How do you design a page object model that stays maintainable?

The value of a page object is a single place to change when the UI changes. If a locator appears in ten tests, one markup change breaks ten tests. If it lives behind a method such as signIn(email, password), only the page object changes.

public class LoginPage {
    private final WebDriver driver;
    private final By email = By.id("email");
    private final By password = By.id("password");
    private final By submit = By.cssSelector("[data-testid='sign-in']");

    public LoginPage(WebDriver driver) {
        this.driver = driver;
    }

    public DashboardPage signIn(String user, String pass) {
        driver.findElement(email).sendKeys(user);
        driver.findElement(password).sendKeys(pass);
        driver.findElement(submit).click();
        return new DashboardPage(driver);
    }
}

• One page object per page or meaningful component, not per test
• Expose user intent such as signIn or addToCart, not individual clicks
• Return the next page object to make navigation explicit
• Keep assertions in tests so the page object does not decide correctness
• Avoid a god object that models the entire application in one class
• Share common header or navigation through composition rather than inheritance where possible

Page objects should not hide waits that the test needs to reason about. They can encapsulate synchronisation for their own actions, but they should not swallow failures or retry business logic. A page object that silently waits forever turns a clear assertion failure into a timeout.