Folder Organization Strategy

Problem

The project structure is either too flat with hundreds of files in one directory, making it impossible to find anything, or too deeply nested with excessive folders that force developers to navigate through many levels to reach a single file. Both extremes slow down development and make the codebase harder to navigate.

Solution

Structure directories by feature, domain, or layer to create clear boundaries and make related code easy to find. This reduces cognitive load and makes it obvious where new code should live.

Example

This example demonstrates organizing code by feature to group related files together for easier navigation and maintenance.

src/
├── features/          # Feature-based organization
│   ├── auth/          # All authentication-related code
│   ├── products/      # Product catalog and details
│   └── checkout/      # Shopping cart and checkout
├── components/        # Shared UI components
└── utils/             # Shared utility functions

Benefits

• Makes related code easy to locate by grouping files that change together.
• Reduces cognitive load by establishing clear boundaries between different parts of the application.
• Scales well as the project grows by allowing features to be added independently.
• Facilitates team collaboration by reducing merge conflicts in different feature areas.

Tradeoffs

• Requires upfront planning to establish the right organization strategy for your project.
• Can be subjective - different developers may have different opinions on the best structure.
• Refactoring folder structure later can be disruptive and time-consuming.
• May lead to duplication if shared code isn’t properly extracted to common directories.