How To Create Interactive Search Bar In Figma For Beginners + FREE Video Tutorial

Watch the full video tutorial here on my YouTube Channel

A quick word before you read this blog post…

I just launched my YouTube Channel, Athisa, which is an online resource for anyone to learn product design skills. I teach in a way that is beginner friendly so the videos work for you no matter what your level is.

So, if you’re interested, check out it!

Thank you!

• Prepare a frame for your prototype i.e. mobile app, desktop website, or whatever product you want to design.

For my tutorial, I used a is a desktop website for a fictional online grocery store called Veggies as an example for this tutorial.

• Create a rounded rectangle for the search using the rectangle tool.
• Make the rectangle’s corners rounded.

Choose a value that reflects how rounded you want your corners to be.

For my prototype, I used a value of 30 to round off the corners of the rectangle.

• Change the fill of the rectangle to white.
• Add a stroke of 1 to the rectangle.
• Type in the word “Search” in a light grey color inside the rectangle.
• Add a search icon in the rectangle.

You can get a search icon from Figma Community.

• Group all the elements together: the rectangle, the search icon & the text “Search.”
• Turn the grouped elements into a component by clicking the “Create component” icon at the top.
• You can name the component as “Search bar.”

This makes it easy to find it in the Assets tab later.

For my prototype, I chose to name the component “Search bar Vegggies.”

• Select the Search bar component.

This is the default state of the interactive search bar.

• Click the “Add variant” icon at the top to create the 1st variant.
• For the 1st variant, type this punctuation mark “|” before the text “Search.”

Add subsequent variants using this same method.

Or, you can use the small plus icon under the previous variant.

• For the 2nd variant, type any text as the sample search query based on your product, and make the text black.

For my prototype, I typed the text “spinach” since it’s an online grocery store.

Then type this punctuation mark “|” after the text “spinach.”

• For the 2nd variant, erase the “|” after the search query text.
• Now, it’s time to make connections.

Click the Prototype tab to enable you to connect the component & variants.

• Connect the Search bar component to the 1st variant.
• Connect the 1st variant to the 2nd variant.
• Connect the 2nd variant to the 3rd variant.
• Then, connect the 3rd variant to the default component.
• Move the default component & its variants outside the frame.
• Go to the Assets tab & search for “Search bar.”
• Drag the Search bar onto the frame you created.
• Click the Present icon to test out your interactive search bar.

Congratulations! You’ve just created a working interactive search bar!