When creating compelling and engaging digital interfaces, web designers may apply a number of techniques, approaches and philosophies. In fact, each designer has their own preferences – some prefer to work from the top down, starting with the most basic elements and building their product down to the last detail. The atomic web design is common and often yields a well-thought out, quality product.
Why Atomic Design?
The bottom-up process is known as atomic design since it was influenced by chemistry. Here are the reasons:
- Just like atom in chemistry, Atom in design is the most basic building block. Therefore, they can’t be broken down anymore without losing the essence of what they truly are.
- To make the atom become functional; you need to combine two or more atoms together.
- When molecules are combined together in a meaningful way, they become organisms – living, tangible forms.
The atom characteristics’ above show that there are so many similarities between atom in chemistry and atom in design, it holds that even the most basic HTML elements can be combined to create something tangible and functional. However, you may require a bottom-down approach to put it together
Furthermore, to ensure your user experience, you can ensure its quality in user experience.
The benefits of Atomic Design
Even though Atomic design needs a lot of thoughts and planning, you will find that the result is worth the extra effort. Below are some of the benefits of using this type of design.
Build a System of Components
Since you have broken a system down to its most basic parts (atoms), you can discover which parts that can be reused and how you can mix and match them to obtain more molecules and organisms.
More Intuitive Layout
By using atomic web design, interfaces tend to be more intuitive and easier to code. Besides, it is also easier for a new developer to understand the codebase, and it can minimize the risk of writing duplicate code. It’s easier to see where you’re using different components of a site, since you’re using “atoms to create the initial layout. To replicate existing code on the site, you can find it where it’s stored.
Your Style Guide is Simple
If you design a site according to the principles of atomic design, you can incorporate all your atoms and molecules into your style-guide. In fact, by this way, you can keep your design and messaging consistent across platforms. Even though you can extrapolate elements from a design that’s not atomic, it’s always better to begin with atomic design principles than to try and apply them retroactively.
Faster Prototyping and Updating
It’s easier to mockup pages and prototypes when you have a list of atoms on hand from the beginning. All you have to do is to combine your basic elements for the page. After that, you can refine and customize for the final site. Atomic design also facilitates quick updates and removal of certain design features. However, it is easier to ensure that your updates get carried out throughout the interface, when you’re only changing one element at a time.
By applying the atomic design, you will build a strong user experience (UX) structure through providing a methodology for designers. Furthermore, atomic design can also adhering to component-based guidelines, therefore designers can still rely on their creativity without clashing with developers.
