Creating Reusable Design Systems with Drupal and Storybook
May 20, 2025
Design consistency is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s essential. If you're building large-scale Drupal websites, using Storybook alongside Drupal can transform how you manage design, frontend components, and development collaboration.
Let’s explore how to create a reusable design system by integrating Drupal with Storybook.
What Is Storybook and Why Use It with Drupal?
Storybook is an open-source tool that lets you build UI components in isolation and document them visually. It’s popular with frontend teams because it:
Shows live previews of components
Makes collaboration between designers and developers seamless
Encourages reusable, testable code
When used with Drupal, Storybook helps decouple your frontend from the backend — making your system easier to manage and scale.
Benefits of Using a Design System with Drupal
Consistency: Every button, block, or layout is defined and documented.
Faster Development: Reuse components across pages and even projects.
Team Collaboration: Designers, developers, and content editors stay on the same page.
Scalability: Easily introduce new components without breaking old ones.
How to Set It Up
Create or extract your UI components using Twig in your Drupal theme.
Integrate Storybook by setting up a build process (e.g., Webpack) that can read and render Twig files.
Write stories for each component — e.g., “Button – primary”, “Card – with image”, etc.
Connect Storybook to your design tokens (colors, spacing, typography) for a truly scalable system.
Keep components in sync with what’s used in Drupal’s templates or custom modules.
Real-World Use Case
A reusable design system means you can develop once and deploy everywhere. Whether you're working on a marketing site, e-commerce platform, or editorial experience — the same core components power your layouts and interfaces.
When to Start Building One?
If you manage multiple sites, have a large content team, or plan to scale your Drupal project in phases, building a design system now will save you time and rework later.
Need Expert Help?
Whether you’re modernizing your frontend or starting fresh, our team at Drupalify can help you build a flexible design system that works seamlessly with Drupal and Storybook.
Book a consultation with our UI/UX and frontend dev experts to get started.
FAQs
Is Storybook only for decoupled Drupal projects?
No — it can be used with both decoupled and traditional Drupal setups by isolating Twig components.
Can Storybook render Drupal's Twig templates directly?
Yes, with some setup using tools like Webpack and Twig loaders, you can preview and test your Drupal templates in Storybook.
Do I need to be a designer to use Storybook?
Not at all. Developers use it to test and document components, and designers use it to maintain consistency.
Is this only useful for large teams?
Even small teams benefit by keeping their components clean, organized, and reusable.
