Atomising complexity

If something is difficult, break it down into the smallest component parts.

If a website’s parts are individually designed pages, the design is limited to just those pages.

But if the pages are composed of individual components, you will be able to create new designs based on those components.

And if the components are composed of individual parts, you could use those parts to create new components.

By breaking the design down into reusable parts you can generate a lot new designs that feels like it belongs with the other designs.

The parts could form the basis of a design system.

Just like Evergreen notes should be atomic.

References

See Gordon Brander’s notes on alphabets – kits of parts, with rules of how to combine them.

See Evergreen notes should be atomic on notes.andymatuschak.org