Next.js with Mantine UI 7 Theming

Building Consistency with Design Systems

Credit : Fitra R

Crafting a design identity in the field of digital system development is no easy feat. Front-end developers work relentlessly to transform designs found on platforms like Figma into fully functional, digitally flawless products. Text alignment, color consistency, and space problems often develop, disturbing the visual coherence across diverse interfaces, despite their painstaking efforts. Furthermore, the resultant codebase often gets complicated and inefficient, even with strict design standards and recognized patterns. A strong and consistent design system is necessary because this inconsistency harms the digital environment's aesthetics, usefulness, and maintainability.

The foundation of web development is efficiency since every minute saved is a minute that can be used to innovate and improve the product. The process of theming and styling apps typically consumes a large chunk of a developer's work, and it is both tedious and inefficient. The combination of Next.js with Mantine UI 7 is just one example of how developers may improve their workflow with the help of new, cutting-edge tools and approaches. Quicker iterations and more consistent design are two benefits of this connection that speed up development. With a well-executed design system, creating a digital experience will be ideal, where all elements—from color schemes to typography—sync flawlessly can come true, revolutionizing the construction of digital worlds.

What is a Design System?

Any digital design approach that aims to be scalable must have a design system as its foundation. The web design framework is like a LEGO set: it's a set of rules and reusable parts that make sure all digital products look the same.

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The Nielsen Norman Group states that a design system ”is a set of standards to manage design at scale by reducing redundancy while creating a shared language and visual consistency across different pages and channels” [1].

A Design System and Its Importance

Consistency: Make sure all of your product's design aspects are consistent with one another for a unified look.

By using a design system, companies may create visually consistent mobile and web applications that stand out from the crowd because of their uniformity.
Efficiency: Speeds up the development process by providing pre-designed components.

Teams can operate more efficiently with design systems because they eliminate needless translation steps between the design and execution processes.
Scalability: Easily adaptable for future projects, saving time and resources.

The design system is a great tool for front-end developers since it allows them to easily create several sections that can be accessed, utilized, and altered from within your codebase.
Collaboration: Bridges the gap between designers and developers, fostering better teamwork.

It facilitates the production of consistent user interfaces without wasting a lot of time or effort by creating a common language across stakeholders, developers, and designers.
Quality: Adheres to best practices and accessibility standards, enhancing user experience.

Frontend developers can concentrate more on functionality and interactivity giving the best quality by using a design system for theming, as it ensures that the visual aspects are well-managed.

Understanding Theming

A design system's theming is the process of defining the visual style of its components through the use of a set of global variables, such as colors, spacing units, font, etc. The ability to provide customizable and accessible experiences through many modes, such as dark mode and others, is guaranteed by this method by defining how your components look and feel (not their behavior) [2].

Design System Theming and Its Function

Encapsulation: Components encapsulate styles, making them more reusable and easier to maintain.
Centralization: Management of theme variables is done in a single file, which allows front-end developers for easy modifications.
Collaboration: Developers execute designs provided by designers, making sure they are in line with the planned design system; designers, meantime, offer visual input.

Combining Next.js with Design Systems

Acquire the System for Design: To begin, make use of the designer-supplied design system, which includes design tokens, components, colors, and font styles.

A sample of the design system is shown below.
Installation and Setup: During installation and setup, include all required resources, such as CSS files, JavaScript modules, and the design system assets, into your Next.js project.
Applying Theme with Mantine UI: Put the design system into action by using Mantine UI's theming features. A code snippet example is this:
Personalization: Change the colors, fonts, spacing, and other aspects of the predefined styles to fit your project's needs.

Building Your Component

Let's use the given design framework to construct a custom button component.

You can set and control different features of the Mantine UI library globally by defining your MantineProvider as a central context provider that encapsulates your application.
Stay in line with the rest of the design by using the given color scheme, font, and any other necessary design elements.
To display the custom button component in action, integrate it into your Next.js pages.
Faster front-end development and more consistent visuals are yours for the taking when you follow these procedures to incorporate the supplied design system into your Next.js application. The output of the code is displayed here:

The following is an example of Next.js code with the Mantine UI 7 theme applied: https://github.com/fitrakun/theming-nextjs-mantine7.

Conclusion: Transform Your Development Workflow

In this article, we have discussed how design systems can streamline Next.js application theming and styling, which in turn can increase design consistency, speed up front-end development, and more. Developers can easily create aesthetically pleasing and unified user interfaces by using a designer-provided design system.

Using streamlined development and consistent design, are you prepared to take your digital initiatives to the next level? Rolling Glory is here for you today. We guarantee that your projects will not only meet but beyond expectations with our skill in combining creativity with technology. Join us in creating something truly remarkable.

When working on several projects, how difficult was it for you to keep the design consistent? Feel free to share your experiences down below. How about we talk about a solution? We can conquer these challenges together!

Next.js and Design System: Frequently Asked Questions

Tell me about Next.js

Next.js is a flexible React framework that gives you building blocks to create fast, full-stack web applications. [3]

Mantine UI 7: What makes it useful?

Creating consistent and aesthetically pleasing interfaces is easy with Mantine UI 7's extensive collection of components and theming tools.

In what way do design systems enhance development?

Through the provision of reusable components and guidelines, design systems guarantee a unified appearance and minimize duplication. In addition to accelerating development, this improves the user experience.

“The streamlined CSS writing process further propelled the development pace, marking a significant 30-40% upswing.”
Source: https://semaphoreci.com/blog/front-end-design-system