. Test Your Hooks

Write unit tests for your custom hooks to ensure they behave as expected under different scenarios. Use testing libraries like React Testing Library or Jest to test hooks in isolation.

Build React apps faster

React Hooks have revolutionized the way developers build and manage state in functional components, making React development more efficient and code more maintainable.

If you’re creating a React app, start with planning! Use UXPin Merge to create a layout of your app’s interface, test it with users, and then, copy the production-ready code to develop the app. Try UXPin Merge for free and design portals, dashboards, and more apps with coded React components. Try UXPin Merge.

The post React Hooks – Examples, Definitions, and Best Practices appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

If you are looking to make your web application available to the public, then this article is for you. Today, Aneeqa will guide you through the detailed steps for deploying your ReactJS App created using UXPin Merge.

UXPin Merge is an invaluable tool for crafting stunning web applications effortlessly, sans any coding. By leveraging its array of built-in components, you can generate functional code, eliminating the necessity for a dedicated designer within your team.

While this plugin is predominantly accessible through paid plans tailored to various requirements, it’s also available for a 14-day trial period, allowing users to explore its capabilities firsthand. Try it for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is React app deployment?

React app deployment is the process of making your React web application available online for users to access. 

To deploy your app, first, ensure that your code is optimized and ready for production. Then, choose a hosting service like GitHub Pages, Heroku, Netlify, or AWS Amplify where you’ll upload your app files. 

GitHub Pages allows you to host static websites directly from your GitHub repositories. Heroku provides a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that enables developers to deploy, manage, and scale web applications effortlessly. Netlify offers a hosting platform with features like continuous deployment, and built-in CDN. AWS Amplify is a cloud platform that offers a comprehensive set of tools and services for building and deploying full-stack serverless and cloud-based web applications.

After deployment, thoroughly test your app across different devices and browsers to ensure it functions correctly. Monitor its performance, and optimize resources as needed. 

Finally, streamline future updates by implementing version control and automation techniques. 

By following these steps, you can effectively deploy and maintain your React app for users to enjoy.

Step 1: Create a React app

Firstly, let’s create a dashboard application to monitor analytics, order history, and sales.

1. Go to the UXPin Merge website and start the trial.
2. It’ll take you to the register account page. Enter your details and create your free account.
3. After your registration, it’ll take you to the dashboard screen which contains some trial kits with Ant Design, MUI and Bootstrap. 

4. I selected the MUI Trial Kit. It has some design examples available like a Store example, a Dashboard example, and a Blog example. You can also create your prototype by the bottom left button click.

5. I selected the dashboard prototype and clicked preview. You can also edit the design by clicking on the “Edit Design” button on mouse hover.

6. After you are satisfied with your application, you can get the code easily by switching to the “</>Spec” tab from the top menu bar.

7. Here you can copy the code, open it in StackBlitz, or download the application. I selected the download option. 
8. Open your app in StackBlitz and copy the package.json file code. You’ll need it later for running it on the local environment.
9. Once your application code is downloaded. Unzip it and add the package.json file to it. Now paste the downloaded package.json file code.
10. Run the following command to download the node modules and plugins and run the app on the local environment.

npm i && npm start

You’ve created the dashboard application in just 2 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare the app for deployment

We’ll do the following steps to prepare the app for the deployment process:

1. Optimise the code: Check for all the unnecessary code and dependencies and remove it. It’ll help you minimise the size of your application. For instance, by installing and activating the ESLint extension in your VS Code editor, you can receive warnings about unused code and unnecessary dependencies.

2. Update Dependencies: Make sure that all the dependencies are up-to-date. Run the following command in the terminal to update packages to the latest version.

npm update

3. Enable Production Mode: Generate optimised production build by running the following command in the terminal.

npm run build

It’ll create a build file in the build/static/js folder of your app.

Step 3: Choose a hosting service

Choosing the right hosting service for your React application is crucial for its performance, scalability, and security.

It all starts with identifying your needs and considering factors such as expected traffic volume, scalability needs, budget constraints, technical expertise, and specific features required for your app.

Some popular hosting options are AWS Amplify, Netlify, Vercel, Heroku, Firebase, and traditional web hosting providers like Bluehost and DigitalOcean.

But today I want to focus only on Vercel (formerly Zeit Now), which provides a free tier for hosting static and server-rendered applications, including React apps. It offers features like automatic deployments from Git, custom domains, SSL encryption, and serverless functions.

You can also view real-time performance metrics such as response time, latency, and error rates for your deployed applications from the Vercel dashboard.

Step 4: Deploy the React app

To deploy the app on Vercel, we first need to make our code available on GitHub. 

1. Simply create an account on GitHub and create a new repository. Type the name for your repo and make sure to make it public for deployment purposes.

2. After creating the repo, it will take you to the repo creation screen. You can select to commit the files or you can directly upload it in the repo.

3. Make sure to commit/upload all folders and files except the “node_modules” folder.
4. Create a README.md file in the root directory to give the description of the project and instructions to run or build the application. 

# Dashboard

React MUI dashboard web app created using UXPin Merge tool

To run the app in the local environment

npm start

To create a build

npm run build

5. Now go to the Vercel website and log in with your GitHub account. It will take you to the Vercel dashboard.
6. Go to the Overview tab, click the “Add New” button from the right-hand side and select the “Project” from the dropdown.

7. It will take you to another screen to select the repo from your GitHub account. I selected my dashboard repo and clicked import.

8. After import is done, click the “Deploy” button at the bottom of the screen to deploy your web app.

9. Vercel will start the deployment process.

10. After the deployment is done (usually takes a few seconds), it will take you to another screen to display that the application is deployed. It also shows you the next steps you can take such as “Add Domain”, “Enable Speed Insights” etc.

11. Now click on the deployed app image from the above screen or go to the dashboard by clicking the “Continue to Dashboard” button from the top. 

12. Here you can either click the “Visit” button or the link mentioned below the “Domains”. It will take you to the deployed web application.
13. Now you can add this deployed app link in your README.md file in GitHub.

Live [Demo](https://dashboard-uxpin.vercel.app/)

Step 5: Test the React app

Testing an app after deployment is crucial to ensure that it functions correctly and delivers a seamless user experience in the production environment.

• Cross-Browser Testing: Test your app across different web browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) to ensure compatibility and consistent behaviour.
• Mobile Responsiveness Testing: Test your React app on various mobile devices and screen sizes to ensure it’s responsive and displays correctly on smartphones and tablets.

Here is an example of using the browser developer tool by toggling the device toolbar.

• Integration Testing: If your React app integrates with external services or APIs, perform integration testing to verify that data is being exchanged correctly and that integrations are functioning as expected. But our dashboard app doesn’t have any API integration yet so we do not need it.

Step 6: Monitor performance

Monitoring the performance of your web application is crucial to ensure its reliability and optimal user experience.

Here’s how you can monitor the performance of your web app in Vercel:

Deployment Logs

Check the deployment logs for your app in Vercel to monitor the deployment process and identify any issues or errors that may occur during deployment. 

You can see it on the Vercel dashboard by selecting the “Logs” tab.

Enable Speed Insights

Vercel Speed Insights provides a detailed view of your website’s performance metrics, facilitating informed decisions for its optimization. 

You can enable this feature by following these simple steps.

1. Go to the “Speed Insights” tab from the top toolbar in the Vercel dashboard.

2. Install the package by running this command

npm i @vercel/speed-insights

3. Add the <SpeedInsights/> component in the main file i.e., index.js 

import React from "react";

...

import { SpeedInsights } from "@vercel/speed-insights/react";

...

root.render(

 <div>

   <UXPinBox />

   <SpeedInsights />

 </div>,

 document.getElementById("root")

);

4. Push the code to the GitHub. Vercel will automatically start the build process.
5. You should start seeing the speed insights after some deployment. You can learn more about this here.

Enable Web Analytics

You can enable the web analytics on the Vercel dashboard to get valuable insights on user behaviour and site performance.

1. Go to the Web Analytics tab from the top toolbar and click the Enable button.

2. Select the paid or free option according to your project needs.

3. Next install the package by running this command.

npm i @vercel/analytics

4. Add the <Analytics/> component in the main file i.e., index.js

import React from "react";

...

import { Analytics } from '@vercel/analytics/react';

...

root.render(

 <div>

   <UXPinBox />

   <SpeedInsights />

   <Analytics />

 </div>,

 document.getElementById("root")

);

5. Deploy the application again and you can start seeing the analytics on the dashboard after some time.Learn more about Web Analytics from the Vercel Docs.

Step 7: Streamline future updates

Streamlining future updates in a Web app is essential for maintaining its relevance, fixing bugs, and adding new features efficiently.

Implement version control

Take advantage of version control systems like Git to manage changes to your React app’s codebase. By using branches, commits, and pull requests, you can track changes, collaborate with team members, and safely experiment with new features without risking the stability of your main codebase.

Adopt Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Set up CI/CD pipelines to automate the process of building, testing, and deploying your React app. CI/CD allows you to automatically run tests, verify code quality, and deploy updates to production environments with minimal manual intervention. This not only reduces the time and effort required for deployments but also ensures a consistent and reliable release process.

Implement feature flags

Introduce feature flags to control the release of new features in your React app. By toggling feature flags on and off, you can gradually roll out new features to specific user segments, gather feedback, and monitor performance before fully releasing them to all users. Feature flags also provide the flexibility to roll back changes quickly if any issues arise during deployment.

Invest in Automated Testing

Prioritize automated testing to ensure the stability and reliability of your React app. Write unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests to verify the functionality of individual components and the app as a whole. Integrate testing frameworks like Jest and Cypress into your CI/CD pipeline to automatically run tests on every code change, catching bugs early in the development process.

Stay Up-to-Date with Dependencies

Regularly update dependencies, including React, React Router, and other third-party libraries used in your app. Stay informed about new releases, security patches, and deprecations to keep your app up-to-date and secure. Tools like npm audit can help identify and address security vulnerabilities in your dependencies, ensuring the reliability and integrity of your app.

Conclusion

In wrapping up, deploying a React app involves more than just putting it online; it’s about guaranteeing its functionality, speed, and adaptability as it grows. By adhering to the steps outlined in this guide, you can deploy your React app confidently and position yourself for success in the long haul.

Starting from the creation phase using tools like UXPin Merge and moving through the optimisation of code and updates of dependencies, each step is vital in the deployment process. Selecting an appropriate hosting service, such as Vercel, and conducting thorough testing across various browsers and devices will ensure a seamless experience for your users.

Furthermore, monitoring performance metrics and collecting user feedback will help you pinpoint areas for enhancement and guide your decisions for future updates.

In essence, deploying a React app isn’t a one-and-done deal; it’s an ongoing journey of refinement and creativity. By embracing these best practices and maintaining a proactive stance, you can ensure that your React app continues to meet the evolving needs of your users and remains a valuable asset for your endeavours.

Build React app in minutes. Streamline design and front-end development workflows by using code-first design tool. With UXPin Merge AI product, you can create React app interfaces without having to learn React. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post How to Deploy a React App: Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

If you’re developing a web application that requires both robust backend functionalities and a flexible, stylish frontend, Laravel and Tailwind CSS make a perfect combination.

There are several other popular CSS frameworks and libraries you can use with Laravel. Tailwind CSS stands out from other CSS frameworks due to several distinctive features that cater to modern web development practices, such as utility-first approach, high customizability, and more.

Let’s see how to make Laravel and Tailwind CSS work together.

Generate code-backed Tailwind UI components with UXPin Merge. Its Merge AI plan allows you to generate complex Tailwind components with a prompt. Do you need a table, navigational menu or user profile card? Our AI component generator have your back! Use this feature and our built-in library to design UI that you can copy the code off. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Why Tailwind CSS works great with new Laravel projects

Tailwind CSS stands out from other CSS frameworks due to several distinctive features that cater to modern web development practices. Here are some reasons why Tailwind CSS might be a better choice than other frameworks depending on your specific project requirements:

1. Utility-First Approach: Tailwind CSS is built around the concept of utility-first, meaning it provides low-level utility classes that you apply directly in your HTML. This approach encourages you to think about styling in terms of constraints and systems rather than traditional semantic CSS, which can lead to more consistent and maintainable codebases.
2. High Customizability: Unlike frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, which come with predefined component styles, Tailwind allows developers to create custom designs without fighting against the default styles that need to be overridden. You can design unique UIs that don’t look like they come from the same template.
3. Responsive Design Made Simple: Tailwind makes it extremely easy to build responsive designs with its mobile-first philosophy. You can control every style of your application on different screen sizes using simple modifiers appended to your utility classes, such as md:, lg:, and so on.
4. No JavaScript Dependency: Tailwind doesn’t include any JavaScript by default, which makes it purely focused on styling. This can be a significant advantage if you want to control exactly what JavaScript runs on your site or if you prefer to use other libraries for interactivity.
5. PurgeCSS Integration: Tailwind integrates seamlessly with tools like PurgeCSS, which strips out unused CSS when building for production. This means that despite having thousands of utility classes, the final CSS bundle that goes to the client can be extremely small and fast-loading.
6. Rapid Prototyping: The utility-first approach lets you quickly see changes and iterate on design directly in the markup. This can speed up the process of experimenting with different designs and layouts without the overhead of going back and forth between CSS files and HTML.
7. Developer Experience: Tailwind provides a consistent and easy-to-remember set of utility classes that can reduce the cognitive load when styling elements. This can lead to faster development times and less context switching between HTML and CSS.
8. Growing Community and Ecosystem: Tailwind CSS has a rapidly growing community and an increasing number of plugins and integrations that extend its functionality, such as Tailwind UI for complete design patterns and components.

While Tailwind CSS offers numerous benefits, it’s important to consider that it does have a learning curve, especially for those accustomed to traditional CSS or more semantic frameworks. The choice between Tailwind and other frameworks should depend on your project needs, team familiarity, and specific preferences in web development workflows.

What are typical Laravel and Tailwind CSS use cases?

Tailwind CSS can be a fantastic choice for a wide range of Laravel projects due to its flexibility, customizability, and utility-first approach. Here are some types of Laravel projects where Tailwind CSS particularly shines:

Single Page Applications (SPAs)

For projects where Laravel serves as a backend API and the frontend may be handled by Vue.js, React, or another JavaScript framework, Tailwind CSS provides a quick and efficient way to style responsive layouts and components. Its utility-first approach allows developers to rapidly prototype and iterate on the UI design.

Dashboards and Admin Panels

Tailwind’s utility classes make it easy to create custom and responsive dashboards or admin panels. The framework’s responsiveness and component-driven structure are ideal for building complex UIs that require a high level of customization.

E-commerce Platforms

Tailwind can help create visually appealing and highly customized interfaces for e-commerce platforms built with Laravel. It supports diverse product displays, complex form inputs, and varied layouts that are common in e-commerce sites.

Blogs and Content Management Systems

Tailwind can be used to style blogs and CMS platforms, providing the flexibility to customize themes and layouts easily. Its utility classes help in quickly adjusting typography, spacing, and other elements crucial for content-driven sites.

Educational Websites

For websites that feature online learning or courses, Tailwind CSS can help design clear, readable, and engaging interfaces. It’s particularly useful for creating layout grids, text utilities, and responsive designs that enhance the user experience on educational platforms.

SaaS Products

Startups and businesses building SaaS products with Laravel as the backend can benefit from Tailwind’s scalable and maintainable styling approach. Tailwind facilitates the creation of a cohesive look and feel across the entire application, which is vital for brand consistency.

Marketing Websites

When using Laravel to build a marketing or portfolio website, Tailwind CSS’s design flexibility enables developers to implement creative, modern designs that stand out, without heavy reliance on custom CSS.

Social Networks

For social networking platforms with complex user interfaces, Tailwind CSS helps manage various UI components such as modals, dropdowns, timelines, and feed layouts effectively and responsively.

How to integrate Tailwind CSS with Laravel

You could go traditional route of setting up a Laravel project and instaling Tailwind CSS. Yet, we have a tool that will help you streamline front-end development — UXPin Merge. This is a UI builder for creating interfaces with Tailwind UI components. Thus, the first step of integrating Tailwind with Laravel is to do UI exploration in UXPin.

Step 1: Create UI design in UXPin

Go to UXPin and start a new project. Open a Tailwind UI library (an official Tailwind CSS library of reusable components) that’s available on Merge AI plan (or on free trial.) Choose components that your project requires and set up their properties. Can’t see a relevant component? Use AI Component Creator to generate a component you need.

Let’s say we’re building a marketing website. What’s cool about UXPin Merge is that you can copy the code from Tailwind UI library and paste it to UXPin’s editor, using an extra component in Tailwind UI library called Custom Component.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Tailwind UI > Hero Section
2. Copy the code by clicking the Copy icon in the top right corner.
3. Open UXPin’s prototype.
4. Copy the code in the Custom Component.
5. Pick another section and repeat the steps above.

This is the fastest way of building a code-based UI. If you need a custom section that you can’t find in the Tailwind UI resources, use AI Component Creator to generate one based on your prompt. We cover how to use it in this article: ChatGPT in UI Design.

Then, you can use Global Theming for Tailwind UI library in UXPin to make your design consistent.

Step 2: Set up a Laravel project

The next step is to set up a new Laravel project or open your existing one.

1. Install prerequisites such as PHP, Composer (dependency manager), and Node.js with npm.
2. Install Laravel using Composer if you’re starting a new project.
3. Open your Laravel project in Visual Studio Code or StackBlitz.
4. Install recommended VS Code extensions for Laravel development, such as PHP Intelephense and the Laravel Extension Pack.
5. Configure your environment by adjusting settings in the .env file.

Step 3: Install Tailwind CSS

Install Tailwind CSS via npm, setting up your tailwind.config.js, and configuring your CSS files to include Tailwind’s directives. You’ll also need to adjust your Webpack configuration through Laravel Mix to ensure that Tailwind’s build process is integrated into your asset compilation pipeline.

What you want to do is incorporate the UI design that you’ve created in UXPin into your project. You can copy the code off the component and incorporate it into the thing you’re building. You just need to use a code editor like Visual Studio Code or StackBlitz.

Just open the Preview mode in UXPin and switch to an Inspect tab. Click on the component and you will see that you get the code behind it. Copy it and paste it to your Laravel project.

We covered this step in this webinar:

Step 4: Serve your application

“Serving your application” refers to the process of running your web application on a local development server so that it can be accessed through a web browser. This is a crucial step during development because it allows you to view and interact with your application as it would appear and function on a live web server, albeit in a local and controlled environment.

When you serve a Laravel application, you typically use Laravel’s built-in development server, which can be started with the Artisan command-line tool.

Use Tailwind CSS with Laravel

For developers working on web applications that demand both strong backend capabilities and a stylish, adaptable frontend, Laravel paired with Tailwind CSS is an excellent choice. Unlike other CSS frameworks, Tailwind CSS offers unique advantages for modern web development, including a utility-first approach and extensive customizability. This article also explores how to integrate Laravel with Tailwind CSS effectively.

Quickly build code-backed UIs with UXPin Merge – a powerful UI builder that integrates the power of design and code, so you can create UI designs of your app with pre-built components, AI generation and quick code copy features. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Laravel and Tailwind CSS — A Quick Integration Guide appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Node.js and React.js are two popular technologies in web development, but they serve different purposes within the development stack. Node.js is a runtime environment used for backend services, while React is a front-end library focused on building user interfaces of web applications (frontend development).

Node.js and React.js are often used together in full-stack JavaScript applications to handle both server and client-side tasks effectively. Let’s examine them up close and decide if this pairing is fit for your project.

No designers to help you create a UI of your app? No problem! Design it on your own with a developer-friendly UI builder. Build user-friendly, responsive interfaces that are scalable. Try UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

What is Node JS?

Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment for executing JavaScript code outside of a browser. Historically, JavaScript was primarily used for client-side scripting, where scripts written in JavaScript would run on the client’s browser and make web pages interactive.

However, Node.js allows developers to use JavaScript for server-side scripting—running scripts server-side to produce dynamic web page content before the page is sent to the user’s web browser. Thus, Node.js represents a “JavaScript everywhere” paradigm, unifying web application development around a single programming language, rather than different languages for server side and client side scripts.

Node.js operates on the V8 JavaScript engine—the same runtime used by Google Chrome—which compiles JavaScript directly into native machine code. This execution model provides high performance and low latency, making Node.js particularly well-suited for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Moreover, Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model, which makes it lightweight and efficient, ideal for environments with high data throughput but low computational power requirements, such as web servers.

The ecosystem around Node.js is vast, with a thriving and active community. It uses npm (Node Package Manager), the largest ecosystem of open source libraries that can be easily installed and added to any project, thus enhancing functionality and reducing development time.

Who uses Node JS

Over the years, Node.js has become a foundational element for many web technologies, fostering innovative platforms and tools such as the MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js) stack, which simplifies the development of full-stack applications entirely in JavaScript. This extensive use and support have cemented Node.js as a pivotal technology in modern web development.

Several high-profile companies have adopted Node.js for various parts of their applications due to its efficiency and scalability.

1. Netflix — The streaming platform uses Node.js to handle its server-side operations for its streaming service, which demands low latency and high concurrency. This shift has significantly reduced startup time and improved the overall performance of their application.
2. PayPal — It has transitioned from Java to Node.js for its web applications, which resulted in faster response times and quicker development cycles. The company reported that using Node.js allowed them to handle double the requests per second at a fraction of the response time compared to their previous Java application.
3. LinkedIn — Other notable examples include LinkedIn, which utilizes Node.js for its mobile app backend, vastly improving the app’s performance and load times.
4. Uber — It employs Node.js in its massive matching system, valuing the platform’s ability to handle a huge volume of network requests efficiently and effectively.

These companies’ use of Node.js not only highlights its capabilities in handling web-scale applications but also illustrates the growing trend of JavaScript usage across the full stack of technology development, confirming Node.js’s role as a key component in modern web architectures.

Pros and cons of Node JS

Advantages of Node JS

Node.js offers numerous advantages that make it a preferred platform for developers working on various types of projects, especially web-based applications. Here are some of the key advantages:

1. Speed and Efficiency: Node.js leverages the V8 JavaScript Engine from Google, which compiles JavaScript directly into native machine code. This allows for faster execution of applications. Its event-driven architecture and non-blocking I/O operations further enhance its speed and efficiency, making it suitable for handling data-intensive real-time applications.
2. Scalability: One of the core strengths of Node.js is its scalability. The event loop, as opposed to traditional threading, allows Node.js to perform non-blocking I/O operations. This means Node.js can handle numerous connections simultaneously, making it ideal for high-load applications like live chat apps, online gaming, and collaboration tools.
3. Unified Programming Language: Node.js uses JavaScript, which is traditionally a client-side programming language. This allows developers to use a single language for both server-side and client-side scripts. This unification helps streamline the development process, as the same team can manage the entire code base, reducing context switching and redundancy.
4. Robust Technology Stack: Node.js is a key component of various stacks, such as the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js), which allows developers to build powerful and dynamic web applications using end-to-end JavaScript. This integration simplifies the development process and accelerates the delivery of applications.
5. Strong Community Support: With a vast and active community, Node.js developers have access to countless modules and tools available through npm (Node Package Manager). This extensive ecosystem ensures that developers can find libraries and tools for nearly any functionality they need to implement, significantly speeding up the development process.
6. Cross-Platform Development: Node.js supports cross-platform development and can be deployed on various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This makes it easier for developers to write code that runs seamlessly across different platforms.
7. Ideal for Microservices Architecture: Node.js fits well with microservices architecture due to its lightweight and modular nature. Companies looking to break down their applications into smaller, interconnected services find Node.js a suitable choice due to its ability to handle asynchronous calls and its efficiency with I/O operations.
8. Corporate Backing: Node.js has robust corporate support from major tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and IBM, which helps in ensuring continuous development and reliability. This backing also reassures businesses adopting Node.js of its capabilities and long-term viability.

These advantages make Node.js a compelling option for both startups and large enterprises looking to develop efficient, scalable, and innovative web applications.

Weak spots of Node JS

While Node.js offers numerous advantages and is a popular choice for many development scenarios, there are some drawbacks that should be considered when deciding whether it’s the right tool for your project. Here are some of the cons of using Node.js:

1. Performance Limitations with CPU-Intensive Tasks: Node.js is not suitable for heavy computational tasks. Its single-threaded nature can become a bottleneck when handling CPU-intensive operations. Such tasks can block the event loop, leading to delays in processing other concurrent activities. This makes Node.js less ideal for applications that require complex calculations, image processing, or large data transformations on the server-side.
2. Callback Hell: Node.js heavily relies on asynchronous code which can lead to what is known as “callback hell” or “pyramid of doom,” where there are multiple nested callbacks. This can make the code hard to read and maintain. Although this issue can be mitigated with modern features such as Promises and async/await, it remains a challenge for beginners or in legacy codebases.
3. API Stability: In the past, Node.js has faced issues with API stability, where frequent changes have led to backwards-incompatible updates. Although this has improved significantly with the establishment of a stable LTS (Long Term Support) version, rapid changes can still pose a challenge for maintaining and upgrading applications.
4. Understanding Asynchronous Programming: Asynchronous programming is a core concept in Node.js, and it requires a different mindset compared to traditional linear programming approaches. Developers new to asynchronous programming may find it difficult to understand and implement effectively, which can lead to errors and inefficient code.
5. NPM Ecosystem Quality: While npm provides a vast number of packages, the quality of these packages can vary significantly. Some packages may be poorly maintained, lack proper documentation, or have security vulnerabilities. The open nature of the npm repository requires developers to be meticulous in choosing reliable and secure packages.
6. Heavy Reliance on Outside Libraries: Due to JavaScript’s historically limited functionality on the server-side, Node.js applications often rely heavily on middleware and external libraries to handle basic functionalities like routing, security, and interacting with databases. This can sometimes increase complexity and the risk of dependency issues.
7. Divergence from Conventional Server-Side Programming: Developers familiar with more traditional, multi-threaded server environments (such as Java EE or .NET) might find Node.js’s single-threaded, event-driven architecture challenging. This can require a significant shift in design paradigm and adjustment in development practices.
8. Developer Expertise and Resources: While JavaScript is widely known among developers, Node.js’s particular style of server-side development may require additional learning or expertise. Companies might face challenges finding developers who are proficient in the nuances of full-stack JavaScript development.

What is React JS

React.js, unlike Node.js, is a client-side JavaScript library developed by Facebook, designed for building user interfaces, particularly for single-page applications where a dynamic interaction model is necessary.

It is used primarily for handling the view layer of web applications, enabling developers to describe their interfaces in terms of a state that changes over time.

React uses a declarative paradigm that makes it easier to reason about your application and aims to be both efficient and flexible. It designs simple views for each state in your application, and when your data changes, React efficiently updates and renders just the right components.

Comparing Node JS vs React JS

Execution Environment

• Node.js: Runs scripts on the server-side, enabling JavaScript to execute outside the browser. It is used mainly for back-end services like APIs, server logic, database operations, and handling asynchronous operations across a network.
• React.js: Operates on the client-side, within the user’s browser, to enhance the interface interaction. It can also be rendered server-side using Node.js to improve performance and SEO.

Architecture

• Node.js: Utilizes an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, suitable for data-intensive environments that require real-time operations across distributed devices.
• React.js: Employs a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) that optimizes interactions and updates by re-rendering only parts of the page that have changed, rather than reloading entire views.

Use Case

• Node.js: Ideal for developing server-side applications where scalability and high concurrency are necessary, such as web servers and RESTful APIs that interact with client applications.
• React.js: Best suited for developing highly interactive user interfaces and web applications where state management and responsive, real-time updates are crucial.

Development Model

• Node.js: Encourages modular, asynchronous programming and is heavily reliant on its vast ecosystem, including npm for managing packages.
• React.js: Promotes component-based architecture, allowing developers to build reusable UI components that manage their state, then compose them to make complex user interfaces.

Integrating Node JS and React JS

While Node.js and React.js can function independently, they are often used together in full-stack JavaScript applications. Node.js can serve as the back-end, handling API requests, interacting with databases, and serving files and React applications, while React runs in the browser, presenting the user interface and making asynchronous calls to the server.

This synergy allows developers to use JavaScript consistently across both client side and server side, streamlining the web development process and reducing the complexity of using different languages for different environments.

In summary, React.js is focused on building user interfaces and improving the interaction experience on the client-side, complementing Node.js’s capabilities on the server-side. Together, they offer a comprehensive approach to developing modern web applications.

Build a React app UI with UXPin Merge

UXPin Merge allows you to use real, production-ready React components to build responsive and highly interactive interfaces. What you design is precisely what gets built, the tool ensures full consistency between UI design and the final product and faster deployments of high-quality products. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Node JS vs React JS – A Quick Comparison of Two JavaScript Frameworks appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Most front-end developers are aware that a front-end framework can make or break your project. In this article, we’ll compare two of the most popular styling and UI component libraries – Tailwind CSS and Material UI. Both offer unique strengths and cater to different developer needs, but how do you decide which one is right for you? Let’s dive into a side-by-side comparison that will help you make an informed decision.

Do you want to quickly test which is better for you – Tailwind vs Material UI? UXPin Merge’s trial comes with imported Tailwind UI and MUI libraries that you can prototype with. Start your trial, pick one of the libraries in UXPin’s editor, build your design, and copy the ready code to see which one fits you better.

UXPin Merge is a prototyping tool that renders components as code, not pixels, so you can quickly move from design to development with no hurdles. Try UXPin Merge for free.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

Try UXPin Merge

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS has taken the web development world by storm with its utility-first approach. Rather than providing predefined components, Tailwind offers a set of low-level utility classes that let you build custom designs without leaving your HTML. This methodology promotes rapid development and exceptional flexibility, allowing developers to create highly bespoke interfaces.

• Customization at its Core: Tailwind allows you to style your components directly within your HTML, offering unparalleled control and customization.
• Speedy Development: By using utility classes, you can prototype and build faster, eliminating the need to write custom CSS from scratch.
• Responsive Design Made Easy: Tailwind’s responsive utility classes enable you to design for multiple screen sizes effortlessly.
• Community and Ecosystem: With a growing community and a rich ecosystem of plugins, Tailwind ensures you have the tools and support you need.

Who uses Tailwind?

Tailwind CSS is used by a diverse range of companies and developers across various industries. Some notable organizations and platforms that use Tailwind CSS include:

1. GitHub: GitHub uses Tailwind CSS for several of its interfaces, leveraging its utility-first approach for rapid and flexible development.
2. Laravel: The Laravel framework has integrated Tailwind CSS into its ecosystem, making it a popular choice among developers within the Laravel community.
3. Dev.to: The popular developer community and blogging platform Dev.to utilizes Tailwind CSS for its frontend design, benefiting from its customizable utility classes.
4. Statamic: Statamic, a CMS for static site generation, uses Tailwind CSS to provide a sleek and efficient user interface.
5. Algolia: Algolia, a powerful search-as-a-service platform, incorporates Tailwind CSS in its documentation and various web interfaces.
6. Vercel: Vercel, a platform for frontend frameworks and static sites, uses Tailwind CSS for its documentation and marketing pages.
7. Superhuman: The email client Superhuman uses Tailwind CSS for its sleek and fast user interface, highlighting its efficiency and customizability.

These examples illustrate the versatility and popularity of Tailwind CSS across various sectors, from large tech companies to individual developers and small startups.

Material UI

Material UI (called MUI by front-end devs) is a React component library that implements Google’s Material Design philosophy. It provides a comprehensive set of pre-styled components that follow best practices in user experience design, making it a go-to choice for developers seeking consistency and modern aesthetics.

• Ready-to-Use Components: Material UI comes with a vast array of pre-built components that adhere to Material Design guidelines, ensuring a cohesive look and feel across your application.
• Theming and Customization: While the components are pre-styled, Material UI offers robust theming capabilities, allowing you to tweak and customize the look to match your brand.
• Accessibility and Performance: Built with accessibility in mind, Material UI components are optimized for performance, providing a seamless user experience.
• React library: Material UI leverages the power of React’s component-based architecture, making it a natural fit for React projects.

Who uses MUI?

MUI is widely used by various companies and organizations, ranging from startups to large enterprises, due to its comprehensive set of pre-styled components and adherence to Material Design guidelines.

Here are some notable examples of organizations and platforms that use Material UI:

1. Netflix: The streaming giant utilizes Material UI for certain internal tools and applications, benefiting from its component-driven architecture and consistent design.
2. Spotify: The popular music streaming service leverages Material UI for some of its web applications, ensuring a cohesive and modern user experience.
3. Nasa: NASA uses Material UI in some of their data visualization and internal tools, taking advantage of its robust and accessible components.
4. Amazon: Parts of Amazon’s internal dashboards and tools are built using Material UI, providing a streamlined and efficient development process.
5. Shutterstock: The stock photography company incorporates Material UI in their web applications, ensuring a clean and professional look across their platform.
6. Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos’s aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company uses Material UI for some of their internal tools and applications.
7. Hootsuite: The social media management platform uses Material UI to provide a consistent and user-friendly interface for its customers.

The framework’s versatility and adherence to Material Design principles make it a popular choice for companies looking to build modern, responsive, and accessible web applications.

How to Choose Between Tailwind CSS and Material UI

Choosing between Tailwind CSS and Material UI ultimately boils down to your project requirements and personal preference.

If you thrive on granular control and customization, Tailwind’s utility-first approach will be your best friend. On the other hand, if you prefer a structured, component-driven framework with a focus on consistency and rapid development, Material UI might be the way to go.

Design Approach and Philosophy

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Utility-First: Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework, providing low-level utility classes that enable developers to build custom designs directly in their HTML. This approach promotes rapid prototyping and high flexibility.
  • Customization: Tailwind offers extensive customization options, allowing developers to configure their styles and create a unique design system.
• Material UI:
  • Component-First: Material UI is a React component library based on Google’s Material Design guidelines. It provides pre-built, styled components that ensure a consistent and cohesive user experience.
  • Design Consistency: Material UI focuses on maintaining consistency across applications by adhering to Material Design principles.

Development Speed and Workflow

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Rapid Prototyping: The utility-first approach allows for quick styling changes directly in the markup, making it easier to iterate on designs.
  • Learning Curve: Developers might need to adjust to using utility classes instead of traditional CSS methods.
• Material UI:
  • Out-of-the-Box Components: Material UI provides ready-to-use components, which can speed up the development process by reducing the need to build and style components from scratch.
  • React Integration: Seamlessly integrates with React, leveraging React’s component-based architecture for building complex UIs.

Customization and Flexibility

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Highly Customizable: Tailwind’s configuration file allows developers to define their styles, color schemes, and spacing scales, offering extensive customization.
  • Component Libraries: While Tailwind is primarily utility-based, developers can create or use component libraries that fit within the Tailwind ecosystem.
• Material UI:
  • Theming and Styling: Material UI offers theming capabilities, allowing developers to customize the appearance of components to match their brand’s design language.
  • Limited by Design Guidelines: Customization is possible, but components are designed to follow Material Design guidelines, which might limit flexibility for highly unique designs.

Community and Ecosystem

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Growing Ecosystem: Tailwind CSS has a rapidly growing ecosystem with plugins, themes, and tools that enhance its functionality.
  • Community Support: A vibrant community and extensive documentation provide support and resources for developers.
• Material UI:
  • Mature Library: Material UI is a well-established library with a strong community, extensive documentation, and numerous examples and tutorials.
  • Comprehensive Component Set: Provides a wide range of components, from basic UI elements to more complex features like data tables and charts.

Performance Considerations

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Smaller CSS Bundle: By using PurgeCSS, Tailwind can significantly reduce the size of the final CSS bundle by removing unused styles, leading to better performance.
  • Custom Builds: Tailwind’s configuration allows for creating custom builds tailored to the specific needs of a project.
• Material UI:
  • Optimized Components: Material UI components are optimized for performance, but the library’s size can be a consideration for highly performance-sensitive applications.
  • Tree Shaking: Supports tree shaking to remove unused components and reduce bundle size.

Use Cases

• Tailwind CSS:
  • Custom Designs: Ideal for projects that require highly custom, bespoke designs and where developers want full control over the styling.
  • Rapid Prototyping: Useful for quickly prototyping and iterating on UI designs.
• Material UI:
  • Consistent UI: Perfect for applications that benefit from a consistent, polished look and adhere to Material Design principles.
  • React Projects: Best suited for React-based projects where ready-to-use, styled components can significantly speed up development.

Can you use Tailwind and MUI together?

Yes, you can use Material UI (MUI) with Tailwind CSS in a project. Integrating these two can allow you to leverage the utility-first approach of Tailwind CSS for rapid styling while also using MUI’s pre-built, highly customizable React components.

While specific examples of companies or high-profile projects that publicly acknowledge using both Tailwind CSS and Material UI together might not be as readily available, the combination is certainly popular among individual developers and smaller projects. It gives developers flexibility, rapid development capabilities, and ability to maintain a consistent and polished UI.

Better option: Tailwind CSS with Tailwind UI

Tailwind UI is a premium component library created by the makers of Tailwind CSS. It provides a collection of professionally designed, fully responsive UI components built using Tailwind CSS. These components help developers quickly build beautiful and consistent user interfaces without having to start from scratch.

How Tailwind UI Fits into Tailwind CSS

1. Complementary Tool: Tailwind UI is a natural extension of Tailwind CSS. While Tailwind CSS provides the utility-first framework for creating custom designs, Tailwind UI offers a collection of pre-built components that can be directly used in projects.
2. Efficiency and Speed: Tailwind UI enhances the efficiency of Tailwind CSS by allowing developers to quickly assemble UIs from a library of components. This is especially useful for prototyping and MVP development.
3. Consistent Design Language: Using Tailwind UI ensures a consistent design language across the application since all components follow the same design principles and are built using Tailwind CSS.
4. Educational Resource: Tailwind UI also serves as an educational resource, demonstrating how to use Tailwind CSS effectively. Developers can learn best practices and advanced techniques by examining how Tailwind UI components are constructed.
5. Integration: Integrating Tailwind UI components into a Tailwind CSS project is straightforward. Developers can copy the HTML structure and corresponding utility classes from Tailwind UI and paste them into their Tailwind CSS-based project. From there, they can further customize the components as needed.

Using Tailwind UI in UXPin

UXPin Merge has a built-in Tailwind UI library. You can take the CSS components and build fully functional prototypes with them.

Nest components together to create complex elements or use “Custom Component” tile to paste in pre-built sections that are posted at Tailwind UI website.

Can’t find a section you like? Use AI Component Creator to generate one based on your prompt. See a full tutorial of using component creator here.

Using MUI in UXPin

If you want to build a React app, use the MUI library in UXPin. We integrated UI components that allow you to build fully functional and responsive React interfaces.

You can style them anyway you like and even bring more components if you like to. Follow this tutorial to see how to build your prototype: Dashboard Example.

What Do We Recommend – Tailwind vs Material UI?

Both Tailwind CSS and Material UI are powerful tools in a developer’s arsenal. Your choice will depend on your need for customization versus convenience, and how closely you want your project to adhere to Material Design standards. Whatever you choose, both frameworks promise to enhance your development workflow and help you build beautiful, responsive web applications.

UXPin Merge is a powerful tool that transforms the way design and development teams collaborate, offering a unified platform where designs are directly linked to the production code. This innovation not only speeds up the workflow but also ensures a high level of accuracy and consistency, making it an indispensable tool for modern design teams aiming to create high-quality digital products efficiently. Try UXPin Merge for free.

The post Tailwind vs Material UI – Full Comparison appeared first on Studio by UXPin.