All things design and code.
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·5 min read
How to Build a Component Library with Proper Versioning
Building a component library is easy. Building one that other developers can depend on — with proper exports, peer dependencies, versioning, and a changelog — is not. This is the complete setup that gets it right from day one.
Featured
·5 min read
Server State Management and How TanStack Query Fits In
If you've been reading the React Foundations series and Alex Chen keeps mentioning TanStack Query as the replacement for useEffect data fetching — and you've been wondering what it actually does and why it exists as a category of its own — this is that explanation. With a real user profile card you can build today.
Featured
·5 min read
React.memo, What Is It Actually Doing?
If you've been reading the React Foundations series and seen React.memo appear in performance-related articles without a clear explanation of what it actually wraps and why — this is that explanation. With a real notification feed component you can build today.
Featured
·4 min read
useRef: The Hook That Remembers Without Re-Rendering
If you've been following the React Foundations series and seen useRef appear in custom hooks and component implementations without a clear explanation of what it actually holds — this is that explanation. With a real autosaving text editor widget you can build and use today.
Featured
·3 min read
Make Use of useMemo Like You Mean It
If you've been following the React Foundations series and kept seeing useMemo appear alongside useCallback without a clear explanation of when it actually helps — this is that explanation. With a real filterable product list you can build and use today.
Featured
·3 min read
Did You Know useCallback Can Actually Do This?
If you've been reading the React Foundations series and kept seeing useCallback appear in custom hooks and effect dependency arrays without a clear explanation of what it actually does — this is that explanation. With a real dropdown component you can build today.
Featured
·4 min read
useEffect, What Is It Really?
If you've been reading the React Foundations series on DesignDev.io and kept seeing useEffect appear without a full explanation of what it actually is — this is that explanation. Real examples, real UI components, no hand-waving.
Featured
·5 min read
We're Not a Blog. We're a Team.
DesignDev.io isn't one person's opinion column. It's nine writers covering everything from React internals to freelance rate cards — and one founder explaining what they all missed. Here's who we are and why we built this.
More Stuff
·3 min read
Publishing Your First React Component to npm — the Complete Setup
Most tutorials stop at "it works on my machine." This one doesn't. Publishing to npm is where your library becomes real — installable, versioned, and usable by anyone. Here's the complete setup, including the fields most developers get wrong in package.json and how to inspect what you're actually shipping before it goes live.
Muhammad Athar
·3 min read
How to structure a UI library that scales — folders, exports, and naming conventions
The folder structure you pick on day one is the one you'll live with across 40 components. Get it wrong and you'll be fighting your own codebase by article 10. Get it right and adding a new component takes five minutes and follows a pattern every contributor can learn in one sitting.
Muhammad Athar
·3 min read
Setting Up a React Component Library with Vite, TypeScript, and Tailwind v4
Before you write a single component, the project needs to be set up correctly — or you'll be fighting the build config the entire series. This article covers everything: Vite in library mode, TypeScript strict config, Tailwind v4, CVA, and a working entry point you can build and inspect.
Muhammad Athar
·4 min read
Why I'm Building My Own React UI Library — and Why You Should Too
Most developers have installed shadcn/ui or MUI, grabbed the components they needed, and moved on. That works — until it doesn't. This series is about building a React UI library from scratch, shipping it to npm, and actually understanding what you've built.
Muhammad Athar
·4 min read
CSS Cascade Layers: The Feature That Finally Fixes Specificity Wars
Specificity conflicts with third-party CSS, utility classes, and component styles are one of the most frustrating parts of scaling a CSS codebase. @layer doesn't just help — it fundamentally changes how the cascade works. Here's the mental model and the setup that makes it click.
Sena Aruoba
·5 min read
Strict Mode in React 18: What It Breaks and Why That's Good
React 18's strict mode double-invokes effects by design. Most developers disable it when it starts breaking things. That's the wrong response — the break is a signal, not a false alarm. Here's what strict mode actually does and why every bug it surfaces is a real bug.
Alex Chen
·3 min read
How to Manage Global State Without a Library
You don't always need Zustand or Redux. Before reaching for a state management library, understand what the platform gives you — useSyncExternalStore is React's built-in primitive for subscribing to any external store. Here's how to use it to build a lightweight global state system from scratch.
Alex Chen
·4 min read
The Render Props Pattern Is Not Dead — Here's Where It Still Wins
Hooks replaced most render props use cases in 2019. Most — not all. There are three scenarios where render props still outperform hooks and compound components. Here's what they are and how to implement them cleanly.
Alex Chen
·4 min read
Why React.memo Doesn't Always Help (And When It Does)
Wrapping a component in React.memo and finding it still re-renders on every parent render is one of the most common React performance frustrations. The fix is almost always the same — and it has nothing to do with memo itself.
Alex Chen
·3 min read
Building a Fully Accessible Modal from Scratch in React
Most modal implementations look right but fail accessibility checks. Focus trapping, scroll locking, ARIA attributes, and keyboard handling — each one is a trap for the unwary. Here's a complete implementation that gets all four right, including the iOS Safari scroll lock bug nobody warns you about.
Alex Chen
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