Accessible Design System in Angular, the Architecture.
2 Primary Challenges addressed by 3 Design Philosophies & Dev Techniques.

I took a deep look into the inaccessible previous version in Angular.
Why did that not work?
It had 2 Primary Challenges.
1. Property-driven components.
<rebel-component-one
[propOne]
[propTwo]
(eventThree)
>
</rebel-component-one>
- Everything had to be a property and proxied-in.
- Since every property needed had to be added in, it became inflexible for dev customization.
- Component extensions were non-trivial. I wrote a wiki guide for it as well!
- Improvements, extensions, enhancements, bug-fixes and support efforts were intensive in time and labor.
2. Wrapper component element tags on the DOM.
<rebel-component-one
[propOneNameNative]
[propTwoName]
>
<native-element
[propOneNameNative]
[propTwoName]
>
…
</native-element>
</rebel-component-one>
- Every component was element-based.
- Hence, had its own element tag on the DOM, presenting major challenges for a11y tools.
- Element components proxied properties.
- So, they were duplicated in the Angular component element tag, as well as the inner native element tags. Think value.
- The above presented another hurdle to a11y tools.
Bottom line? The Angular component library had to be re-architected ground-up, literally and philosophically.
The New Architecture embodied 3 Philosophies & Techniques.
1. Attribute Components & Directives
<div rebel-component-one> … </div>
<div rebelComponentOne> … </div>
- Based on the component being developed, I made the design choice for an attribute-selector based component or a directive.
- The choice was on a case-by-case basis. If HTML had to be projected, we chose an attribute-selector based component design. Else, I considered directives.
- Element-based component design was used when applicable. I didn’t want to make a change, just for the sake of it.
- Less the count of breaking component design changes, the more conducive is the ease of version upgrade or migration for app dev community.
2. Native Elements Leverage
<input rebel-component-one [value]>
<textarea rebelComponentOne [name]> … </textarea>
- Using 1, enables use of native DOM elements and all the capability that is conducive for engineering and a11y.
- Native properties and events can be used on the element.
- Custom properties and events can be added as needed.
- This allows for Dev and Design customization.
3. Compositional Component Architecture
<div rebel-component-one>
<div rebel-component-child-one>
<div rebel-component-grand-child-one>
…
</div>
</div>
</div>
- There are advantages in content, style and functionality at every element level.
- Classes and elements can be added in or removed.
- I thought through the App Dev experience in every decision, per component developed.
Be Thoughtful & Deliberate was the Mantra.
/PS: I made decisions in collaboration and consultation with the collective thoughts of my team. I combined my individual research and experimentation, along with their thoughts and feedback./
In the next episode, we will go over the Execution needed to build an Accessible Design System in Angular.