Efficient Designing: DANA’s Approach to Better Memory Usage
Have you wondered why it takes a long time to launch your design files? Or why your Figma lags constantly without knowing the reason why?
That might be because your memory usage in Figma is closing to its maximum capacity and it happens more often than you think. Designers everywhere tend to get confused on why launching takes ages or why their Figma lags more often that it should .
Although memory usage is important, this mainly affects when designing large features that contains multiple components, libraries, and content in general. Having high memory usage shouldn’t be a concern when working with small features so don’t worry too much.
Knowing how to effectively maintain low memory usage can be beneficial in many ways such as faster file launches, easy collaboration with other designers, overall time efficiency and a better workflow.
What is Memory Usage in Figma?
Memory usage in Figma is essentially similar to RAM (random access memory) in our laptops but, the main difference is that Figma uses WASM or “Web Assembly Memory”.
This type of memory is mainly used for collaborative softwares such as Figma, Figjam, Photoshop, Multiplayer games, and more.
Figma’s memory is limited to only 2GB of WASM for both the desktop app and the web browser version, and when this limit is reached Figma will lock the file and this will prohibit designers from adding more items into their design file.
Furthermore, the cause of high-memory usage can differ depending on the file. This can be things such as multiple layers, large design libraries, high-resolution images, multiple pages, and hidden layers. But this will be discussed in more detail soon.
When Does Figma Use Memory Usage?
There are 2 instances where Figma’s memory usage will activate, these are when a designer opens a file and when they navigate through pages in the design file.
According to Figma themselves, to ensure that large files are launched efficiently, Figma only loads the first few pages of the design file to avoid loading all the pages all at once. Here’s an example case,
You have a design file that contains 100 pages all with multiple layers. Once you open the file Figma opens the first 5 pages and the memory usage is at 5%.
But as you navigate through the file and open more pages, your memory usage increases to 10%, then to 20%.
What are the main causes of high memory usage?
There are 3 that impacts memory usage the most and these are,
- Hidden layers
- Large component/variant libraries
- Multiple heavy pages in a design file
Hidden layers is one of the main causes that designers tend to not be aware about. Many times designers use a page as a sandbox/playground for their designs and forget to either delete it or transfer it to another file. This can cause Figma to also load the hidden layers even though these layers might not be important to the actual design or library.
Large component/variant libraries are very common to see in design systems and most tend to include many layers of different icons, shapes, images, and more. Although most systems are already clean and organized, it is important to remember to always reduce the number of variants through the use of component properties to lessen layers in a design file.
Heavy pages can be from a few things, either high-resolution images, complicated vectors, large libraries, and hidden layers. As stated earlier in this article, Figma opens a few pages when a file is opened and only processes the other pages when opened. So when heavy pages exist in a file, as we designers open more and more pages, this can cost us time and reduce efficiency when working.
What can you do now?
So, what can we do as designers to always optimize memory usage and stay efficient?
To start we can always check whether the hidden layers in our files are important and if they aren’t, it’s best to move it into a different file or simply delete it. We can also ensure that the newest and most important pages are on top to ensure Figma loads them first and not other pages. Furthermore, when we have multiple variants, try to reduce the number of variants through the use of component properties whenever possible to reduce the number of variants in each page. And lastly is to avoid using high-resolution images unless it is necessary.
That is all for this article, thank you for reading and have a great day!
