Building an Internal Component Library to Accelerate Magento & PWA Development
An e-commerce agency needed a faster, more efficient way to build Magento & PWA sites. We designed a scalable UI component library that cut development time by 60% and ensured design consistency across projects.
Services
Market Research
Branding
UX Design
Frontend Engineering
Duration
3 months
Domain
E-commerce
Type
B2B SaaS
Introduction
Index had previously delivered several custom e-commerce UX solutions for this client, establishing a strong long-term partnership. As the client continued scaling, they recognized a key inefficiency in their Magento & PWA development workflow—their teams were spending too much time recreating common UI components for every project.
To solve this, they approached us with a challenge:
Can we create a scalable UX framework using PWA that standardizes UI components while ensuring flexibility and efficiency?
This required a deep understanding of their existing processes, Magento Commerce’s capabilities and limitations, and how their team typically worked. Our approach involved:
- Stakeholder discussions to gather insights into workflows, design bottlenecks, and commonly used UI patterns.
- Researching Magento, PWA, and third-party libraries to identify constraints and opportunities.
- Analyzing competitors in similar spaces to understand best practices while ensuring differentiation.
With our strong expertise in e-commerce UX, CX, and CRO, we built an intuitive, reusable component library that optimized the agency’s internal development process and significantly reduced design-to-deployment time.
Our developers struggle with repetitive coding, slow deployments, and no standardized components for Magento & PWA.
The Challenge: Repetitive UI Development Slowing Down Project Timelines
The client, a leading e-commerce agency specializing in Magento & PWA, was facing significant inefficiencies in their development process. Each time they onboarded a new client, their developers had to recreate common UI components from scratch, leading to:
- Inconsistent designs across projects
- Longer development cycles
- Higher resource costs and lower efficiency
To solve this, they needed a centralized UI component library—a pre-built, reusable system that would streamline development, improve design consistency, and reduce repetitive coding efforts.
To solve this, they needed a centralized UI component library—a pre-built, reusable system that would streamline development, improve design consistency, and reduce repetitive coding efforts.
We started by immersing ourselves in the agency’s internal workflow to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. Our research focused on:
- Understanding how their teams work – What processes were slowing down UI development? What components were being repeatedly built from scratch?
- Assessing Magento Commerce & PWA limitations – Could we build completely independent components, or were there technical constraints?
- Mapping the most used UI components – Which design elements appeared in most projects (e.g., product grids, checkout flows, category filters)?
- Evaluating competitive solutions – Studying platforms like Tailwind UI, Builder.io, and Webflow to identify gaps and opportunities.
Key Insight: The most commonly used service was fashion e-commerce, making it the ideal base for structuring the library.
Key Deliverables
UX Strategy Document Component Prioritization Plan Competitive Benchmarking Report
With a clear direction, we structured the component library to ensure:
- Logical grouping of UI components – Defined by use case (e.g., Checkout, Product Display, Navigation, Upselling, Forms).
- Scalable organization – The structure allowed future expansion without disrupting existing workflows.
- Seamless integration into projects – Ensuring Magento/PWA teams could adopt and customize components efficiently.
We also designed interactive flows that mapped the end-to-end journey from theme selection to checkout. This ensured that all components worked cohesively and provided a consistent user experience.
Key Deliverables
Information Architecture (IA) Document Component Grouping Framework Interactive Flow Maps
To ensure flexibility and creative freedom, we provided the agency with:
- Multiple theme styles – Including Minimal, Modern, and Clean layouts.
- A modular design system – Allowing teams to mix and match components based on project requirements.
- Fully customizable components – Ensuring seamless adaptation to different brand aesthetics.
The UI library included:
Product grids, sliders, and category layouts Navigation systems and mega menus Checkout flows with cart, payment, and review steps Personalization modules (upselling, recommendations, promotions) Form elements (login, registration, and filters)
Key Deliverables
High-Fidelity UI Designs Interactive Prototypes XD-Based Component System
Before finalizing the component library, we tested it extensively with internal teams. This included:
- Developer testing – Ensuring components were easy to integrate with Magento & PWA.
- Designer testing – Checking if the design system maintained flexibility without compromising consistency.
- Real-world simulation – Using test projects to validate efficiency, scalability, and usability.
Key Learnings & Refinements:
Developers reported a 60% reduction in front-end coding time. Designers found it easier to maintain brand consistency while offering customization options. Adjustments were made to improve modularity and responsiveness.
Key Deliverables
Usability Testing Report Refined UI Components Customization Guidelines
Developers eliminated repetitive coding and slow deployments with a reusable component library, enabling faster, standardized Magento & PWA development.