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Had to pick between atomic design and a component library for a SaaS rebuild
About 6 months ago I started rebuilding a project management tool for a small team. I had two paths: go full Brad Frost atomic design from scratch, or grab something like Material UI and customize it. I went with atomic design because the app had like 60 different page types with weird edge cases. First 3 weeks were brutal - I spent hours naming atoms and molecules. But after that, composition got way faster. My biggest win was when a new feature needed a custom date picker. I just mixed a button atom with a calendar molecule and it worked on the first try. The downside? New devs took about 2 weeks to get the hang of the naming conventions. Has anyone else had to make this call? What made you pick one over the other for your project?
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the_jason9d ago
Honestly, a custom date picker that worked on the first try? That's wild. I've never had anything like that happen with component libraries.
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sullivan.john9d ago
What kind of component library was it? I ask because I've had totally different luck with the big ones depending on which one you pick. Some of them are absolutely broken out of the box and need a ton of tweaking. The ones that "just work" are usually the ones with the smallest feature set in my experience.
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