How to structure the frontend project for scalability and maintainability

One of the most common questions developers ask when starting a new project is:

"How to structure the frontend project for scalability and maintainability ?"

The answer is....

Don't follow any rule too strictly. Structure should be flexible and should evolve with your project. You don’t have to get it perfect from day one — just start with the basics and adapt as things grow.

In this post, I’ll walk you through a simple, step-by-step approach to setting up your structure for a small-to-medium-sized front-end project. I’m using React for this one, but the same ideas can be applied to any tech stack.

Step 1: Define Your Design First

Once you have your UI design ready, don’t jump straight into coding. The code structure — will be cleaner if it's guided by a well-thought-out design.

Step 2: Set Up Your CSS Variables

Before any components or pages:

• Create CSS variables for all the colors you'll be using — including black and white.
• Avoid relying on default browser styles. This makes it easier to add light/dark mode later.
• Create variables for standard values like:
• Spacing between sections
• Border-radius
• Font sizes, etc.

This approach makes your design more consistent and easier to tweak in the future.

Step 3: Build One Page at a Time

Don’t start by coding components in isolation (like the navbar or a footer from different pages).

Instead:

1. Pick one page — say the homepage.
2. Build the entire page first.
3. Once that page is done, refactor the code:
4. Extract reusable components
5. Separate concerns
6. Clean up structure

This keeps your project tidy and prevents unnecessary early abstraction.

Step 4: Go Page by Page

Continue coding page by page instead of jumping across different parts of the site. This has a few benefits:

• Easier to track your progress
• Cleaner version control commits
• You stay focused and don’t get lost in component world.

Step 5: Handle Responsiveness Gradually

Start with the desktop view first. Once that’s done:

1. Move on to tablet view.
2. Then adjust for mobile.

Trying to make everything responsive from the beginning can slow you down and cause confusion. Doing it step-by-step makes debugging easier and helps you think clearly about layout shifts.

Final Thoughts

Don’t overthink code structures in the beginning. Let them grow organically as your app grows. Keep things flexible, name folders clearly, and only refactor when it makes sense.

Do share your thoughts what is your go to approach while setting up a project.

Keep Coding 🔥