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Atomic Design
We're tasked with making interfaces for more users in more contexts using more browsers on more devices with more screen sizes and more capabilities than ever before. That's a daunting task indeed. Thankfully, design systems are here to help.
Atomic Design details all that goes into creating and maintaining robust design systems, allowing you to roll out higher quality, more consistent UIs faster than ever before. This book introduces a methodology for thinking of our UIs as thoughtful hierarchies, discusses the qualities of effective pattern libraries, and showcases techniques to transform your team's design and development workflow.
Atomic Design details all that goes into creating and maintaining robust design systems, allowing you to roll out higher quality, more consistent UIs faster than ever before. This book introduces a methodology for thinking of our UIs as thoughtful hierarchies, discusses the qualities of effective pattern libraries, and showcases techniques to transform your team's design and development workflow.
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
195 people are currently reading
3212 people want to read
About the author
Brad Frost
2books50followersI'm Brad Frost, a web designer, speaker, consultant, musician, and artist located in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. I'm constantly tweeting, writing and speaking about the web and other topics. I've also helped create some tools and resources for web designers, including This Is Responsive, Pattern Lab, Styleguides.io, WTF Mobile Web, and Mobile Web Best Practices.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
February 28, 2017
To be clear, even though I enjoyed Brad Frost's Atomic Design (which I picked up because of it landing on one of those "Best UX Books of 2016" lists I'm always reading), this is less a book about design itself and more about how to be a designer within a group environment like a corporate office. The beginning chapters give a good overview of how to build up the elements of a website or app from their tiniest indivisible pieces (a single button, for example) to a larger configuration (a sign-in form containing a button), to a larger configuration than that (a web page's header section, for example, containing that sign-in form), and eventually the entire page; but there's nothing here regarding that topic that can't already be found in the many free guides online to the , just to name one example. Then in the meanwhile, the vast majority of the chapters are actually devoted to how to document these various pieces so that all the stakeholders of a company are on board with a single vision; the kinds of cloud-based software available for sharing these "design pattern" documents; how to actually come up with a finished document when there's anywhere from a handful to hundreds of people working on it; and how to maintain that document afterwards so that it remains an always fluid, always relevant guide for the rest of the company, not just some aging PDF file that became immediately obsolete a week after the UXUI team released it in the first place. In all of this, then, the book is quite handy and valuable; but just go into it not expecting it to actually teach you very much about how to design these elements themselves.
April 5, 2018
Possibly the most watered down book I've ever forced me to read through nonetheless. Frost seeds the book with a very appealing idea � building coherent design systems starting from the most basic elements and combining them up in useful composite patterns � and then stays well clear from till it to ripeness: he just doesn't seem to care to explore even the basic design consequences and complexities of the idea (e.g. what happens when it makes sense for the same atom to look different in two different molecules, as a submit button in a search form versus a submit button in a form where you enter an email to subscribe to a newsletter?).
Instead, he writes on seemingly forever about how to sell a design system to your stakeholders or about a design system lifecycle: but it feels pointless to argue about the lifecycle or about the buy-in of an idea when the idea is so roughly and sketchily presented, and besides the recommendations are mostly stretched out platitudes («You wouldn't hand someone a hammer, saw, and screwdriver then say, “All right, you've got what you need; now go and build me a beautiful new house.� Knowing how to properly use a tool is often even more important than that tool's availability. Documentation in the form of a style guide is no doubt helpful, but by itself it's not enough. It's essential to provide adequate training and offer ongoing support for your design system's users to ensure they successfully get up and running with the tool kit and continue to create great work with it», and then he explains us in details we can use workshops, webinars, blog posts�).
If you're looking for concrete help about thinking your products UI and UX as many manifestations of an underlying system of visual and functional components, don't waste your time here: keep looking.
Instead, he writes on seemingly forever about how to sell a design system to your stakeholders or about a design system lifecycle: but it feels pointless to argue about the lifecycle or about the buy-in of an idea when the idea is so roughly and sketchily presented, and besides the recommendations are mostly stretched out platitudes («You wouldn't hand someone a hammer, saw, and screwdriver then say, “All right, you've got what you need; now go and build me a beautiful new house.� Knowing how to properly use a tool is often even more important than that tool's availability. Documentation in the form of a style guide is no doubt helpful, but by itself it's not enough. It's essential to provide adequate training and offer ongoing support for your design system's users to ensure they successfully get up and running with the tool kit and continue to create great work with it», and then he explains us in details we can use workshops, webinars, blog posts�).
If you're looking for concrete help about thinking your products UI and UX as many manifestations of an underlying system of visual and functional components, don't waste your time here: keep looking.
May 5, 2017
I certainly liked many of the key ideas in this book, but ultimately it didn't feel as actionable as I was hoping.
September 5, 2017
Don't get me wrong - This book is very informative and a very good resource if you work in a big company. But it just doesnt provide me with what I was looking for.
I thought I was going into a book that explains the Atomic Design system to me, but that's only the case for about a 5th of the book. The rest is telling me how to implement the system in a corporation, how to use it practically, and introduction. I wanted more of the concept, which (even though it was included) wasn't included enough.
Still a very good resource for it, and I did enjoy learning about the Atomic Design system. Unfortunately none of it was really new to me, other than the title. It feels like something I've been doing for a while but with different words.
I thought I was going into a book that explains the Atomic Design system to me, but that's only the case for about a 5th of the book. The rest is telling me how to implement the system in a corporation, how to use it practically, and introduction. I wanted more of the concept, which (even though it was included) wasn't included enough.
Still a very good resource for it, and I did enjoy learning about the Atomic Design system. Unfortunately none of it was really new to me, other than the title. It feels like something I've been doing for a while but with different words.
February 6, 2017
This book is a must read for every designer and developer. Atomic design is simply an approach to build web and mobile layouts in a component-based way. By following that, we will achieve more consistency in our UIs, help us creating a pattern library, better for a future-friendly changes or updates and a lot more. Go and read it now! :)
December 14, 2016
Initially I was a bit afraid that this book will be, like loads of other in the field, a glorified 200-page pitch of an idea with no tips or guides to help you through the actual process but I am delighted to say this is not the case. Along with the numerous resources and projects around the topics covered that Brad has made with his friends, this is a very handy guide for diving into creating proper design systems.
February 1, 2019
Good overview but not much seemed really new. Would have liked more on the actual front-end implementation from UX to final code. Even though it's a short read, it felt very repetitive in certain places.
July 9, 2020
Reading for the second time
May 10, 2025
This was a game changer back in the days, currently only the second chapter remains useful and relevant.
Available at atomicdesign.bradfrost.com
Available at atomicdesign.bradfrost.com
June 9, 2020
کتاب خوبیه
به نکات خیلی خوبی اشاره میکنه
فقط خیلی هرمطلب رو کش میده
اگر بخوام خلاصه اش رو بگم به درد گرافیستا میخوره چون دید ماجولار رو برنامه نویس ها تقریبا از اولین تجربه های کاریشون بدست میارن حتی اگر در حوزه مهندسی نرم افزار یا برنامه نویسی تحصیل نکرده باشند.
ولی کاملا به افرادی که از حوزه گرافیک وارد بازارکار طراحی رابط کاربری میشن توصیه میکنم این کتاب رو بخونن
من به علت اینکه واقعا مطالب خیلی تکراری بود برام خیلی علاقه به خوندنش به صورت جدی نشون ندادم و به همین دلیل چندین بار از اول شروع کردم خوندن و هی ولش کردم تا آخرین بار
به نکات خیلی خوبی اشاره میکنه
فقط خیلی هرمطلب رو کش میده
اگر بخوام خلاصه اش رو بگم به درد گرافیستا میخوره چون دید ماجولار رو برنامه نویس ها تقریبا از اولین تجربه های کاریشون بدست میارن حتی اگر در حوزه مهندسی نرم افزار یا برنامه نویسی تحصیل نکرده باشند.
ولی کاملا به افرادی که از حوزه گرافیک وارد بازارکار طراحی رابط کاربری میشن توصیه میکنم این کتاب رو بخونن
من به علت اینکه واقعا مطالب خیلی تکراری بود برام خیلی علاقه به خوندنش به صورت جدی نشون ندادم و به همین دلیل چندین بار از اول شروع کردم خوندن و هی ولش کردم تا آخرین بار
February 6, 2017
Brad's book provides a great overview of using style guides. Brad covers just about everything you'll need to know. You'll finish this book knowing how to create a style guide and how to get your team on board for style guides. I'm a UX designer who used to be a front-end developer many years ago. I haven't coded full-time in about ten years, and I understood everything in this book. I really appreciate Brad's simple, easy-to-read writing style, and his thorough coverage of the subject.
December 27, 2023
3.5 stars
The book is already a couple years old and it shows, as the majority of the links provided are no longer active or aren’t up to date.
Most of the principles outlined by Brad Frost must’ve been groundbreaking at the time of publishing, but are wide-known by now.
Nevertheless, there’s still much to learn from this book, namely how to create a durable and easy to use design system ( and how to convince everyone on your team to incorporate it in their work).
The book is already a couple years old and it shows, as the majority of the links provided are no longer active or aren’t up to date.
Most of the principles outlined by Brad Frost must’ve been groundbreaking at the time of publishing, but are wide-known by now.
Nevertheless, there’s still much to learn from this book, namely how to create a durable and easy to use design system ( and how to convince everyone on your team to incorporate it in their work).
July 17, 2023
The book is not just about atomic design but also about the design system. Modern applications must be built upon a design system to support a variety of user devices, which are now more than just the phone, tablet and laptop. For example, now there are smart watches, which are smaller than the phone, and electric car screens, which are larger than the laptop.
March 28, 2018
A great way to dive into design system culture. It's a clear and helpful resource for designer, developers and project managers
January 24, 2019
Definitely some helpful information in this book, but it didn't need ~200 pages to get the point across.
April 23, 2020
I like the idea, thought the book was a little padded.
August 12, 2024
great! super relevant and useful for me right now and digestible. almost wish I read it earlier but glad I finally got around to it
January 9, 2021
A 'basic read' you actually need
7/10
It is true to say that almost everyone is familiar with 'atomic design' idea. The first time I heard about it was on the lecture, dedicated to UX design approach with a guy, who had nothing to do with Brad Frost. I didn't even know that there was a book - instead, I was sure that it is only a well known best practice (I wish it becomes some day.)
As expected, the presenter covered the first 15 min of the book. He accompanied the presentation with pictures, easily found on the internet, and that was it.
One year later, I was getting ready my own lecture, this time for my students. And during a web search, I found a whole page dedicated to the atomic design (or rather Brad Frost himself) - [. To my surprise, there was a whole book (what else can be there except for the catchy physics allegory I thought). Spoilers - a lot of interesting and good-to-know stuff.
As I thought, the whole topic of the design-physics analogy was covered pretty fast. Unlike to my expectations, what was written next I found to be the Holy Grail.
The book focuses not only on the philosophical side of the design, but specifically directs to the path of the content systematization, leading us to the design system creation, support, and implementation. As a profound follower of Marie Kondo, I was happy to plug deeper into the world of design system. Putting components together, making them consistent and easy to use - a dream of mine and design system is an answer.
While it is true that book mostly focuses on the corporative structure of inner communication, it provides useful guidelines. I found it the most useful part because the toughest thing about the design system is persuading stakeholders that it is worth investing. And this book does a beautiful job at providing scenarios and even phrases to use while debating for the sake of good design.
I would like to sum up with my favorite highlights from this book:
- web is a fluid, interactive, interdependent medium.
- design language style guides articulate a general design direction, philosophy, and approach to specific projects or products
- making lo-fi wireframes mobile-first means using the constraints of small screens to force the team to focus on the core content and hierarchy. You can now ask, “Do we have the right things on this screen?� “Are they in the right general order?�
- ideas are meant to be ugly. - Jason Santa Maria
- only when transferred to the browser can any design hypothesis truly be confirmed or rejected. Let’s change the phrase “designing in the browser� to “deciding in the browser.� - Dan Mall
- the three types of change that can happen to patterns in a design system are modification, addition, and removal.
- a public style guide helps create organizational accountability. Publishing your style guide demonstrates your organization’s commitment to the design system, which creates a helpful bit of pressure to keep it an up-to-date and useful resource.
7/10
It is true to say that almost everyone is familiar with 'atomic design' idea. The first time I heard about it was on the lecture, dedicated to UX design approach with a guy, who had nothing to do with Brad Frost. I didn't even know that there was a book - instead, I was sure that it is only a well known best practice (I wish it becomes some day.)
As expected, the presenter covered the first 15 min of the book. He accompanied the presentation with pictures, easily found on the internet, and that was it.
One year later, I was getting ready my own lecture, this time for my students. And during a web search, I found a whole page dedicated to the atomic design (or rather Brad Frost himself) - [. To my surprise, there was a whole book (what else can be there except for the catchy physics allegory I thought). Spoilers - a lot of interesting and good-to-know stuff.
As I thought, the whole topic of the design-physics analogy was covered pretty fast. Unlike to my expectations, what was written next I found to be the Holy Grail.
The book focuses not only on the philosophical side of the design, but specifically directs to the path of the content systematization, leading us to the design system creation, support, and implementation. As a profound follower of Marie Kondo, I was happy to plug deeper into the world of design system. Putting components together, making them consistent and easy to use - a dream of mine and design system is an answer.
While it is true that book mostly focuses on the corporative structure of inner communication, it provides useful guidelines. I found it the most useful part because the toughest thing about the design system is persuading stakeholders that it is worth investing. And this book does a beautiful job at providing scenarios and even phrases to use while debating for the sake of good design.
I would like to sum up with my favorite highlights from this book:
- web is a fluid, interactive, interdependent medium.
- design language style guides articulate a general design direction, philosophy, and approach to specific projects or products
- making lo-fi wireframes mobile-first means using the constraints of small screens to force the team to focus on the core content and hierarchy. You can now ask, “Do we have the right things on this screen?� “Are they in the right general order?�
- ideas are meant to be ugly. - Jason Santa Maria
- only when transferred to the browser can any design hypothesis truly be confirmed or rejected. Let’s change the phrase “designing in the browser� to “deciding in the browser.� - Dan Mall
- the three types of change that can happen to patterns in a design system are modification, addition, and removal.
- a public style guide helps create organizational accountability. Publishing your style guide demonstrates your organization’s commitment to the design system, which creates a helpful bit of pressure to keep it an up-to-date and useful resource.
January 28, 2022
Atomic Design was an early exploration for thinking about the building of design systems. It was published when "brand guidelines (Style guides)" were becoming more complex with time. These static visual design systems, which were initially successful, could not solve for the functionality of increasingly diverse design needs. Atomic Design offered a "modular design system" approach that enouraged a "modular-first" perspective in the creation of digital brand assets.
Atomic design focuses mostly on responsive web page layout, using this module first approach, encouraging designers to first consider in their layout designs the fluidity of the layout itself (and how that fluidity would need to change between various screen sizes).
Overall, Atomic Design provides a solid visual design model to explain the strategy of modular design systems, and it's a conceptual framework that can easily be cross-applied to a number of creative and design processes (especially in an industry where multi-channel distribution is growing increasingly important).
Atomic design focuses mostly on responsive web page layout, using this module first approach, encouraging designers to first consider in their layout designs the fluidity of the layout itself (and how that fluidity would need to change between various screen sizes).
Overall, Atomic Design provides a solid visual design model to explain the strategy of modular design systems, and it's a conceptual framework that can easily be cross-applied to a number of creative and design processes (especially in an industry where multi-channel distribution is growing increasingly important).
June 11, 2023
Some of my bird's-eye perspectives: This book will
1. Explicate the process of crafting an pattern-based UI under the scope of the chemical field (atoms, molecules, microorganisms, templates, and page)
2. Grant you many tips and tools (CSSstats, Pattern Lab, ...) to help you iron out the progress of creating a perfect and up-to-date UI and collaborating with other disciplines.
2. Give you an in-depth knowledge regarding design system, pattern library, interface inventory, and so on.
3. Give you many solutions of having more collaborative and smooth process of keeping the design system and your final products/apps in sync and up-to-date.
Conclusion: A nice and light-hearted book to start with if you are quite a newcomer to this field or want to seek for some useful insights into the process of building an arresting, cohesive, consistent and maintainable UI.
1. Explicate the process of crafting an pattern-based UI under the scope of the chemical field (atoms, molecules, microorganisms, templates, and page)
2. Grant you many tips and tools (CSSstats, Pattern Lab, ...) to help you iron out the progress of creating a perfect and up-to-date UI and collaborating with other disciplines.
2. Give you an in-depth knowledge regarding design system, pattern library, interface inventory, and so on.
3. Give you many solutions of having more collaborative and smooth process of keeping the design system and your final products/apps in sync and up-to-date.
Conclusion: A nice and light-hearted book to start with if you are quite a newcomer to this field or want to seek for some useful insights into the process of building an arresting, cohesive, consistent and maintainable UI.
October 13, 2021
Este libro resultó todo un reto, me tomó casi 2 meses terminarlo y honestamente estuve a punto de abandonarlo. Desde el inicio entendí su importancia y el parteaguas que esta lectura supuso sin embargo me costó bastante agarrarle el ritmo y el gusto. Hasta el primer capítulo sentí que no fue nada fluido pero pasando ese bache me empezó a enganchar muchísimo y aunque ya tenía conocimiento de varios puntos que abordaba, me parece un excelente libro para comenzar en el mundo del UX. Aborda la metodología de atomic design, qué es un design system, cómo crearlo, cómo mantenerlo, el trabajo colaborativo que se hace con otros equipos, etc, etc. Me pareció bastante completo.
June 3, 2020
I think this is a solid book. It's well laid out and the information is easy to grasp. It's great for starting a design system from scratch. And it gives you the taxonomy to discuss a well-managed design system or pattern library. It gives you the nomenclature. Ideally you've been using atoms, molecules, organisms etc. as you build your design library. After the fact, it's hard to reverse engineer or remediate code with your developers. Coming in with a new diction can be a hard sell.
September 24, 2020
Frost's methodology towards design is all about maintaining design systems. After you applied design thinking, you'll understand more about what atomic design is all about! There may be issues ahead once you achieved the final chapter, but a problem well-stated is a problem half-solved (like a prototype).
There were 5 core hierarchies or "atoms" that can help your design workflow better! Don't forget that this book is also readable on his website.
There were 5 core hierarchies or "atoms" that can help your design workflow better! Don't forget that this book is also readable on his website.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2024
Origin story of many pattern libraries and design system. Some content is obviously a bit dated (references to photoshop and older technical approaches). Figma really changed the landscape in a good way and other resources out there give you a more modern view. Still had many crucial takeaways and it gave me a richer understanding, as I knew about this concept for years but never read the full book. ;)
December 23, 2018
Fascinating to read a *book* on *atomic design*. It is an interesting overview of the essential elements of the design concept. It is rather slim, but that is not necessarily to its detriment. Essentially, the concept makes a plea for structure, processes that lead to strucutre, and consequential behaviour.
August 29, 2022
phenomenal open ended frame work for building modern software across screen sizes and orientations. This should be required reading for product managers, designers, and front end developers. Only available in digital formats, this book also introduced me to book binding because I wanted a paper copy.
April 24, 2023
It's a valuable book if you're getting started with Design systems for sure, but falls short if you're looking for a more effective way/apps for implementation, syncing, maintaining a DS.
Definitely needs an updated revision (book is from 2016) since a lot of the tools are now deprecated and doesn't mention design tokens at all.
Definitely needs an updated revision (book is from 2016) since a lot of the tools are now deprecated and doesn't mention design tokens at all.
December 11, 2023
This book is good to help you choose what you need to do before building a project. This book not only explain about design system also tools you can use to build. I love how this book think about creating a design. Not only with old way. Designers need to read this book so they can know how the development side of processing a design.
December 12, 2023
First three chapters are helpful in understanding the essence of atomic design system and why we need one. Nothing new from the last two chapters. It could be just me as I've earlier worked on building design systems. For someone who doesn't have enough experience in building design systems, I highly recommend this.
July 1, 2017
After reading his original blog post years ago, playing with the basic idea and pitching it to clients a few dozen times, I figured I should read the full book.
Does not disappoint. This should be required reading for anyone interested in producing lasting work on the web.
Does not disappoint. This should be required reading for anyone interested in producing lasting work on the web.
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