reakit VS antd

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Typescript is a mistake. Static typing seemed like such a potentially good thing to add to javascript, but the reality is it's a nightmare to work with. If you don't believe me, go to Reakit's github and tell me the complete set of valid options for creating a tooltip.

As a tech lead (or whoever makes the technical decision), it looks very tempting to adopt the open source UI libraries, if possible. In the React.js land, I used a bit of Charkra UI and Reakit.

I'm currently considering React-aria, HeadlessUI, Radix-ui and Reakit for reimplementing the user-interface for a customer, but i find it hard to choose.

I’ve got some libraries I’m looking into to fill the gap. Currently looking at radix, reakit, and react-spectrum.

reakit - Toolkit for building accessible rich web apps with React

Reakit is a lower-level component library for building accessible high-level UI libraries, design systems and applications with React. Reakit is tiny and fast.

1. Reakit

Regardless of what you use for styling though, you should look into so-called headless ui components. These are hooks and components only focused on functionality and accessibility, which you then use to build your own styled components. Some examples are https://reakit.io/, https://www.downshift-js.com/ and https://headlessui.dev/.

For common components, I can't recommend Reakit enough. It's a keyboard accessible, unstyled component library with dialogs, popovers, and much more. I use it for all of my personal projects nowadays. Combined with Framer Motion for animation and Styled Components for styling, it's a killer mix.

Ant Design

Official Website: https://ant.design/

Ant Design (antd) is a React component library for building beautiful and modern user interfaces. It comes with a collection of prebuilt, enterprise-level UI components. To install Ant Design, use the command below:

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(I'm a frontend dev, but I came into the design side only later in my career, after having started as a full-stack programmer.)

I think this book is probably the single best resource I've seen on the topic: https://www.refactoringui.com/

It's a really easy-to-use format (one quick tip on each page, with clear examples).

It's from the people who made Tailwind, a CSS framework that's basically a reimagining of Bootcamp for the Javascript/component era.

Check out some of their templates: https://tailwindui.com/templates

These are lookalike "modern" designs that you can pay to use, or just draw inspiration from. Imitation == flattery and all that.

Along similar lines, check out the free Next.js templates: https://vercel.com/templates/next.js

If you want to build up from components instead, Tailwind offers a component library too: https://tailwindui.com/components

For React, I prefer the astoundingly good MUI framework (amazing components with lots of customizability, a good enough default look, and great documentation): https://mui.com/ If you end up going this route, using their Figma kit (https://mui.com/store/items/figma-react/) plus the Refactoring UI book from above should allow you to whip up a pretty standard-looking, "pretty enough" design in very little time. And then implementing it using the actual MUI lib would just take a few days.

There's also Ant Design: https://ant.design/

And Chakra UI: https://chakra-ui.com/

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For more theoretical stuff (i.e., less visual but still very valuable), the UX research group Nielsen Norman still has a treasure trove of valuable advice: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-ten-guidelines-for-home...

You should know the basics of accessibility (beyond general usability, this alos means alt text, header levels, contrast ratios, readability, screen readers, keyboard navigation, special considerations for the hard of sight and hearing, etc.): https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/ or at least use an easy checklist tool like Microsoft's WCAG analyzer: https://accessibilityinsights.io/

Ant Design is a fantastic toolkit for React developers. It's like having a box of building blocks that are not only stylish but also super functional. With Ant Design, you get a collection of pre-made React components that you can easily put together to create a sleek and modern look for your web projects. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned developer, Ant Design simplifies the process of making your web applications both visually appealing and user-friendly. It's a go-to choice for those who want a seamless blend of design and functionality in their React applications.

The backend UI is a combination of React + MUI + Ant Design.

Material-UI Ant Design Chakra UI Semantic UI React

ant-design -> Less configurable. Limited but nice components.

GitHub stars: 88k GitHub link: https://github.com/ant-design/ant-design Documentation: https://ant.design/docs/react/getting-started