Building Loveable UIs

Some of the good and bad patterns when designing components in React. How to build scalable components keeping the visual consistency and good developer experience.

Presented at React Amsterdam 2016.

http://react.amsterdam

1. BUILDING ABLE UIS REACT AMSTERDAM 2016 @HEALVES82
2. DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE WHEN BUILDING PRODUCTS
3. BEFORE REACT…
4. <i class="marker-icon express big"> <span class="marker-arrow"></span> </i>
5. // home.scss @import "variables"; @import "components/header"; @import "components/footer";
 @import "components/buttons"; @import "pages/home";
6. HTML WEB PAGE
 DOCUMENT JS CSS PDD PAGE DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
7. HTML MARKUP HOLY GRAIL OF 
 WEBMASTER JS UI CSS STYLING – THE EARLY DAYS –
9. MARKUP, JAVASCRIPT AND STYLING 
 COMPOSES THE UI
10. MARKUP HTML/JSX STYLING CSS/INLINE JAVASCRIPT UI
11. NOWADAYS…
12. BUILDING AMBITIOUS USER INTERFACES REACT IS A LIBRARY FOR
13. COMPONENTS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF AN APP
14. DESIGNING COMPONENTS — ENCAPSULATION — COMPOSITION
15. ENCAPSULATION — SELF CONTAINED — DOESN’T CARE ABOUT DATA — NO ACCESS TO APP’S STATE
16. const StaticReadingList = () => ( // Let's render only one item <ReadingItem headline="The End of Ice" subHeadline="The New Yorker" description={ `A team of scientists hikes to investigate how quickly its ice is melting.` } imageSrc="//cldup.com/1rbk08vtLj.jpg" /> );
17. GITHUB.COM/RECON-JS/RECON
18. ENCAPSULATION EASY TO REUSE, MAINTAIN AND TEST.
19. COMPOSITION — COMBINING ELEMENTS — BUILDING BLOCKS <Headline level={2} /> <Text color="gray88" />
20. const ReadingItem = ({headline, description, imageSrc}) => ( <Box> <Box flex="0 0 55%"> <Headline level={2}>{headline}</Headline> <Text element="p">{description}</Text> <Link href="#">Read Article</Link> </Box> <Box flex="1 0 45%"> <Image width="100%" src={imageSrc} /> </Box> </Box> );
21. COMPOSITION ENCAPSULATION DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE – and –
22. DOCUMENT YOUR COMPONENTS
23. JXNBLK.COM/REBASS
24. VISUAL CONSISTENCY
 COMES FOR FREE * * NOT ALWAYS
25. GETTING THERE
26. DESIGN COMPONENTS NOT PAGES
27. LEARN HOW TO ABSTRACT.
 BORROW CONCEPTS.
 — ATOMIC DESIGN — CONTENT & DISPLAY PATTERNS — FUNCTIONAL CSS
28. <Headline level={5} /> // <h5> <Text element="p" /> // <p> <Headline level={2} /> // <h2> <Link /> // <a> <ReadingItem headline="Article Title" subHeadline="Site Name" description="Random copy" imageSrc="thumb.jpg" /> <Box element="article" /> // <article>
29. LOW LEVEL COMPONENTS
30. // layout.js export const Box = ({ element: Element = 'div', children, ...otherProps }) => ( <Element {...otherProps} style={composeStyle(otherProps)}> {children} </Element> );
31. // layout.js // compose style object from props function composeStyle({style, ...otherProps}) { const bodyStyle = document.body.style; return { ...pickBy((v, k) => bodyStyle.hasOwnProperty(k), otherProps), ...style }; }
32. NAMING IS HARD
33. NAMING IS HARD — CONTENT-BASED NAMES — VISUAL NAMES — FUNCTIONAL NAMES
34. NAMING COMPONENTS COOL NOT COOL <Card />
 <Headline /> <Headline level={1} />
 <Link /> <ImageCard />
 <StoryTitle /> <MasterHeadline /> <StoryLink />
35. CONTENT-BASED NAMES THE CONTENT THEY CONTAIN. <UserStatus online={true} />
36. VISUAL NAMES STYLING AND LOOKING.
37. <Headline level={5} color="#9E9E9E" fontWeight={500} theme="dark" {...otherProps} > {text} </Headline>
38. FUNCTIONAL NAMES THEIR FUNCTION OR UTILITY. <Resizable width={300}> {/* Menu list */} </Resizable>
39. CONTAINER PRESENTATIONAL – and –
40. <ReadingListPage /> CONTAINER TALKS TO STORES <ReadingList /> PRESENTATIONAL RENDER MARKUP
41. CONTAINER — NO MARKUP OR STYLING
 — OFTEN STATEFUL
 — SERVE AS DATA SOURCES
42. class ReadingListPage extends Component { constructor(props) { super(props); this.state = {data: []}; } componentWillMount() { fetch('http://localhost:8000/reading-list.json') .then((response) => { if (response.status >= 400) { return Promise.reject(new Error('Something went wrong!')); } return response.json(); }) .then((stories) => this.setState({data: stories})); } render() { const {data} = this.state; return <ReadingList data={data} /> } }
43. PRESENTATIONAL — MARKUP AND STYLING
 — NO STATE
 — OFTEN FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS
44. const ReadingList = ({data}) => ( <ul> {data.map( (story, key) => ( <li key={key}> <ReadingItem headline={story.headline} subHeadline={story.site} description={story.description} imageSrc={story.imageSrc} /> </li> ) )} </ul> );
45. PURE COMPONENTS 
 — CLASS OR FUNCTION
 — OFTEN PURE FUNCTIONS
 — STATELESS
46. const Text = ({children}) => <span>{children}</span>;
47. CLASSES FUNCTIONS – or –
48. CLASSES COMPONENTS 
 — STATES
 — LIFECYCLE HOOKS componentWillMount()
 — OPTIMISED shallowCompare()
49. SHALLOW COMPARE // react-addons-shallow-compare shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps, nextState) { return shallowCompare(this, nextProps, nextState); } // Using immutable objects shouldComponentUpdate(nextProps) { // Avoid object deep comparison return this.props.title !== nextProps.title }
50. FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS — NO SIDE EFFECTS
 — GOOD TO BUILD ABSTRACTIONS
 — WORKS IN SMALL AND LARGE
51. CLASSES FUNCTIONS – or – — STATELESS FUNCTIONS WHEN POSSIBLE
 — UNDERSTAND THE DRAWBACKS — HAVE FUN
52. INLINE STYLES • HERE TO STAY • – SINCE 2013 ? –
53. INLINE STYLES — EASY TO BUNDLE — CONSTANTS
 — PRIVATE BY DEFAULT
54. const CONTENT_SPACING = 15; const BORDER_RADIUS = 3; const styles = { padding: CONTENT_SPACING, borderRadius: BORDER_RADIUS, width: 500, flexDirection: 'row', flexWrap: 'wrap', overflow: 'hidden', backgroundColor: '#fff', boxShadow: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0470588) 0px 2px 3px 0px' };
55. ANIMATION IMPROVE THE USABILITY FEELS NATURAL
 GIVE FEEDBACK
56. const ReadingItem = ({animate, headline, description, imageSrc}) => ( <Animate animate={animate}> <Box> <Box flex="0 0 55%"> <Headline level={2}>{headline}</Headline> <Text element="p">{description}</Text> <Link href="#">Read Article</Link> </Box> <Box flex="1 0 45%"> <Image width="100%" src={imageSrc} /> </Box> </Box> </Animate> );
57. // animate.js const styles = { root: { position: 'relative', zIndex: 2, transition: 'all 1s cubic-bezier(.75,.1,.1,1)', transformStyle: 'preserve-3d', transform: 'translateX(-1000px) rotate(30deg) translateY(1000px)', visibility: 'hidden' }, animate: { transform: 'translateZ(0)', visibility: 'visible' } }; const Animate = ({children, animate}) => { const style = Object.assign({}, styles.root, animate && styles.animate ); return <Box style={style}>{children}</Box>; }
58. <Animate animate={true} engine="react-motion"> {/* ... */} </Animate>
59. FUTURE REACT? – of –
60. REACT-FUTURE * 
 — ANIMATION — GESTURES
 — LAYOUT SYSTEM (DEPENDS ON INLINE STYLING) * GITHUB.COM/REACTJS/REACT-FUTURE
61. LINKS & REFERENCES GITHUB.COM/HENRIQUEA/REACT-AMSTERDAM-2016-TALK GITHUB.COM/REACTJS/REACT-FUTURE GITHUB.COM/RECON-JS/RECON GITHUB.COM/KADIRAHQ/REACT-STORYBOOK GITHUB.COM/SKIDDING/COSMOS GITHUB.COM/SCUP/ATELLIER DANIELMALL.COM/ARTICLES/CONTENT-DISPLAY-PATTERNS BRADFROST.COM/BLOG/POST/ATOMIC-WEB-DESIGN PATTERNLAB.IO JON.GOLD/2015/07/FUNCTIONAL-CSS MEDIUM.COM/@DAN_ABRAMOV/SMART-AND-DUMB-COMPONENTS-7CA2F9A7C7D0 JXNBLK.COM/REBASS GITHUB.COM/CHENGLOU/REACT-MOTION GITHUB.COM/JSSTYLES/JSS GITHUB.COM/CSS-MODULES/CSS-MODULES
62. DANK U @HEALVES82 #REACTAMSTERDAM