10 Figma Tips to Boost Productivity in 2024

Key Takeaway:

• Mastering Figma shortcuts like Ctrl+Opt+C to copy object properties such as fills or text style and Ctrl+Opt+V to paste them to another object can significantly reduce the time required to complete tasks.
• You can also use Ctrl + L to copy the link to your Figma file to the clipboard.
• Learning and using shortcuts allows you to navigate the interface more efficiently, access tools quickly, and streamline your workflow.

What is Figma and Why is it Important to Designers?

Figma is a collaborative cloud-based design tool extremely popular among designers and teams worldwide. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for designing and prototyping user interfaces (UIs) and user experiences (UX).

Why Figma is important for designers

• Collaborative Design: Figma supports real-time collaboration, allowing designers to work on projects fluidly regardless of location. This promotes effective communication and teamwork.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Figma is available through online browsers and desktop apps, making it compatible with various operating systems (Windows, macOS, and Linux). This provides seamless cooperation across several teams and devices.
• Design System Building: Figma is a powerful tool for creating and maintaining design systems, assuring consistency and efficiency across multiple projects.
• Prototyping: The platform has powerful prototyping features that enable designers to develop interactive prototypes and test their designs with consumers.
• Version Control: Figma’s version history capability allows designers to track changes and revert to prior versions as needed.
• Integration with Other Tools: Figma integrates with various design and development tools to streamline workflows and improve collaboration.
• Accessibility Features: Figma has accessibility capabilities that enable designers to develop inclusive designs for users with disabilities.

Tips to Efficiently Use Figma

1. Create Designs for Mobile First

This is an important tip because smaller screens have fewer contents than larger ones. You can design smaller screens with the essentials first, then add the remaining pieces as the screen size increases, rather than creating from big to small and determining which item on your screen to hide.

Figma’s responsive design elements also make designing for different screen sizes simple. By starting with mobile, you can ensure that your designs work and look good on all devices.

Finally, prioritizing mobile design enables rapid iteration and testing of your concepts on smaller devices before expanding to larger ones. Early in the design phase, this might assist you in recognizing and resolving possible problems.

2. Use the Auto Layer Feature

The auto-layout function in Figma provides a strong option for effective component placement and dynamic scaling. In addition to rapidly adding buttons, lists, models, and other items, it also automatically maintains constant alignment and spacing between elements.

This function saves time by doing tiresome manual spacing corrections, which is especially helpful when constructing complicated designs with several interrelated pieces. This can also reduce the possibility of human error, resulting in a finished output that is polished and professional.

3. Rename Layers

When your project expands and requires more pages and components, it is critical to maintain file organization. Whether you are creating a business website or a mobile application, the layer naming structure and hierarchy are helpful.

Double-clicking on a layer’s name in the Layers panel will rename it, enabling you to make direct edits to the name. When renaming many layers at once, select them by clicking on them while holding down Shift or Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac).

After it is selected, use the context menu to right-click and select “Rename.” This will allow you to change the names of all the layers you have chosen at once.

Consider creating hierarchical structures within your Layers panel using slash-separated names to improve organization. This allows you to arrange related components together, simplifying your design. Figma automatically detects these meta-categories, making it easier to organize your design assets.

4. Utilise the Bar Graph Tool

Figma’s Bar Graph tool is a versatile and fast approach to visualizing data and delivering information in an appealing format. Bar charts allow designers to rapidly and effectively communicate trends, comparisons, and correlations between multiple data sets.

5. Use the Smart Selection Tool

The Smart Selection feature in Figma is a valuable resource for designers looking to optimize their workflow and increase efficiency. This application saves time and effort on various design tasks by autonomously detecting and selecting related design elements. It provides benefits such as rapid group selection, precise object isolation, efficient layer management, and enhanced design workflow.

6. Put Images Quickly into Placeholder

One of Figma’s time-saving hacks is the ability to insert photos into placeholders swiftly. Using a single keyboard shortcut, you can quickly fill several shapes with photos, saving hours of hand placement.

Steps to do this:

• Choose the images you want to place in your design.
• Next, press Ctrl+Shift+K: This keyboard shortcut activates the Fill Placeholders feature.
• Finally, as you click on shapes in your design, the selected images will automatically fill them.

7. Use the Scale Tool

Figma’s Scale tool is a useful function that allows you to resize several objects at once while keeping their proportions. This is very important in establishing consistent and visually appealing designs.

Steps to use this tool:

• Select all the objects you want to scale by holding down Shift or Ctrl (or Cmd on Mac) while clicking on them.
• Next, press the K key on your keyboard to activate the Scale tool.
• Finally, click and drag one of the bounding boxes surrounding the selected objects to resize them proportionally.
• Figma will automatically adjust the size of all selected objects to maintain their aspect ratio.

8. Spacebar Hacks

Despite popular belief, the spacebar is very useful when using Figma. Drag the selection box and hit and hold the spacebar to extend the cursor selection. You can also give room when you sketch a pattern to allow for future object repositioning.

If that is not enough, pressing the spacebar will make Figma move the object right away into an auto frame or layout. Nesting might also be substituted with it.

9. Use the Arc Tool

The Arc Tool in Figma is a versatile form tool that allows designers to draw curved lines and arcs accurately. Its simple interface allows you to quickly and easily change the radius, start angle, and end angle of your arcs. Using the Arc Tool may improve your design and produce more visually appealing elements.

One of the most significant advantages of the Arc Tool is its ability to streamline the design process. Instead of manually constructing curved objects with many straight lines or other tools, you may easily make arcs of the necessary curvature and proportions. This saves time and effort, allowing you to concentrate on the creative elements of your design.

10. Use the Eyedropper Tool

The Eyedropper Tool in Figma is helpful for designers looking to optimize their workflow and ensure design consistency. It removes the need for manual color input by allowing you to quickly sample colors from existing objects, resulting in a more consistent visual look.

To utilize the Eyedropper Tool, simply click on its icon in the toolbar or press the keyboard shortcut I. Then, click any element in your design to see its color. The sampled color will automatically apply to your chosen layer or tool, saving you time and effort.

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