Let’s get Atomic: Frontend components vs. Wagtail Block architecture

Atomic Design by Brad Frost was first published ten years ago, and remains a useful way to think about frontend architecture. But sometimes, we’re too quick to convert our frontend decisions to our Wagtail structure. This can create overly granular CMS systems that are difficult to use for non-experienced users.

At the other end of the spectrum, we can create CMS architecture that is too rigid, and frustrating for users who expect to be able to make more powerful page layout decisions themselves.

It’s impossible to get it completely right the first time, because every author is different, and clients often have different goals when adding pages. Authors of marketing landing pages have completely different goals of somebody crafting a blog post. On an e-commerce product page, the data structure is much more important than any layout customization.

In this talk, we’ll go over some recent examples from real projects, where we’ve had to adjust the CMS post-launch to meet legitimate needs; sometimes adding more granular control, and sometimes clawing back overwhelming amounts of customization for the sake of maintaining brand consistency.

About Luciano Ratamero

Luciano Ratamero (he/him) is a brazilian Frontend dev at Lincoln Loop. While he works as a dev since 2010, his college degree is in Journalism, which makes him specially interested in all things CMS.