Building a Design System from Scratch – Atomic Design & Storybook Insights

Creating a design system is a powerful way to ensure consistency, scalability, and maintainability in your projects. Based on my experience with atomic design principles and Storybook, I’ll share practical tips on how to approach building your own design system from the ground up.

Why Build a Design System?

Design systems help teams:

Maintain UI consistency across multiple projects and teams.
Speed up development by reusing components instead of rebuilding.
Facilitate collaboration between designers and developers.
Improve accessibility and usability by defining standards.

Step 1: Understand Atomic Design Principles

Atomic design breaks down UI into five levels:

Atoms: Basic building blocks (buttons, inputs, labels).
Molecules: Simple groups of atoms working together (e.g., input with label).
Organisms: Complex UI sections made of molecules and atoms (e.g., navbar).
Templates: Page-level structures combining organisms.
Pages: Specific instances of templates with real content.

Starting with atoms ensures your system is modular and easy to maintain.

Step 2: Set Up Your Component Library

Choose your technology stack (Vue, React, etc.).
Use a tool like Storybook to develop and document components in isolation.
Create stories for each component showing different states and variants.
Maintain consistent naming conventions and props.

Step 3: Document Everything

Document usage guidelines, accessibility notes, and code examples.
Keep documentation in sync with components — update Storybook stories as you develop.
Encourage team members to contribute and provide feedback.

Step 4: Integrate Design Tokens

Use variables for colors, fonts, spacing, etc.
This allows easy theming and updates without hunting through code.

Step 5: Plan for Scalability

Define rules for adding new components.
Establish a review process for changes.
Automate testing and linting to keep quality high.

Example: Button Component Story

Let’s say you’ve created a basic Button.vue component. You want to document different visual variants using Storybook:

Button.vue

<template>
  <button :class="`btn btn--${variant}`" @click="$emit('click')">
    <slot />
  </button>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
defineProps({
  variant: {
    type: String,
    default: 'primary',
  },
})
</script>

<style>
.btn {
  padding: 0.5rem 1rem;
  font-weight: bold;
  border-radius: 0.375rem;
}
.btn--primary {
  background: #2563eb;
  color: white;
}
.btn--secondary {
  background: #f3f4f6;
  color: #111827;
}
</style>

Button.stories.ts

import Button from './Button.vue'

export default {
  title: 'Atoms/Button',
  component: Button,
  argTypes: {
    variant: {
      control: { type: 'select' },
      options: ['primary', 'secondary'],
    },
    default: { control: 'text' },
  },
}

const Template = (args: any) => ({
  components: { Button },
  setup() {
    return { args }
  },
  template: '<Button v-bind="args">{{ args.default }}</Button>',
})

export const Primary = Template.bind({})
Primary.args = {
  variant: 'primary',
  default: 'Click Me',
}

export const Secondary = Template.bind({})
Secondary.args = {
  variant: 'secondary',
  default: 'Cancel',
}

With this setup, your team can:

Preview and interact with the component in isolation
Test different variants visually
Use the story as documentation and reference during development

Final Thoughts

Building a design system is a marathon, not a sprint. Starting small with atomic components and consistent documentation pays off as your projects grow. Tools like Storybook make the process transparent and collaborative.

If you’re thinking about a design system for your team, focus first on clarity, reusability, and communication.