Features

Tips for communicating better the information in Figma files to developers

Edward Chechique explains how to organize and communicate the information in your Figma files for better collaboration with developers.

21 Best Figma Plugins for Designers in 2021

Molly Hellmuth and the UI Prep team installed and tested over 100 plugins to find the true gems. In this article, they recommend 21 plugins organized into 6 different “stacks”.

Custom note component for discussions

Love the idea of using custom notes instead of built-in comments for more permanent comments.

Here's how we use a custom internal note component in @figmadesign at Bonfire. With a few customization options (putting your name on it, picking a color, and setting a note type), they can become a flexible tool that makes collaboration easy in larger teams.

🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/9CVV7Rqiou
— Dan Strogiy (@dan_strogiy) July 20, 2021

Use component descriptions

Ana Boyer with a thread of multiple ways to use descriptions to improve your team organization and collaboration.

Figma Tip! Descriptions are some of the easiest and oftentimes overlooked ways to improve your team organization and collaboration. Here are some ways you can use these to your advantage:
(Thread)
— Ana Boyer (@_AnaBoyer) July 22, 2021

Figma and After Effects: Animated Bell Icon for Lottie

“Let your users know they’ve got notifications with this Animated Bell Icon that starts out in Figma, gets sent to After Effects to be animated, then exported as a Lottie file.”

Quick responsive workflows

Speed up your design workflows by combining plugins Responsify and Breakpoints.

Issue #45
Aug 1, 2021
#Plugins

Flower Patterns

Beautiful flower patterns built with Variants.

Table Booking Animation

Smart and delightful use of animation in the UI. See also the original file at Figma.

HEIC Import

A new plugin from Rogie, this time for importing files in Apple’s default photo format.

Versioning components using variants

Greg Huntoon came up with a great approach for versioning components. Love how elegant and easy to use it is. Don’t miss the video at the end and the discussion in the comments.

I think I've solved how to version components in @figmadesign using variants. Here's to hoping for a seamless transition as we embark on updating a wide swath of our DS components to v2.

Ran my ideas by @negativespaceca, he +1'd the approach. It's working. Maybe a video, soon... pic.twitter.com/kbcWWLZ8jV
— Greg Huntoon (@GregHuntoon) July 23, 2021

Joey Banks recommends Figma shortcuts

A few of his favorites to move a bit more quickly while working.

A few @figmadesign keyboard shortcuts ⌨️✨ that help me move a bit more quickly while working:

⇧A: Add Auto Layout (⌥⇧A to remove)
⌥L: Collapse layers
⇧⏎: Select parent (⏎ to select children)
⌥W/A/S/D: Align top/left/bottom/right
⌘K: Create link from text
— Joey Banks (@joeyabanks) July 12, 2021

Reminder: never use variants for different icons

Gleb is right – icons as variants can’t be previewed or searched. In fact, Figma doesn’t recommend using variants to group different icons either. If you have different sizes or versions of the same icon, then you could combine these as variants instead.

PSA reminder: never use variants for different icons in @figmadesign!

Use regular separate components to:
- Preview icons when swapping instances
- Search via name and icon description (bonus tip: add synonyms for easier search)#FigmaTip pic.twitter.com/4oGqs2GxIb
— Gleb Sabirzyanov (@gleb_sexy) July 7, 2021

Randy Savage covers Procreate and Image Tracer plugins

A special guest in a new video by Figma:55.

Figma in 55 Seconds: Procreate Import and Image

Issue #44
Jul 18, 2021
#Plugins
#Figma55

5 Tips to Design Maintainable Inputs in Figma

“I build several design systems every year and have learned a lot about designing components that are easy to use and maintain. One of the most important ones being inputs. They deserve to be built with great care because of how important, frequently used, and complex they are.”

Use a master component when working with variants

Creating variants based on a master component makes it much easier to maintain multiple states.

11 Figma Plugins to Supercharge Your Designs

The team at Blush recommends 11 of their favorite plugins for improving a workflow.

Issue #44
Jul 18, 2021
#Plugins

An Introduction to Figma Interactive Components

In this Smashing Magazine article, Emiliano explains why Interactive Components (now in beta) will improve how we create prototypes. The new feature reduces the time and effort needed to create interactions by bringing down the cost of design exploration.

Design system updates

A few minor improvements to working with components and instances.

Edit names on canvas

Now you can edit flow and frame names directly from the canvas. Just double-click the name and start typing.

Today at @figmadesign we shipped a fix for one of my longest standing pet peeves about the product — now you can edit frame names directly on the canvas! Just double click and start typing.

Thank you to Linda Zhang for making this happen! pic.twitter.com/iUqTmvl5dw
— Dylan Field (@zoink) July 13, 2021

Create multiple flows

Compare, test, and present multiple interactive ideas from a single page. Check out a couple of quick tips for using the new feature by Miguel Cardona.

#Features