SftB#2 Recap: Building components in Harmony

Debbie O’Brien is the Head Developer Advocate at Bit and a Nuxt ambassador. Her presentation at the second edition of Stories from the Blok tackled key issues such as content reusability and design systems, by focusing on the importance of components, and the necessity of adopting a component-based approach.

Drawing from the analogy of traditional carpentry (her own dad!) versus the Ikea model, Debbie argues that we should stop creating things with a “made to measure” mindset, and instead adopt a “made with components” philosophy. Components are incredible assets when we have to scale or repurpose things, something that cannot be easily said about a “start-from-scratch” or “made-to-measure” method. 

Just like Ikea’s model of reusable parts, reusable components make things much easier to assemble and maintain, simply by:

• Reducing duplicated code
• Offering easier maintenance
• Faster development

And just like Ikea’s case, components should also ideally be themable, so:

• They are easier to use
• One component would fit many options
• Branding changes would be easier
• ...

After explaining why components can bring huge benefits to the table, Debbie also explains how they do so. She also gives practical advice on how to take the Component experience to its fullest potential. For example:

• How to improve consumer’s Dev Experience
• How to reuse Components
• How to think about Components in compositions
• …

For Debbie, in order to have a great experience, we should also think in components. Doing so will allow us to build scalable products, reuse components across various projects, and deliver faster in the long term.

Finally, Debbie mentions how Bit Harmony can be an option to build with components and use them to compose apps and systems while allowing the components to be shared across apps.