Models for composable
Digital teams frequently need to plan and document the relationships between many things:
- Systems
- Data sources
- Structures
- Elements
These models are intended to show how all these pieces can be used and shared. Often they live in business software like deck slides or digital whiteboards. Machine-readable versions can be difficult to create and govern, especially early in projects when all the systems of record may not have yet been identified.
With Uniform, you can model at the experience layer. By connecting to existing sources, adding context-specific touches teams can create a visual prototype ensuring project goals will be met.
Components#
A component is a basic building block of a digital experience. It can represent almost anything you see a digital experience or anything used to control what you see. Examples of components can include:
- Hero on a landing page
- Product information in a commerce app
- Registration form
In Uniform components are used for the authoring of the elements dictated by your design system. they're usually created by developers in the front-end application and then modeled within Uniform.
Patterns#
Patterns are reusable component instances that can be referenced on one or more compositions. Patterns can be configured to allow partial overriding of their parameter and data resource values to support partially-reused data. This is particularly useful when authoring teams will be creating multiple compositions needing the same layout and data type connections.
There are two basic strategies for handling external data when building a pattern:
- You can permit authors to override or replace connected data each time the pattern is used.
- You can prevent authors from changing the data resources, making the connections static.
- Architects can blend these strategies as patterns can connect to more than one data resource.
Content types#
Content-first approaches are common with digital teams. But sometimes more flexibility is needed than is afforded by the content model in the system of record.
Fast-moving campaigns, personalization, and other tailored experiences need to consider what's displayed (content), how it's displayed (design), and why it's displayed (behavior) to deliver a cohesive experience. Teams need experience models.
Uniform's experience management tools for content let teams iterate without:
- Polluting the content model with volatile content
- Requiring all the CMS requirements are met before an experience can be built
Teams can create content types directly within Uniform, providing the structure for individual pieces of content that can be brought into compositions like any other data source.