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Component Tagging Strategies

Learn about different strategies for tagging components in your product to improve design system adoption and tracking.

Component tagging is a crucial part of design system adoption and tracking. By properly tagging components in your product, you can gain valuable insights into how your design system is being used and identify areas for improvement.

Three Effective Tagging Approaches

Based on industry best practices and our experience at Infa.ai, we recommend three main approaches to component tagging:

1. Class-Based Tagging

This approach involves adding specific class names or prefixes to your components to identify them as part of your design system.

Example:

<button type="button" class="ds-button ds-button--primary">Submit</button>

Pros:

  • Easy to implement in existing codebases
  • Works with any framework or technology
  • Can be added incrementally

Cons:

  • Requires discipline to maintain consistency
  • May conflict with existing class naming conventions
  • Limited metadata capabilities

2. Element Renaming

This approach uses custom elements (Web Components) to represent design system components.

Example:

<ds-button variant="primary">Submit</ds-button>

Pros:

  • Clear visual distinction in code
  • Enforces proper component usage
  • Supports rich metadata through attributes

Cons:

  • Requires more setup and infrastructure
  • May not be compatible with all frameworks
  • Higher learning curve for developers

3. Data Attributes

This approach uses HTML data attributes to mark components and provide metadata.

Example:

<button type="button" data-ds-component="button" data-ds-variant="primary">
    Submit
</button>

Pros:

  • Works with existing HTML elements
  • Highly flexible for metadata
  • Easy to query and analyze

Cons:

  • More verbose than other approaches
  • Requires consistent attribute naming
  • May lead to attribute bloat

Choosing the Right Approach

The best tagging approach depends on your specific needs and constraints:

  • Class-Based Tagging is ideal for existing projects with minimal changes
  • Element Renaming works well for new projects or complete redesigns
  • Data Attributes offers a good balance of flexibility and ease of implementation

Many teams use a combination of these approaches to get the best results.