How To Choose The Right UI Component Library
We use UI Component Libraries in our projects to give a nice look to the user interface. Rather than developing everything from scratch, it is very efficient to use a UI component library. It will speed up our development and also help to keep the consistency across the website. Today, if you do a Google search on “UI Component Libraries”, you can find tons of free and paid UI Component libraries with different appearances. But among those, how do you choose a component library for your project? In this article, we will see how to choose the right component library for you.
1. Design System
When you are selecting a component library, first you should decide what kind of design system you are going to follow. After you select a design system you can search component libraries that follow that design system. There are some popular design systems like Material Design System, Fluent Design System, Ant Design System, Atlassian Design System, etc. If you like to follow the material design you may select component libraries like MUI, and Angular Material. You can’t get the material look from Bootstrap components.
2. What Components Do You Need The Most
Usually, a component library has many components. But sometimes we don’t need all of these components in our project. Maybe we need a few components. So before selecting a component library, list down what kind of components are used in your project. Find out what components are mostly used in your project. After that check what kind of functionalities that component contains inside the component library. What kind of support did that component library provide to the components that you need the most? If your component library does not provide good support and functionalities for your components, it is better to find another alternative component library. Unless you will have to face some difficulties in the middle of the development (Ex:- If your project uses many tables, you want to sort tables and your component library does not provide table sort functionality, you have to write it your own).
3. Flexibility
Sometimes we have to make some changes to the components' default appearance. Usually, we don’t use UI Components as it is. Maybe we want to change colors, and animations like things. Some component libraries are flexible and provide easy ways to do these customizations while some libraries are not flexible to do that. If you want to make a lot of customization to UI components, you should consider about flexibility of the component library.
4. Community Support
Community support is another concern. When you are doing a project sometimes you have to face some issues. When you have an issue, probably you will do a Google search. If your component library is used by many people, you may find a solution quickly. Because someone may have faced the same issue before you faced it. So you will be able to find a solution to your issue quickly from sites like Stackoverflow. But, if your component library is not popular in the community, so it may be hard to find a solution to your problems. It means development time will be increased. So before selecting a component library, it is good to check about the community support for that component library. you can simply do it by checking the popularity, Checking GitHub stars and forks, Checking the Stackoverflow community, etc.
5. Documentation
If a component library does not have proper documentation, think twice before you select it. My advice is to find another alternative component library. Because documentation is the guidance for the component library. If you select a component library that does not have proper documentation, you will face big trouble during the development. Once I had to search through the GitHub source code of the component library to find out how to use some components because that component library did not have proper documentation.
Conclusion
When you are selecting a UI Component library for your project, do a little research about it. Check what the community says about it. Search the component library name on YouTube. Check above facts that I mentioned above. If you choose the wrong component library, you have to face many troubles during the development. So be careful to choose the right component library.
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Written by
Hirusha Fernando
Hirusha Fernando
I am a web application developer with 3+ years of work experience. Currently I am following BSc. (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence degree at University Of Moratuwa. I love to work with new technologies. I love to face challenges. I am interested in tech stuff