Why Storybook Matters in Component Development

Storybook lets your frontend team develop components in isolation, outside of the application context.
It gives you:

A sandbox for iterating without rebuilding the whole app.
Interactive documentation for designers, developers, and QA.
A single source of truth for your design system’s current state.

In short — Storybook bridges the gap between design and implementation.
Once you start using it, “What does this component look like in secondary variant?” stops being a Slack question and becomes a one-click visual check.

The Component: A Flexible Card

Here’s the actual code we use in our production projects.
It’s written in TypeScript + SCSS Modules, following the Atomic Design principle and BEM-like naming for consistent scoping.


export type CardProps = {
  title: string;
  description: string;
  icon: IconName;
  variant?: Variant;
  href?: { query: LinkHref; label: string };
};

const Card: FC<CardProps> = ({
  title,
  description,
  icon,
  variant = Variant.PRIMARY,
  href,
}) => {
  return (
    <div className={classNames(styles['card'], styles[`card_${variant}`])}>
      <div
        className={classNames(
          styles['card__header'],
          styles[`card__header_${variant}`],
        )}
      >
        <div
          className={classNames(
            styles['card__circle'],
            styles[`card__circle_${variant}`],
          )}
        >
          <Icon iconName={icon} />
        </div>
        <h3 className={styles['card__title']}>{title}</h3>
      </div>
      <p className={styles['card__description']}>{description}</p>
      {href && <p className={styles['card__link']}>{href.label}</p>}
    </div>
  );
};

export default Card;

We keep each visual variant (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary) defined via enum and BEM class modifiers, so styling remains consistent and scalable.

@use '@/styles/index.module' as *;

.card {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: 12px;
  padding: 16px;
  border-radius: 16px;
  background: var(--color-bg-surface);

  &_secondary {
    background: var(--color-bg-base);
    padding-left: 0;
  }

  &_tertiary {
    background: var(--color-bg-base);
    border: 1px solid var(--color-border-base);
  }

  &_quaternary {
    padding: 32px;
    background: var(--color-bg-base);
    border: 1px solid var(--color-border-base);
  }
...
}

This modular structure makes it easy to expand variants later (e.g., adding an “outline” version) without refactoring existing code.

Documenting the Component in Storybook

Once the component is ready, we define a Storybook meta file that acts as both documentation and a visual playground.

import { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/nextjs';
import Card from '@/components/molecules/Card/Card';
import { Variant } from '@/utils/enums/variant.enum';

const meta = {
  title: 'Design System/Molecules/Card',
  component: Card,
  tags: ['autodocs'],

  args: {
    title: 'ATOMIC design',
    description:
      'We use ATOMIC design: a scalable, portable methodology that breaks down interfaces into smaller components...',
    icon: 'code',
    variant: Variant.PRIMARY,
  },
  argTypes: {
    variant: {
      control: { type: 'select' },
      options: [
        Variant.PRIMARY,
        Variant.SECONDARY,
        Variant.TERTIARY,
        Variant.QUATERNARY,
      ],
    },
  },
} satisfies Meta<typeof Card>;

export default meta;
type Story = StoryObj<typeof Card>;

export const Default: Story = { args: {} };
export const Secondary: Story = { args: { variant: Variant.SECONDARY } };
export const Tertiary: Story = { args: { variant: Variant.TERTIARY } };
export const Quaternary: Story = {
  args: {
    icon: 'donut-small',
    variant: Variant.QUATERNARY,
    href: { query: '/', label: 'Coming soon' },
  },
};

This configuration ensures every variant of our component is:

Rendered and interactable in Storybook.
Automatically documented via autodocs.
Usable as a base for visual regression tests.

Component in Storybook

Storybook gives every component a live playground — you can instantly see how props affect visuals without touching any code.
Below is our Card component as it appears inside Storybook: the preview on top, and live Controls beneath for adjusting title, description, icon, or variant.

And here’s the same component rendered with a bordered variant, showing how easily design tokens and variants can change the visual style while keeping consistent structure.

Why We Structure Components This Way

Our guiding principle is Atomic Design — breaking down the interface into Atoms, Molecules, Organisms, Templates, and Pages.

Atoms: Smallest building blocks — e.g. buttons, icons, inputs.
Molecules: Groups of atoms — e.g. this Card component.
Organisms: Complex UI sections built from molecules.
Templates & Pages: Compositions that define content structure.

By combining Storybook with this architecture, every layer remains isolated, testable, and consistent across the design system.

Storybook isn’t just a documentation tool — it’s a collaboration platform between design, dev, and QA.
The Card component is a small example, but multiply this process by 50–100 components and you get a design system that’s reliable, scalable, and easy to onboard new developers into.