Atomic Design: The Book

So I am writing a book. And I am really excited about it. It’s called Atomic Design and it’s all about creating and maintaining effective interface design systems. Here’s what I’m going to cover in the book:

Explain why it’s increasingly essential to think of interfaces as systems rather than a collection of pages

Introduce atomic design as a sound methodology for crafting effective interface design systems

as a sound methodology for crafting effective interface design systems Cover tools and techniques for creating design systems, pattern libraries, and style guides

for creating design systems, pattern libraries, and style guides Demonstrate how to make pattern-based design and development an integral part of your process, and detail how teams can establish and maintain their own design systems

How I’m Going to Do It

The traditional way to write a book involves retreating to cave for months, then eventually crawling out and declaring “Behold! I’ve written a book for you to consume.”

I’m not doing that.

After spending the last year directly benefitting from designing in the open, talking about the benefits of sharing, and also working on a few closed projects that tore at my soul, I decided that I’m going to lay my book-writing process out in the open.

A Living, Breathing, Incomplete Book

This book is a living, breathing entity. Progress will be shared openly and the latest, greatest state will be available online. You can keep track of updates on the Github repository. I’ll be posting updates on my blog and will be sharing my book-writing adventures and frustrations as much as time allows.

When the manuscript is complete, it will become an e-book available in the most popular e-book formats.

The end goal for this project is for Atomic Design to exist as a physical book. While I mostly operate in the digital world, the prospect of creating a physical book is tremendously exciting. The idea is that the printing and shipping costs will be financed through preorders and eventual sales of the e-book.

Who’s Involved

This book is written, edited, and published by me. It may stay that way. It may not.

There’s a chance I may bring on an editor to help bring this project to life, but that’s yet to be determined. I will most definitely bring on some people who can help review any technical aspects of the book.

I currently don’t plan to go through a book publisher, but would be open to the idea if the right opportunity presented itself.

Supporting the Project

The book is available for preorder now. While it’s a bit unusual to sell a book that’s incomplete, the idea is to get the content out there in a timely manner and to help fund the project.

By purchasing the book up front, here’s what you get:

The final e-book in all available formats

in all available formats A heavy discount on the print edition of the book

of the book A discount on any extras , which may include: videos, tutorials, sample code, and workshops

, which may include: My eternal gratitude

Preorder now

And you can keep up with the project’s progress and receive resources on style guides, atomic design, and more by signing up for the newsletter:

Here We Go

I’m incredibly excited to write this book, and hope you’re excited to read it. Thanks for your support!