Frames All the Way Down — My Top 5 Figma Tips 😎
solving pesky bugs, the power of frames, presenting work and more
1. Conquer the wheel of doom: when the instance replace list is stuck loading
I almost cried when suddenly, components with nested icon components stopped loading the instance replace list. I tried everything but the annoying thing just kept on spinning like there is no tomorrow then I scoured the internet for hours looking for solutions, none of which worked until I finally found a workaround:
- make a copy of the component anywhere on the canvas.
- detach that instance from the component.
3. select the icon component within and load the instance list. It will innocently load as if it were not driving everyone insane just moments ago.
4. delete the instance. Now if you go back to the instance that you were trying to adjust overrides for, the list will work normally. Why? beats me 🤷🏻♀️
2. Frame it
Use the new and swoon-worthy auto layout feature to make your UI pixel perfect. Everything should be in a frame, think of it as divs.
Forms with multiple rows of input fields
make each row a frame, set up margins and duplicate that to no end. Of course, inputs are also components so you just change input types, state and labels.
Multi purpose Modals:
make one template frame for the modal, set up background style, margins and structure and only change the content frame. Like so:
Carousels and multi-page horizontal menus
- create a frame as wide as the carousel/menu is supposed to be and check “clip content”.
2. create a component out of the frame and add a variant property “page selected”
3. simply change the alignment to create the nth page of the carousel.
4. connect the variants with an action that makes sense for the use case; drag or click an arrow, etc… and choose “smart animate” for animation and enjoy!
and the power of frames and components goes on forever.
3. Remove White Backgrounds with Multiply
have an image you need to use in your UI and can’t be bothered to use use remove.bg or any other software? easy. select that image and use “multiply” blending mode.
4. Present like a rockstar — use View Ports plugin
Sometimes, it’s really annoying when people view a protoype on their own devices as everyone will have a different view based on their screensizes. Therefore, I prefer to make a separate page for presenting a flow and resize all screens to a certain device size. It looks better and guarantees a unified experience for your audience. Install plugin here
5. Break it: Use breakpoints plugin to make your front end devs happy.
Simply choose a frame, and generate views for all breakpoints that you set up as you like, and adjust the design as needed. Preview and have fun! Easy as pie. Install plugin here.
They’re not much, but they save me AGES everyday. Most of the examples are from my latest project. can’t find time to make test elements 🙈.
Hope these help in any way!
‘Till next time. Lots of love, and #keepdesigning!
