docs: Add component design guidelines

Signed-off-by: Carlos Esteban Lopez <lcarlosesteb@vmware.com>
2022-10-20 17:52:56 -05:00
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+---
+id: design
+title: Design
+description: Documentation on Design
+---
+
+Be it a new component contribution, or plugin specific components, you'll want
+to follow these guidelines, we'll cover the 3 main subjects that define the
+general look and feel of your components, all of which build on top of the MUI
+theme features:
+
+- Layout
+- Color palette
+- Typography
+
+## 🏗️ Layout
+
+Layout refers to how you organize or stack content, whenever possible we want
+to use Backstage's components (check the [Storybook][1] for a list and demo)
+or MUI components (check the [MUI docs][2]).
+
+If none of these fit your layout needs, then you can build one, however using
+HTML+CSS directly is not recommended, it's better to use MUI layout components
+to make your layout theme aware, meaning if someone changes the theme, your
+layout would react to those changes without requiring updates to your code.
+
+Specifically you want to look at these components that make use of the
+`theme.spacing()` function for margins, paddings and positions, as well as
+color palette and typography:
+
+- [Container][3] mostly at page level
+- [Box][4] like a div that can be customized a lot
+- [Grid][5] & [Grid V2][6] (preferable V2) for flexible grid layouts
+- [Stack][7] for vertical layouts (single column)
+- [Paper][8] The base of a card, like it's background & padding on the borders
+- [Card][9] Card with support for title, description, buttons, images...
+
+## Color palette
+
+Any component that needs a color to put in the styles should be using the
+theme's color palette, most Backstage components and all MUI components should
+use the theme's color palette by default, so unless you need explicit control
+on the color of a component (say when the component was design to use the
+primay color but you want to use the secondary), then the easiest way to access
+the color palette is with [useTheme hook](https://mui.com/material-ui/customization/theming/#accessing-the-theme-in-a-component).
+
+It's not a very common use case to override a theme color in a MUI component
+but let's say you have a Paper component that highlights it's content with a
+different color for a side menu or something (usually you use the elevation,
+but maybe the designer wanted a colorful app), you can use the theme like this:
+
+```tsx
+import { useTheme } from '@mui/material/styles';
+
+export function Sidebar() {
+  const theme = useTheme();
+  return (
+    <Paper
+      sx={{
+        backgroundColor: theme.palette.primary.main,
+      }}
+    >
+      Some children here
+    </Paper>
+  );
+}
+```
+
+Here is a link to the [Default Palette values][10] you can use, the tokens will be the same, what changes are the colors associated with those depending on
+your app theme color palette.
+
+## Typography
+
+Most of the time the components from MUI will use the `<Typography />` component
+which will use the theme's typography properties like font family, size, weight
+and appropriate color from the palette for the context of that component, like
+buttons that use white font color for contained buttons, or the respective color
+passed on via props when not outlined for proper contrast (buttons in dark
+theme adapt properly by using a dark font instead of white).
+
+However for those cases where the parent component of the content doesn't handle
+the text, like when the parent component is a layout one, you use typography
+component instead of the HTML counterparts, usually used for titles and
+paragraphs but it is valid for any type of text.
+
+Check the [Typography docs][11] for information on how to install, use,
+customize semantic elements and specially the recommendations about
+accessibility.
+
+[1]: http://backstage.io/storybook
+[2]: https://mui.com/material-ui/getting-started/overview/
+[3]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-container/
+[4]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-box/
+[5]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-grid/
+[6]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-grid2/
+[7]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-stack/
+[8]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-paper/
+[9]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-card/
+[10]: https://mui.com/material-ui/customization/palette/#default-values
+[11]: https://mui.com/material-ui/react-typography