Rename all your Figma layers with the power of AI.
Free plugin to convert any website into a fully editable Figma mockup. Not building each element from scratch is a huge time-saver if you’re picking up on a project with outdated or missing design files.
In this video, Figma Bites teaches the basics of prototyping in Figma and covers interaction details, navigation options, multiple flows, and more. By the end of this video, you’ll be able to create stellar prototypes that help convey your ideas interactively.
With the recent improvements to variants and components, Ridd makes a point that the benefits of using base components are no longer worth the cost for the design systems work. That said, they’re still great for exploratory work.
I'm constantly asked about .base components...
— Ridd 🏛 (@Ridderingand) October 13, 2022
My answer: now that variant sets are smaller AND it's easier to make bulk changes...
The benefit (ease of updating) is no longer worth the cost (ease of use).
But there's one use case I still love 👇 pic.twitter.com/InfTH6Arm3
Madeleine Lee, Product Designer at Figma, took a stab at breaking down some of Gen Z’s unique differentiators into design principles we can carry into our own work at the recent Friends of Figma SF meetup. Even if you’re not interested in this topic, her slides are gorgeous and worth a look.
Graeme Fulton looks into the difference between “open design” and “open-source design tools”, the new opportunity for an era of open-source design amidst Adobe ⨉ Figma, and how designers can be a driving force behind open-source itself. Sketch’s open file format is something we’ve always taken for granted.
Two more updates to prototypes: drag to select multiple interactions to edit or delete all at once, and create interactions from any edge of an object for easier-to-read prototypes.
When you open a new tab in the desktop app you’ll now see your recent files, making it easier to pick up where you left off.
Now you can incorporate videos into Figma prototypes for richer, more realistic experiences. Videos can be viewed on any Figma plan, but only users on paid plans can upload new videos into files. See the playground file for more details.
Moving styles between files are now easier — now you can just cut and paste them.
An interesting comment from Rasmus Andersson on how the design team at Figma works. Many people get anxious when collaborators or viewers appear in their files in the middle of work. There must be a better way than moving files between private Drafts and public files. (Personally, I’d love to see something similar to the git push
command developers use — privately work on changes, then when you’re ready send them to the public file. This would obviously affect multi-player collaboration, but sounds like an interesting challenge to think about.)
The key Figma workflow is to conduct the majority of day-to-day “heads down” design work in draft files (maybe shared with a designer you’re partnering with.) at the end of the day or week, stage stuff to a dedicated shared file for a larger audience.
— Rasmus Andersson (@rsms) October 7, 2022
A widget with a collection of 300+ unique and fun icebreakers for team events.
An interesting technique from Luis on using component props for adding spacing around icons only in some instances, for example when used inside a button.
How can you use component props for contextual spacing?
— luis. (@disco_lu) October 4, 2022
For example, an icon that needs a 12px margin in *some* instances?
– Create a spacer component
– Place that inside a wrapper component for your icon
– Nest that one inside your main component
– Bubble up the props pic.twitter.com/KUv1oX05zs
Use ⌘-F or Ctrl‑F to trigger the search box. Fantastic update! This is a critical “must-have” feature, so I used to rely on Jackie Chui’s popular Find and Replace plugin. Fun fact: Jackie joined Figma and worked on the native feature as well. He’s even got a kind warning from Figma that his plugin is going to become obsolete soon. Love to see this kind of respect for the developers community from Figma.
A new widget from Figma that lets you use your Bitmoji stickers across both apps.
15 shortcuts worth remembering.
Handy @figma shortcuts, curated by @uijohnson pic.twitter.com/hA5TySOqtW
— reo🧸🤎 (@reoworx) September 27, 2022
You can now use Spotlight while viewing prototypes, which is a great way to present without sharing a screen. There are also some performance improvements to the initial load time of prototypes.
Updates to a new file screen in FigJam: “Instantly populate your file with the building blocks needed to host a brainstorm, create a flowchart, or craft a meeting agenda with the new quick start guide in FigJam files.”
“In this episode, Figma Designer Advocate Chad Bergman and Product Manager Jacob Miller will dive into the architecting a healthy culture of collaboration, branching best practices, and the nuances of contribution!”
“Using Component Properties, we can update our library and make the components a bit more clear, flexible, and semi-self-documenting for the users of the library. In this tip, we share how preferred values and exposed instances can make the component consumption experience easier for designers.”