The Key To Good Component Design Is Selfishness — Smashing Magazine

When developing a new feature, what determines whether an existing component will work or not? And when a component doesn’t work, what exactly does that mean?

Does the component functionally not do what it’s expected to do, like a tab system that doesn’t switch to the correct panel? Or is it too rigid to support the designed content, such as a button with an icon after the content instead of before it? Or perhaps it’s too pre-defined and structured to support a slight variant, like a modal that always had a header section, now requiring a variant without one?

Such is the life of a component. All too often, they’re built for a narrow objective, then hastily extended for minor one-off variations again and again until it no longer works. At that point, a new component is created, the technical debt grows, the onboarding learning curve becomes steeper, and the maintainability of the codebase is more challenging.

Is this simply the inevitable lifecycle of a component? Or can this situation be averted? And, most importantly, if it can be averted, how?

Selfishness. Or perhaps, self-interest. Better yet, maybe a...