One way
How we do one thing is how we do all: reuse what exists before making anything new.
What it means
How we do one thing is how we do all. Reuse an existing component, order, name or section before you make a new one. The same element sits in the same place, at the same size, with the same behaviour, wherever it appears.
The test
Put the artefact beside another one of its kind. List every difference in element, place, size, order, name and colour. Each difference needs a written reason, and a difference without one is a break.
Levers by surface
| Surface | What must match here |
|---|---|
| Screen | Every page is a kind from the page kit and behaves like the other pages of its kind. One detail page per table. One filter bar order, one tab bar order, one colour per select option. One search component, in one place, at one size. Buttons of one kind share one size. A card on one page looks like the card for the same thing on another. |
| Every email of a kind has the same parts in the same order. | |
| Form | Field names and required markers match the table and its intake. |
| Document | Every rule page uses the same skeleton, the same Do and Don’t pair and the same Replace this and With this pair. |
Research
The reviewer’s fifth rule reads: “How we do one thing is how we do all (most of a platform should have the same components as the other platform or page) Create as little as possible (the best developers, rarely build)”. It continues: “they re-use the same components, orders, names, and sections (blueprints and patterns)”, and “if there is a component, that could solve the issue, we re-purpose not create new one (meaning: search bars should always be in the same palace, the same size, with the same behaviour)”.
The reviewer’s findings on an ordering system apply it: “all or the search components are different, in different places, in different sizes”, and the footer button and the review buttons “are not the same size” and “not the same standard”. The reviewer is the only source so far.