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Alice Bartlett Origami Lead, Financial Times @alicebartlett Can’t you make it more like Bootstrap? Considerations for building front end systems

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Hello

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I’m from the FINANCIAL TIMES

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I lead a project at the FT called Origami. @alicebartlett

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Origami is a 5 person team who develop frontend tools and services at the FT @alicebartlett

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The Origami team has 2 aims: 1. Unify frontend styles across the FT 2. Reduce time spent repeating work @alicebartlett

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Components, tools and services @alicebartlett

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There are lots of companies that have projects similar to Origami. @alicebartlett

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http://getbootstrap.com/

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https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/

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https://rizzo.lonelyplanet.com/styleguide/design-elements/colours

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https://www.futurelearn.com/pattern-library

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Today I’m going to talk about Origami and some of these projects too @alicebartlett

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This is not a talk about design systems

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This is about what you build once you have your design system @alicebartlett

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FIRST: FINANCIAL TIMES

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The FT has a lot of websites @alicebartlett

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FT.com

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aboutus.ft.com

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ftchinese.com

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@alicebartlett FT.com is the main website, then there’s a lonnnnnng tail of other stuff

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https://www.ftnewspaper.com/cgi-bin/ftusa.cgi/mms/1Y71CtEN9NfpRH1tJYYUkqPzPI97t1Fw/showLoginPage

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ig.ft.com

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I don’t know how many frontend apps the FT has, it’s that many

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Many of these sites share similar designs, but have no shared code @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett shared design shared code

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@alicebartlett shared design & shared code

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@alicebartlett This is the close button for an overlay in the Falcon design

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@alicebartlett There are four different versions of this live on FT.com right now.

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button > span (CSS bg) a (x sign) a (CSS bg) a > img

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And those are things we can control the design for… @alicebartlett

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We have three different versions of the twitter logo on ft.com

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Currently: A chaotic trail of salmon pink websites @alicebartlett

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THE FT’S SITE IS CHANGING

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FT.com

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next.ft.com

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This means that a lot of those other 88 websites have an incentive to update @alicebartlett

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This is the opportunity for a generational shift in the way we build websites at the FT @alicebartlett

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LESS OF THIS SORT OF THING @alicebartlett

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WHAT’S IN A COMPONENT SYSTEM?

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1. Components 2. Tools 3. The other stuff @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett COMPONENTS COMPONENTS

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@alicebartlett A component is some combination of CSS, HTML and JavaScript .js .html .css

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@alicebartlett .js .html .css

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@alicebartlett .js .html .css (o-header)

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@alicebartlett .js .html .css (o-buttons)

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@alicebartlett .js .html .css (o-video)

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@alicebartlett Components Application code Website .css .js .html .rb

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb

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So that’s ads, header, icons, date, fonts, grid, tracking, colours, buttons

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atomic design, mono-repo vs single repo, how we’re using Sass mixins, dependency management, progressive enhancement, design language… @alicebartlett

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All you need to know for this talk is that these components exist, and the next question is: how are our developers going to get them into their projects? @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett TOOLS COMPONENTS COMPONENTS

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb … …

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb QUITE HARD

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@alicebartlett Components Websites Application code .css .css .css .rb

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https://www.futurelearn.com/

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https://www.futurelearn.com/pattern-library

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .css .css .css .rb

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .css .css .css .rb

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@alicebartlett Website Components and Application code .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css mono-repo

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This is the simplest way to use an abstracted design system in your product. @alicebartlett

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The best tooling is no tooling* @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb QUITE HARD

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@alicebartlett Now tooling becomes important

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@alicebartlett Javascript CSS HTML

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code Tools .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb

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Templates are the difficult part @alicebartlett

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If your sites are using the same languages… @alicebartlett

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Then you can just make your system work for that stack. @alicebartlett

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If your sites use ruby, then a gem is an excellent way to deal with this problem @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code Tools .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb

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http://rizzo.lonelyplanet.com/styleguide/

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$ gem install rizzo @alicebartlett Step 1:

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http://engineering.lonelyplanet.com/2014/05/18/a-maintainable-styleguide.html // Input = ui_component("forms/search", { label: “Search" }) Step 1:

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@alicebartlett Javascript CSS HTML

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// Input = ui_component("forms/search", { label: “Search" }) http://engineering.lonelyplanet.com/2014/05/18/a-maintainable-styleguide.html This is SO TIDY Step 2:

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This is also how GOV.UK’s component’s system works. (Inspired by Rizzo!) @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code Tools .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb BUT …

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code Tools .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb THIS IS ONLY USEFUL IF YOUR APPLICATION IS WRITTEN IN RUBY

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb QUITE HARD

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Option 1: Template resolution for every language @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code Tools .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .py .css .css .css .java …

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Maintaining a toolset like this is a lot of work… @alicebartlett

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Option 2: no templating @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Javascript CSS HTML

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There is no good way to let people include (customisable) templates in their projects @alicebartlett

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You have to tell users to copy and paste @alicebartlett

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This is a really bad idea… @alicebartlett

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People leave off or remove things they don’t understand, ARIA attributes, microformats @alicebartlett

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You can never change a class name again @alicebartlett

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You can’t automatically push out changes to components @alicebartlett

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You’re duplicating code @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Components Websites! Application code .rb .rb .rb .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb .css .css .css .rb NO GOOD OPTIONS

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Origami uses copy/ paste

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@alicebartlett Javascript CSS HTML

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• Get really good at understanding and resolving dependency problems • Pick and stick to a CSS naming convention (we use BEM) @alicebartlett

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Web Components might help us a bit here Alice Bartlett http://somewebsite.com

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Adam Onishi has looked at how we could use bits of the Web Components spec https://speakerdeck.com/onishiweb/ planes-trains-and-css-components @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett Javascript CSS HTML

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Assets are the easy part @alicebartlett

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http://origami-build.ft.com/

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The Build Service takes any combination of modules and returns their CSS and JavaScript @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett

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We can push minor version changes to components directly to the page @alicebartlett

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239,318,470 Build Service requests for April 12 - May 12 via Akamai

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This is a bit clunky for some of our developers @alicebartlett

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- no critical path rendering - have to download more than they really need (especially for sass) - have to use our classnames @alicebartlett

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We took the code behind the Build Service, and made it an npm package called Origami Build Tools @alicebartlett

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Both of these approaches are application language agnostic @alicebartlett

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FT.com has a release cycle of 3 months, they use the Build Service @alicebartlett

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next.ft.com want a lot more control over their build process, they use Origami Build Tools @alicebartlett

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The CDN and Build Tools give us enough flexibility that anyone making a site at the FT can use Origami @alicebartlett

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But that’s not enough. @alicebartlett

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@alicebartlett DOCS… MARKETING … SUPPORT TOOLS COMPONENTS

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FREE MARKET SOFTWARE TEAMS

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… teams are allowed and encouraged to pick the best value tools for the job at hand, be they things developed and supported by internal teams or external to the company. Matt Chadburn, Principal Developer http://matt.chadburn.co.uk/notes/teams-as-services.html

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So Origami is competing with any other tool, or the option to not use Origami at all. @alicebartlett

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This keeps us pretty focussed @alicebartlett

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When I joined the FT in October, I did some user research on Origami @alicebartlett

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I interviewed people around the business, developers, designers and journalists, product managers @alicebartlett

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What people told me was mostly positive @alicebartlett

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But I did discover one problem. Our documentation was confusing people or boring them @alicebartlett

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http://origami.ft.com

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http://registry.origami.ft.com

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http://github.com/financial-times/o-gallery

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HOW THE [HECK] AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND TIME TO READ ALL OF THIS STUFF? an anonymous Origami user

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I wish this was just more like bootstrap’s documentation an anonymous Origami user

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http://getbootstrap.com/getting-started/

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Using Origami is as easy as pasting a tag into your @alicebartlett

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It’s as easy as Bootstrap @alicebartlett

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We re-wrote our documentation using the principles used to write Django’s docs @alicebartlett

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https://jacobian.org/writing/great-documentation/

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We have a documentation style guide, just like we have guides for JavaScript and Sass @alicebartlett

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https://github.com/financial-times/ft-origami

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Documentation isn’t complicated. It’s just hard.

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Marketing is also extremely important @alicebartlett

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Marketing is how you convince people to use your stuff without them having to think too hard about it @alicebartlett

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The amount of marketing you have to do should scale with the number of users you have (or want) @alicebartlett

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http://getbootstrap.com/

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https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/

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https://www.futurelearn.com/pattern-library

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Marketing isn’t just pretty websites @alicebartlett

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And at a certain scale, you’ll need a communications plan for new releases to your components system @alicebartlett

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You should publish your incident reports @alicebartlett

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You should have a support channel @alicebartlett

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With free market software teams, this matters @alicebartlett

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With free market software teams, this is as important to the success of your project as the code you’re writing @alicebartlett

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“People won’t fight you, they’ll just ignore you”

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Conclusion: 1. Components at the centre 2. Make the simplest tool for the job (maybe no tools at all!) 3. Don’t forget the other stuff @alicebartlett

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Conclusion: 1. Components at the centre 2. Make the simplest tool for the job (maybe no tools at all!) 3. Don’t forget the other stuff @alicebartlett

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Conclusion: 1. Components at the centre 2. Make the simplest tool for the job (maybe no tools at all!) 3. Don’t forget the other stuff @alicebartlett

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Alice Bartlett Origami Lead, Financial Times @alicebartlett Thanks @alicebartlett