As a product designer of a startup, coming up with layout designs every time I make a new page was pretty time-consuming and risks creating inconsistency. It made me consider to build a design system, that would help to eliminate these problems. Since building a design system takes a lot of time and energy, my interest was to make the most out of it by creating a template section in the design system that would allow anyone to make a new page quickly and easily on their own using pre-existing components.
I wanted it to work similarly to Scratch… something that lets people code without actual coding needed; quick and easy.
After searching through the community, I found many designers already solved this problem by utilizing the auto-layout feature in Figma. With this, I could build effective templates, not only for myself, but for everyone on my team. We can see it’s working pretty well although it’s still a work-in-progress. So I want to share this small tutorial on how to build a template that will help save everyone’s time and resources by using this auto-layout. If you’re already Figma-savvy, you can just skip this post ;)
This is the “templates” stage in atomic design, which will come up later. (yes, it takes a while to reach this stage if you’re building a design system from scratch. At least atoms and molecules should be done first.) But this doesn’t have to be working in a design system, just use this tips for consistent and effective design in whatever you make.
This is how it works: Magnetic and flexible. Everything here is pretty much a combination of auto-layouts. If you’re new to this feature, don’t worry. I am here to walk you through how to get there.
Tutorial
In this post, I’m going to show you how I made the FAQ template in the gif above. I’ll be going over every detail of the process, so please skip the parts you already know!
I have a “Question” I just typed and a chevron-right icon “>”. You can add the auto layout by using the keyboard shortcut Shift+A with those two layers selected. (Alternatively in the right sidebar, click “+” next to Auto layout).
Make sure to set the spacing mode to “space between” to make the space flexible.
Beside this auto layout frame, make a divider(line element) and two spacing elements. We need to make another auto layout with these.
For better communication with engineers, I prefer using visible spacing components. You can get auto-layout spacing components from the Figma community. You can do this part differently if you want or just use transparent boxes.
Importantly, “spacing between items” should be set to “0”. (because we used spacing components here) Additionally, make sure each of 4 elements in the auto layout frame (two spacing boxes, divider, previous auto layout) is set for “Fill container”. This setting is essential for making a flexible component.
Now, copy the frame as many times as you want, and make ANOTHER auto layout encompassing them all. Oh and add a title here as well. When “spacing between items” is set to “0”, it looks like the frame on the right side of the above picture. As you can see I named the frame “FAQ template”.
We’re almost there, grab “FAQ template” frame and add a fill. Then the frame acquires its background.
Although the preset is “hug contents”, we need to choose “fixed width”. Then I changed the width to 375, so that it can function as a mobile template.
It looks a little bit tight, I know! It’s time to add more spacings between the title and questions, as well as the top and bottom. This frame is not a regular frame; It’s an auto layout frame. This means you don’t need to worry about being off 1px from the arrangement anymore.
<Final appearance>
The advantage of this template is that anyone (engineers, PMs, marketers…anyone on your team) can use and edit easily without ruining the layout design. If you already have premade UI components or you’re currently building a design system, make use of what you have. Once you have this system settled in your design file, it will save a ton of time for your project!!
Plus, if you use variants feature with this, the template will be more usecul. There’s a practical guide on Figma’s website, click here to check it out!
