Component Principles

These principles guide how I build components across the portfolio and component library. The goal is consistency, clarity, and long-term maintainability as the system grows.

Build for reuse (without over-engineering)

• Prefer small, composable components over one-off UI
• Extract patterns when they repeat more than once
• Keep defaults sensible so components are easy to adopt

Accessibility is part of the baseline

• Use semantic HTML first
• Support keyboard navigation and visible focus states
• Add ARIA only when it improves real usability

Keep APIs predictable

• Use clear, consistent prop naming
• Avoid “magic” behavior that surprises consumers
• Prefer explicit variants over hard-coded styling differences

Design for real states

Every component should handle common UI states:

• default
• hover / focus
• disabled
• loading (when applicable)
• error (when applicable)
• empty states for content components

Prefer maintainable styling

• Use design tokens and semantic colors
• Avoid hard-coded values unless they’re truly one-off
• Keep spacing and typography consistent across components

Document as you go

• Capture usage examples and edge cases in Storybook
• Write down decisions when they affect future components
• Keep docs short and practical

Notes

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s building components that are easy to understand, easy to change, and reliable in production.