Note: If you have a different UI than in the course, you can change it back by clicking the '?' in the bottom right corner of Figma and select 'Go back to previous UI'. Happy Figma'ing!

Auto Layout & Responsive Design 101: It's use in responsive design

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Course contents

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Course info

177 lessons / 16 hours 46 quiz questions 21 projects Certificate of achievement

Overview

Hi there, aspiring Figma enthusiasts! Are you ready to embark on an exhilarating journey with me, Dan Scott, as we unlock the full potential of our Figma skills in the dazzling realm of UX/UI Design using Figma Advanced?

Try Figma for free by clicking here.

This course is tailor-made for those who have already mastered the fundamental principles of UI/UX Design using Figma. If you've triumphed over my Figma Essentials course or have a sneaking suspicion that there's a treasure trove of unexplored tools, tips, workflows, and updates awaiting your discovery, then look no further! This course is your golden ticket to taking your UI/UX prowess to the next level.

Together, we'll start by delving into the depths of multilevel nested autolayouts, and unravel the secrets used by UX professionals by learning:
- Workflow techniques, managing design assets, styles, components, grid and column layouts like true virtuosos.
- Learn how to use Variables and put them to work creating even more complete prototypes.
- Use variables to make Light & Dark Modes + Compact & Comfortable spacing versions of your components. 
- You’ll then take your new knowledge of variables to understand and create your own Design Tokens. 
  • - Unleashing the magic of advanced animation techniques, captivating users with animated background gradients and Houdini Text.
  • - Harness the power of Lottie animation files, breathing life into your designs.
  • - Crafting responsive elements that effortlessly adapt to any device, proving your design prowess knows no bounds.
  • - Unleashing the full potential of powerful images & video masking techniques, amplifying the visual impact of your creations.
  • - Mastering advanced typography features, transforming words into captivating works of art.
  • - Embracing the realm of AI, infusing your process with its genius to elevate your skills as a UX designer.
  • - Elevate your prototyping game, conducting user tests with finesse using advanced techniques.
  • - Unveiling sticky scroll buttons that stack, animated anchor points and booleans, and a host of other captivating effects.
  • - Creating enchanting dropdown menus, hover grow effects for images, and expanding search bars.
  • - Discovering the right accessibility tools & techniques, ensuring inclusivity and usability for all users.
  • - Becoming a variant boss, expertly taming unwieldy variants to just 1 or 2.
  • - Unveiling the secrets of seamless collaboration with designers, developers, and stakeholders.
  • - Mastering the art of exporting production-ready assets, bringing your designs to life beyond the realm of Figma.
  • - Unearthing professional workflow tricks & shortcuts, saving you precious time and skyrocketing your efficiency.
  • - Plus much more exciting advanced Figma goodness along the way!

As you journey through this course, you'll acquire the skills wielded by UX professionals, gaining a profound understanding of the UX Design industry. From concept to a highly polished finish, you'll confidently manage your own UX projects ideal for your portfolio.

Throughout the course, I'll assign assignments and projects that nurture your skills and empower you to create your very own unique UX design masterpiece for your portfolio. Don’t worry if this all seems overwhelmingly advanced right now, because the BYOL crew stands ready to support and guide you, ensuring your questions get answered.

It's time to embrace the call to upgrade yourself and transcend from being a good UX Designer to a bona fide Figma UX Superhero! Unlock your potential, save the day, and let your design prowess soar!

Requirements:

- A copy of Figma (a free plan is available on the Figma website).
  • - Basic knowledge of Figma is required. I recommend watching my Figma Essentials course prior to embarking on this epic adventure.

Who this course is for:

  • - UX/UI adventurers who already have a basic understanding of Figma.
  • - Self-taught Figma enthusiasts yearning for structured guidance.
  • - Graduates of my Figma Essentials Course, hungry for more knowledge and skills.
  • - Visionaries who have developed their own unique Figma approach but crave exploration of the vast universe of tools, updates, and time-saving techniques.

What you'll learn:

  • - Diving deep into multi level nested autolayouts. 
  • - Robust components that are easy to update and hard to break. 
  • - Component properties. 
- Variables
- Design Tokens
- Advanced Prototyping using Variables
  • - Learn Workflow tips and tricks for managing your design assets, styles, components, grid and column layouts.
  • - Advanced animation techniques
  • - Animated Background gradients. 
  • - Houdini Text
  • - Animate along a path in Figma
  • - How to add Lottie animation files in Figma
  • - Build responsive elements ready for any device size.
  • - The best shortcuts & plugins to make you a more efficient UX designer.
  • - Absolute Positioning of Autolayouts. 
  • - Powerful images & video masking techniques. 
  • - Advanced typography features. 
  • - Learn to use AI in your process to make you a better UX designer. 
  • - Advanced prototyping techniques to level up your user tests. 
  • - Make prototypes better and faster using tricks & shortcuts. 
  • - Sticky scroll buttons that stack. 
  • - Video playback controls. 
  • - Animated anchor points and booleans.
  • - Create a Dropdown menu
  • - Create a hover grow effect for images.
  • - Create and expanding Search Bar 
  • - Learn the right accessibility tools & techniques  
  • - Become a variant boss. Cutting down those 100 variants to just 1 or 2. 
  • - Learn the best ways to work with other designers, developers and stakeholders. 
  • - Build a UX project from beginning to end ready for your portfolio.
  • - Export production ready assets.
  • - Learn professional workflow tricks & shortcuts.
  • - Forum support from me and the rest of the BYOL crew.
  • - All the techniques used by UX professionals
  • - 160 videos of detailed Figma Advanced Content.
Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Certificates

We’re awarding certificates for this course!

Check out the How to earn your certificate video for instructions on how to earn yours and click the available certificate levels below for more information.

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

 Hello everyone, welcome to the course, proper... this video here is kind of like a catch-up video, it is... some fundamentals that you probably already know... just to make sure everyone's on the same level... I need to make sure that everyone knows... what a basic creation of an auto layout...

what it's good for components, that sort of stuff... we'll make these two pages here, they're not super special... so if you are reasonably advanced you can skip this one... if you're in the middle, or not super confident... and just want to make sure you're all good... want a refresher, this is the video for you.

I'll make sure also, I'll throw in some good shortcuts... throughout this video as well... to make sure it's valuable for everyone... but if you're like, "Man, this is kind of stuff I already know"... that's okay, skip along... we get more and more advanced on the course...

I just need to make sure everyone's okay, you okay? The short version is, auto layouts are great because you can do stuff like this... you can move it around, it's adjustable, it's flexible... I can decide that it's going to be on this different size frame here... the larger iPhone... and I can turn things on and off, so that's why auto layouts are good...

components, are really good, because I might decide later on... that this guy here - I'm going to zoom in. - he's a component, we make him in this video... but I might decide, actually, in the inside here he is, I don't know... got this going on, I don't know what this is... but because he's component, he's got a hairdo...

looks like my hair, bald at the top... can you see, this one adjusts as well. So let's revise what an auto layout does why and how to make components... plus I'll throw in some interesting things about icons, icon sizes... how to scale them right, and we get the beginning of our project started... "Would you get on with it, Dan?" "Okay."  All right, let's get started, I'm going to use the new design file...

there's lots of different ways of starting a design file... you choose the one you like the most... I'm going to rename this one, instead of untitled... I'm just going to double click the title... I'm going to call this one "Event App v1.0", hit 'Enter'... now first shortcut is going to be the F key, for Frame, there it is...

there's the icon... and I'm going to put in a phone... now my advice is to pick whatever phone you are using, to do the testing on... if you've got a really old iPhone use that, if you've got the newest one, use that... you can test on your phone using the Figma app... you can download that from the Android, or the App Store.

Again, it's great to be able to mock up on that because it matches... in the future, well, always going to be the future, when you're watching this... it might be iPhone 27, use that... I'm going to use the iPhone 14... and what I'd like to do is use another size frame as well... so going to hit the 'F' key again...

I'm going to use the larger size, Plus, so the 'iPhone 14 Plus'... why?, because I guess this course here is showing you... how to build components, auto layouts, constraints, variables... all those sorts of things is so that we can build... units that we can use in our designs, that are quite flexible... and resilient to different sizes and changes...

and being used by other people, and, you know... that's the goal here, in this kind of advanced course... is doing things that aren't just... slap dash is the wrong word for it... but like, just kind of like getting stuff done, and then moving on. We want to make stuff that is really responsive...

used on different devices, can be used by different team members... without breaking it... and by you using it in the future, saving yourself time. First thing we need to do is line them up... so they need to line up at the tops, I'm not sure why... 'Shift 1' shows you everything on your document...

just a couple little shortcuts to kind of flex our muscles... we probably know them already. Next one is, we're going to bring in some icons... so we're going to use another shortcut that we know very well, probably, maybe... 'Command Shift K', on a PC it's 'Ctrl Shift K'... brings in icons, or brings in images at least...

in your 'Exercise Files' there is a folder called 'Icons'... so let's bring all these guys in... let's click 'Open'. Now when you're putting in multiple images you can click once and you get like... the size to which the SVG has been assigned... sometimes they're huge, and you can't even see them, they're so big...

you've ever done that? It's like this gigantic SVG... or Illustrator file you brought in, you can click and drag... but you end up with these squidgy sizes... you cannot shift, get them in right, but like... not what we want, what I want to do is, I'm going to undo to get rid of them all...

hit that same shortcut, 'Command Shift K', 'Ctrl Shift K' on a PC... bring them all in, and it's just easier to go... they get kind of stuck in the middle of your document. First up let's see that they're all inside frames, there you go... and I would like to say, you... I'm going to move them all over here to the edges...

just to get them off the iPhone frame for the moment... because I want to do a couple of things. First thing I want to do is make them into components... because everything normally ends up being a component... I get that asked, that question, like what should be a component? Most things...

doesn't hurt to make it a component, will help you later on... especially if it's going to be used more than once, like these icons... and by more than once, not like necessarily on the same page... or even in the same document... maybe it's going to be used in another, you know, a completely new Figma file... you know it's going to be used for future projects, it should be a component...

because they all lead back to that original one... and when you make an update they come along for the ride... everything, be a component. All right, the next thing I want to do is, I want to make them... I've got them all selected here, I want to actually just say... make multiple components...

not just one giant one, I want to make multiple components, all separate... that they all are there, nice... let's get into an appropriate size... now scaling them is easy, right, if you've got them all selected... hold 'Shift', and you grab the corner, and they scale down... that works most of the time, but in my opinion...

it's better to use the Scale tool to do all your scaling... so it's the K key on your keyboard, or you can just pick it here... use that one because it will scale things... like the Stroke and Effects at the same time... if you've ever downloaded somebody else's icons... and they're not scaling quite right...

and the Strokes are staying the same... and the Drop Shadows are doing weird stuff just use the Scale tool. The other nice thing about the Scale tool is over here, you can pick scales... you can say, I want it to be... you know, you're working on a design that's four times the size or half the size... what I tend to use it for though, is I can type it in over here...

I can say, all right, I want you to have a... good icon size, what is a good icon size? You can pick any icon size you like... but 32 or 48 is generally a really good icon size... depends what you're using it for, where they need to go... they can get bigger, they can get smaller...

it's really common though, you use multiples of 8... we'll cover that later on in the course, why that's so useful. So I'm making them all a height of 32... you might have done this already, might have clicked off, and gone... "Oh, I can't handle this, they need to be laid out, Dan"... I'm going to undo that, it doesn't matter, you don't have to do it...

but I just leave them there, because I'm going to select them all... and I'm going to hit 'Shift A' for my auto layout... that's the shortcut for auto layout, is Shift A, it's the same on Mac and PC... Figma seems to be moving a lot to that Shift key to be a shortcut... because it's the same for Mac and PC... and Linux or whatever you're using Figma on...

and there we go, we've got an auto layout... so we can do that cool responsive thing at the bottom you saw. So got components inside of them, we've got our auto layout... you've done auto layouts before, probably... the basics are, you see a little icon there... that's the frame for my auto layout...

I'm over here thinking, where's all my options... it's because I'm still on Scale, hit 'V' key and everything will pop back up... 'K' for Scale, gives me some very specific stuff... and then I'm going to hit 'V' to go back to my Move tool... actually, it just typed in there, I'm going to hit 'X', go away. All right, so auto layouts normally default to the right one...

we can go left and right... we can play with the spacing... we've all done this before, click and drag the little icon... to play with the spacing, let's move it over here so you can see it... you can do it on the document... so you can click on it, and I'm going to zoom a little bit...

you can see, I can drag it on this, excellent, easy. We can rearrange these by clicking just one of them... or diving inside of it, you can, watch this... click it once, double click it to go inside, and you can drag these around ... because I want this to be the first... I want the heart to be next and instead, you can drag them...

you can use your arrow keys... so you've got one selected, just use your left and right... or your up and down, depending on... which way you've got this going... and I want the ticket, so double clicked it,  left arrow, I want that one there... what I want to do for this one is...

actually, I want to turn the ticketing, the ticket option off... for the not logged in person, because they don't have tickets yet... and it's taking up valuable space in our lower Nav. Speaking of lower Nav, let's call it "Nav-Lower"... we'll do proper naming later on in the course... but it's going to be my lower Nav...

I put Nav first so that they're ordered nicely... so you can have Nav Upper, Nav Lower, Nav Side... and what I want to do is double click this guy, that's them... and I want to turn the eyeball off on them, I can delete them... I can delete them, and watch this, actually, double click... delete them, and he's gone, completely...

I don't want that, actually, I want to bring it back later on... when the person's logged in, I want it to magically appear... that's the nice thing about auto layout... is, the spacing is cool, but it's this kind of reflowing... this responsiveness that makes it super useful... I want just those three for the moment.

Next thing I want to do is, hold the space bar, let's get this down here... and just dump it in the bottom corner... and drag this over here... and you can mess around in here, auto layouts... I'm going to use the center one, you can play around with your spacing. So we've got our auto layout...

I'm going to duplicate it onto the larger phone size... holding down my 'Option' key on a Mac, 'Alt' key on a PC... and just click and drag it over, you get a duplicate... grab the square in the corner... if you don't grab the square, sometimes you can grab the padding... and that can be a bit frustrating...

so grab the square, and I can resize it... look for the other larger size, everything kind of sits in there nicely... it's not particularly resilient yet, but good enough to get started. The trouble with our auto layout at the moment... is that, if I then say... "Okay, great, Dan said I could turn on the ticket for this one"...

this is the one with a logged in user, whoops, wrong one... so 'iPhone Plus'... and here I want this one, turn it on... it's good, and I can double click it and I can adjust it... and that might be enough... but we're here for the advanced stuff we needed to automatically reflow...

want to be responsive, resilient... let's do that in the next video.
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