The beauty of Auto Layout in action by Dmitriy Bunin.
Responsive dashboard template made with Figma.#uidesign pic.twitter.com/FnIc3c8QJR
— Dmitriy Bunin (@buninux) March 23, 2023
Another week, another topic for designers to argue about (even Figma had to chip in)! 100% agree with Yasir: “Designers skeptical about Figma’s Auto Layout probably haven’t tried coding their designs. Once you do, you’ll see everything in code is about stacks and Auto Layouts. It’s a basic principle, not a style choice.”
Still not a fan of auto layout? pic.twitter.com/6QUlfuiZBG
— Yasir (●ᴗ●) (@yasirbugra) February 28, 2024
Christine Vallaure explains the basics of CSS Flexbox and how it translates to Figma’s Auto Layout. “Discover how to set up individual flex properties for items and explore the nesting capabilities of Flexbox. While Flexbox is great for component layout, CSS Grid offers more control for overall page layout. Find out how to use both in harmony for optimal design.”
Ana Boyer with a tutorial on how to create a range slider with Auto Layout.
Rogie with a mini-tutorial on making Mario Kart-inspired resizable buttons with fun shapes.
I love fun bordered buttons, like this Game UI from Mario Kart, so, I wanted to show you how to do this in @figma...and they work with auto layout and do not warp or squish.
— ˏˋrogieˎˊ (@rogie) November 3, 2023
Here's your mini tut 🧵 pic.twitter.com/0DRXx5KBJB
A smart way to utilize line-wrapping in Auto Layout to achieve word highlighting effect.
Surely not the first to realize this, but I had a moment of clarity this morning after three cups of coffee and realized that we can FINALLY do reliable word highlighting using line-wrapping in Auto Layout.
— Jon Moore (@TheJMoore) October 3, 2023
Be still my heart.
👀 @figma pic.twitter.com/SoEhGGFD9E
An in-depth walkthrough of how to use Figma’s Auto Layout to quickly add padding and alignment rules to standardize your design elements from the Noun Project.
Somewhat related to the previous article, Ridd looked for a way to account for optical balance when icons are hidden from a button. Jordan suggested a smart solution of wrapping the label in an Auto Layout with an additional smaller padding that adds up with and without the icon.
More Figma nerdery...
— Ridd 🤿 (@ridd_design) August 22, 2023
I want to account for optical balance when icons are hidden from my button (so ideally you'd have less padding when an icon is present)
Anyone have a better solution than wrapping icons in a smaller frame and attaching the boolean there? pic.twitter.com/wxTMQQ64n5
Miggi shows how to make a notification badge that expands to fill its contents with Auto Layout.
Ozan Öztaskiran shows how to create responsive grids in 5 simple steps.
❖ Creating Responsive Grids
— Ozan Öztaskiran (@ozanoz) July 31, 2023
A Step-by-Step Guide
Responsive grids can make your life a lot easier as a designer if you want your content to be flexible.
Here's how it's done in 5 simple steps ↓
🧵 pic.twitter.com/Z48ub7fOq3
Miggi with a tip on using the new auto layout wrap to handle elements beyond just a single row. Love that Shift-A automatically puts elements into a wrapped auto layout when you have multiple rows of elements selected.
Learn how to use min and max values when working with the auto layout in your designs, with a bonus of updated text truncation and max lines feature for paragraph text.
Zander is showing how to quickly create a responsive card grid.
Designing responsive card grids in @figma, supafast! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/4qj223lP2j
— Zander Whitehurst (@zander_supafast) June 27, 2023
Molly Hellmuth shares five updates you can make with the new min/max sizing and auto layout wrap that will make a big difference in your designs. Tip #5 on having text grow in both directions is my favorite!
⭐️Figma tip: 5 easy updates you can make with figma's new min/max sizing that will make a BIG difference in your designs!
— Molly Hellmuth (@molly_hellmuth) June 30, 2023
Especially when paired with auto layout wrap.. pic.twitter.com/W1bXfMS1mH
With the latest round of auto layout updates, learn how you can wrap objects to a new line, set minimum and maximum widths and heights, and truncate text based on a set number of lines.
Dylan’s recap of all the updates from the keynote, in a brand-new blog. “Our vision is to build a new kind of design tool — one that is designed for the entire product development team. Today’s launches reimagine how design and development come together in Figma. I’m excited to introduce three ways we’re doing this: making developers feel at home in Figma with Dev Mode, connecting design to the language of code with variables, and putting a step in between a 2D design and a shipped product with advanced prototyping.”
If you have time for only one thing this week, this should be it. First, Figma CEO Dylan Field introduces new features — variables, auto layout updates, and advanced prototyping. Then, CTO Kris Rasmussen talks about rethinking product building from the ground up and how the new Dev Mode is bringing design and engineering closer together. In the end, Dylan talks about file browser refresh, font previews, and what AI could look like in Figma — wrapping things up by announcing the acquisition of Diagram.
I watched every Config keynote over the years, and this year’s announcements were the most anticipated and ambitious ever. It’s incredible to see how Figma is growing in depth and breadth at the same time, now providing incredibly advanced tools while covering an entire product-building process from brainstorming to design to development. Exciting time to be a maker.
Jan Mraz with a short video showing a few Auto Layout tips. I keep forgetting that the canvas stacking option exists! No more weird hacks with rotating a container 180°.
Useful tips and tricks for Figma autolayout! 😍 pic.twitter.com/JtK1brNvLI
— Jan Mraz (@janm_uiux) June 2, 2023
Let Destroyer recursively detach instances, remove Auto Layouts, and detach Styles within your current selection so you can iterate faster. When working collaboratively and wishing to quickly try out an idea, it’s always a hassle to detach the component and remove Auto Layouts.
Learn how to build a dual range slider that is adjustable using Auto Layout so you don’t have to create a ton of variants to show different options.