Beginner’s Guide to Increasing Agility in Micro-frontend Design

Imagine you are building a giant Lego set. Instead of working on one big, complex piece, you divide it into smaller, easier-to-handle sections. This is what microfrontend design does for websites and applications. It splits the frontend (the part users see and interact with) into smaller, independent pieces, making it easier to work on and improve. In this guide, you’ll learn how microfrontend design increases agility and why it’s a great choice for building modern applications.

What Is Microfrontend Design?

Microfrontend design is a way of breaking a website’s frontend into smaller parts called microfrontends. Each microfrontend is like its own mini-website. It can be built, tested, and deployed separately by a team without affecting the other parts of the application. This makes it faster and easier to add new features or fix bugs.

Why Microfrontend Design Is Useful

Here are the main reasons why microfrontend design is popular:

1. Faster Development: Different teams can work on different parts of the application at the same time. This speeds up development.
2. Flexibility: Each microfrontend can use the tools and technologies that best suit it. For example, one team might use React, while another uses Angular.
3. Easier Maintenance: Smaller pieces of code are easier to fix and update. If there’s a problem, you don’t have to deal with the whole application.
4. Scalability: You can scale individual parts of the application independently. If one part is getting a lot of traffic, you can focus resources there.

How Does It Work?

Think of an online shopping site. Here’s how microfrontend design might divide it:

1. Header: Includes the logo, navigation bar, and search bar.
2. Product Listing: Displays the products users can browse.
3. Shopping Cart: Manages the items users add to their cart.
4. Footer: Contains links, contact info, and other details.

Each of these sections can be a microfrontend. Teams can work on them separately and combine them to create the full site.

Here’s an example code snippet to illustrate this:

// Header Microfrontend
const Header = () => {
  return (
    <header>
      <h1>ShopLogo</h1>
      <nav>
        <a href="/home">Home</a>
        <a href="/products">Products</a>
      </nav>
      <input type="search" placeholder="Search..." />
    </header>
  );
};

// Product Listing Microfrontend
const ProductListing = ({ products }) => {
  return (
    <section>
      <h2>Our Products</h2>
      <ul>
        {products.map((product) => (
          <li key={product.id}>{product.name} ${product.price}</li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </section>
  );
};

// Shopping Cart Microfrontend
const ShoppingCart = ({ cartItems }) => {
  return (
    <aside>
      <h2>Your Cart</h2>
      <ul>
        {cartItems.map((item) => (
          <li key={item.id}>{item.name} {item.quantity}</li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </aside>
  );
};

// Footer Microfrontend
const Footer = () => {
  return (
    <footer>
      <p>&copy; 2025 Your Shop. All rights reserved.</p>
      <a href="/contact">Contact Us</a>
    </footer>
  );
};

// Combine them in a main app
const App = () => {
  const products = [
    { id: 1, name: "Product A", price: 50 },
    { id: 2, name: "Product B", price: 30 },
  ];

  const cartItems = [
    { id: 1, name: "Product A", quantity: 2 },
  ];

  return (
    <div>
      <Header />
      <ProductListing products={products} />
      <ShoppingCart cartItems={cartItems} />
      <Footer />
    </div>
  );
};
        

This example shows how you can divide an app into smaller components, each focusing on one part of the application. Each microfrontend can later be deployed and updated independently.

Clear Boundaries: Define what each microfrontend does. For example, the shopping cart should only handle cart-related tasks.

Before:

// Shopping cart manages unrelated tasks
const ShoppingCart = () => {
    const fetchProducts = () => {
        // Logic to fetch all products (not related to cart)
    };

    return (
        <div>
            <button onClick={fetchProducts}>Fetch Products</button>
            <h2>Cart Items</h2>
        </div>
    );
};
        

After:

// Shopping cart focuses only on cart functionality
const ShoppingCart = ({ cartItems }) => {
    return (
        <div>
            <h2>Your Cart</h2>
            <ul>
                {cartItems.map(item => (
                    <li key={item.id}>{item.name} {item.quantity}</li>
                ))}
            </ul>
        </div>
    );
};
        

Consistent Design: Use a shared design system to make sure all parts of the application look and feel the same.

Before:

// Inline styles vary across components
const Header = () => (
    <header style={{ color: 'blue', fontSize: '20px' }}>
        Welcome to Shop
    </header>
);
        

After:

// Shared design system applied
const Header = () => (
    <header className="app-header">
        Welcome to Shop
    </header>
);
        

/* Design system CSS */
.app-header {
    color: var(--primary-color);
    font-size: var(--font-large);
}
        

Minimize Sharing: Avoid sharing too much data between microfrontends. This keeps them independent and easier to manage.

Before:

// Excessive data sharing
const SharedState = {
    products: [],
    cart: []
};

const ProductListing = () => {
    const { products } = SharedState;
    return (
        <ul>
            {products.map(p => <li key={p.id}>{p.name}</li>)}
        </ul>
    );
};
        

After:

// Isolated data fetching
const ProductListing = () => {
    const [products, setProducts] = useState([]);

    useEffect(() => {
        fetch('/api/products')
            .then(response => response.json())
            .then(data => setProducts(data));
    }, []);

    return (
        <ul>
            {products.map(p => <li key={p.id}>{p.name}</li>)}
        </ul>
    );
};
        

Use Standard Communication: Create simple ways for microfrontends to talk to each other. For example, use APIs or events.

Before:

// Tight coupling between components
const Cart = ({ addToCart }) => (
    <button onClick={() => addToCart(1)}>Add to Cart</button>
);
        

After:

// Decoupled communication via events
const Cart = () => {
    const handleAddToCart = (id) => {
        window.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('add-to-cart', { detail: { id } }));
    };

    return (
        <button onClick={() => handleAddToCart(1)}>Add to Cart</button>
    );
};
        

Lazy Loading: Load microfrontends only when they’re needed. This makes the application faster.

Before:

// All components loaded upfront
import Header from './Header';
import ProductListing from './ProductListing';
import ShoppingCart from './ShoppingCart';

const App = () => (
    <div>
        <Header />
        <ProductListing />
        <ShoppingCart />
    </div>
);
        

After:

// Components loaded on demand
const LazyShoppingCart = React.lazy(() => import('./ShoppingCart'));

const App = () => (
    <div>
        <Header />
        <ProductListing />
        <React.Suspense fallback={<div>Loading Cart...</div>}>
            <LazyShoppingCart />
        </React.Suspense>
    </div>
);        

Challenges to Watch Out For

While microfrontend design is great, there are a few things to be careful about:

1. Complexity: Managing many small pieces can be tricky. Plan carefully to keep things organized.
2. Consistency: Make sure all microfrontends follow the same design rules so the application looks unified.
3. Duplicate Code: Avoid repeating code in multiple microfrontends. This can make your application harder to maintain.

Why Beginners Should Try Microfrontend Design

Microfrontend design is like teamwork for websites. Instead of building everything yourself, you can focus on one part while others handle the rest. This makes learning and working on web development more fun and less stressful. Plus, you’ll gain valuable skills that are in high demand in today’s tech world.