What If UI Components Were Built Like Modular Phones?

Remember the idea of modular phones? Instead of buying a phone with everything fixed into it, you could assemble one using individual modules. Want a better camera? Swap the camera module. Need a bigger battery? Replace the battery module. Each module had a specific responsibility, and you could combine them to build a phone that suited your needs. A modular smartphone from Google’s Project Ara I’ve been thinking about how the same idea could apply to building UI components. Traditionally, component libraries give us ready-made components such as dropdowns, dialogs, tabs, and date pickers. We pick the ones we need, customise their appearance, and put them together to build an interface. But what if, instead of relying on complete components, we could build them by combining smaller, reusable behaviours? For instance, a dropdown isn’t just a dropdown. It involves popup positioning, focus management, keyboard navigation, selection, and dismissal. These are individual behaviours that can…

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