Storybook

Definición Rápida

Storybook is an open-source development tool for building, testing, and documenting UI components in isolation. It allows developers to create components in a “sandbox” environment outside the main application, making it easy to visualize all their states and collaborate with designers.

What Is Storybook?

Imagine you are building a car with LEGO pieces. Storybook is like a workshop where you can build and test each piece separately before assembling the car. You can build the engine (a complex component) and test it on its own, or you can build a simple wheel (a button) and see all its available colors and sizes, all without needing the complete car chassis.

For digital products, Storybook is that workshop. It is an isolated environment that allows developers and designers to focus on a single interface component at a time, document all its states and variants, and test it interactively.

Why Is It Important for UX and Design Systems?

• It is the bridge between Design and Development: Storybook is where the [[Design System]] comes to life in code. Designers can see the actual components that will be used, and developers have a clear reference for how each component should look and behave.
• It encourages component reuse: By having a visible catalog of all existing components, it prevents developers from creating new components when one already exists that serves the same function.
• It improves quality and consistency: It allows testing each component in all its states (e.g., a button in its default, hover, disabled, with icon states, etc.), ensuring they are robust and consistent.
• It facilitates design reviews (Design QA): Designers can review components directly in Storybook to ensure that the code implementation matches the Figma design perfectly.

Key Concepts

• Component: The UI element being developed (e.g., a button, a card, a modal).
• Story: A representation of a single state of a component. For example, for a button component, you might have stories like Primary, Secondary, Disabled, With Icon.
• Addons: Tools that extend Storybook’s functionality, such as Controls (for changing component properties in real time) or Accessibility (for running automatic accessibility tests).

Mentor Tips

• Storybook is the “single source of truth” for code components: If a component exists in Storybook, that is the version that should be used. If it’s not there, it shouldn’t exist in the product.
• Integrate it with Figma: Use Storybook plugins for Figma to link your designs directly to the corresponding stories. This closes the loop between design and development.
• Document props and use cases: Don’t just show the component. Use Storybook to document what each property (prop) does and in which contexts the component should be used (and not used).

Resources and Tools

• Resources:
  • Storybook Official Docs: The official documentation is the best place to start.
  • Component-Driven Development: A site that explains the methodology behind tools like Storybook.
• Integration Tools:
  • [[Zeroheight]]: Integrates with Storybook to create a more complete design system documentation site.