Improve your project structure in Figma
Hi, everyone! If you can’t find the required layout in your project within 5 seconds, then you should definitely read this article.
As a product designer, I’m designing and improving new/old screens on a daily basis. It means that I’m creating lots of concepts every day, and it’s very important for me to help my PM and team spend less time on searching necessary layout. And today I want to share some tips how to keep up your project clean and understandable for each team member. So, let’s get the ball rolling! 🚀
The Cover
When you have lots of projects, it’s crucial to have understandable covers. Think about thumbnails as your guide that will speed up the search process. So, it’s important for me to indicate:
- The title and short description
- The date
- The status
- Team members
Anyway, you need to choose this type of information, that’s important for your case. For example, you can add a device or platform icon and some labels instead of data and teammate.
Don’t forget to set your frame as thumbnail to make the preview perfect.
If you have a lack of time, you can use ready Figma plugins or files. I am delighted with these:
The Name
Pay attention to your page names.
Depends on a project, your pages would be different and I don’t recommend using a ready structure templates. Follow these 4 steps and your pages names will be awesome!
- Write down the list of all needed pages;
- Distribute them into 2–4 main blocks;
- Stand out blocks and pages (I’m using uppercase letters and symbols for blocks and emojis for pages);
- Arrange the order of these blocks and split them by using the pages without name.
In my case I’ve moved the “Cover page” below in the list as I’ve set the frame as a thumbnail before, and now it doesn’t matter where this cover is located. But in your case, If you have extra information in your cover page — I mean detailed project description, credits or something else that is important for your clients, and they need to become familiar with it firstly, then leave it at the top.
The grid
Welcome to my workspace! 👋 Here are lots of elements, but I’ll explain each of them.
Foremost, I’m using a grid in all of our project pages. For me, it’s the best way to separate templates. On the left column I’m writing the task name, small description and set the status. We’re working with Jira, so I also prefer to add the Jira’s task number and the start date.
Then I separate our current design version with my new versions to make it easy to compare.
You can adapt this grid whatever you want. For example, for a split test, I’m using extra colored frames, that set apart the result. And the date is also importain here, so I’ve made it more visible.
The statuses
It’s quite simple and really useful. But again, I’m not using a ready template! Note that I’ve made different statuses for different pages. It’ll be cool to have a touch base with your PM and team and find out which statuses they are really needed.
💡 You can also add a secondary type of statuses for content. It could be for text and images. For example, to emphasize that you are still working on the text content, and it’s not the final version. But be sure that these statuses won’t make your process cumbersome.
⭐— Preferred solution
Sometimes PM asks me about the solution that I prefer. So, to make our conversation more efficiency, I’m using a star icon near the favorite solution and explain why I’m thinking that this decision is better. It’s really simplify and speed up our communication process because they know all information at the beginning.
Woo-hoo! Hope, this article was useful. At last, one tip that helps me improve working process:
If I notice that person needs an extra effort to accomplish a task, I try to realize why it happens and how can I simplify the process.
That’s all! Wish you a productive and creative day! Thanks for reading! ❤️
