# Large Scale CSS Refactoring at trivago

DevFeed: [Large Scale CSS Refactoring at trivago](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/large-scale-css-refactoring-at-trivago-27940.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://tech.trivago.com/post/2016-02-02-large-scale-css-refactoring-at-trivago/>)

Author: Christoph Reinartz Follow

Published: 2016-02-02T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Trivago](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/trivago.md>)

Topics: [CSS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/css.md>), [Design system](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/design-system.md>), [Front end](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/frontend.md>), [Refactoring](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/refactoring.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>), [ui](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ui.md>), [modern web development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/modern-web-development.md>)

Tags: [consistency](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/consistency.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [design-system](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design-system.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [frontend](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/frontend.md>), [maintainability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/maintainability.md>), [maintenance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/maintenance.md>), [reduce](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reduce.md>), [refactoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/refactoring.md>), [structure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/structure.md>), [ui](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ui.md>), [workflow](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/workflow.md>)

## AI overview

This article describes trivago's large-scale CSS refactoring project. It explains how growth, inconsistent code and design practices, and a lack of shared guidelines created maintenance and technical-debt problems, then outlines the introduction of a design/frontend system, pattern library, atomic design, coding guidelines, BEM, and ITCSS.

## Source excerpt

While our company and our application were constantly growing, we often ran into some consistency issues between code and design. Because we didn't have a design/frontend system and development guidelines to follow, our UI became cluttered and unsustainable.