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!

How to add rows and column grids to one layout in Figma

This lesson is exclusive to members

Course contents

Questions

1
1

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

Hi everyone, in this video we'll go from having... one column down the middle as a grid, super helpful... to having rows as well, looks like where's Waldo, or where's Wally... depending on where you're from... but these little stripy guys are super helpful for getting consistent layout... using our lovely 8-point grid.

All right, first up, I think I was messing around with my layout there... didn't quite get it to the edge of the column... and I'm going to make sure that this one's stuck on this side... and what I also want to do is, grids are good... I don't use them very often, I show you because lots of people do... so what I'm going to do for this event card here is I'm actually going to turn my--  I'm going to take off my grid...

I've got it as a style that I can use later on and apply... going to turn it off for the moment... I'm going to show you why I like rows better... they're not really better, just visually less confusing, for me, at least. I'll use my 'F' key for a frame... draw out, it's going to be my top navigation.

I'm just going to drag it to the top and the sides... while I'm here my mind says make it top and-- sorry, make it left and right... so that it resizes with the frame... I'm going to give it a Fill color, going to give it any old color for the moment... and now that it's left and right constraints... it's going to resize, perfect...

but how high did I make it? I just made it random height that looked okay... and it was 55, but I want to be consistent, I want to use 8-point grid... there's enough flexibility in there to get the size I want... I'm going to be able to be consistent across devices and different projects... so let's turn on our rows.

so I'm going to click on the outside frame... at the moment there's a style applied to it, so I can't add another one... so I'm going to say, actually, let's break this... because I want to keep the column... but I want to add another one, not a grid... but I want to add rows, rows are strange, not strange...

but at the moment they are stretching, so I've got five of them, 'Shift 2'... five of them... let's close this down, 'Shift 2' to see the thing I've got selected... and there's five of them, and it kind of stretches to fit... and that works for columns but not so much for rows... because rows, I can scroll up and down the screen as long as I like...

it's not a fixed size. So what I'm going to do is, going to click on it, I'm going to edit these rows... and I'm going to say you're not stretchy, you're going to just stick to the top... and I want you to be a height of 8, with a gutter of 8 as well... and it's kind of working, they're up there, you just need lots more of them... how many more?

Just put in a giant number, 100... as long as it covers your whole frame... you can put in 200, doesn't really matter, just kind of goes off into infinity... you can see how that is... for me, I've got my constraints for my column, left and right... and now I've got my rows, and now it allows me, kind of like the grid...

but less messy. So I can just go, you, it snaps to it, so I can say, 48... it's perfect, it's close enough to that random, 50 something I picked... and now with these items I can start laying these out... and snapping them to the top... same with the bottom of it, if I decide that the bottom of this needs to be...

how high? It's going to snap to my 8-point grid... what's the spacing I want between them? Let's say it is 16 points, I need... my event card has a white thing inside of it, let's change that from white... 'Frame 2', I'm just going to use a darker color so that down here it's more...

more visually viewable, "It's not a word, Dan"... but it means that, can you see, I can--  I'm holding 'Shift' to make sure it goes up and down... I actually need to, just drag it around, and I know it's 16 between the two... if you want to match the outside, I can drag it one more to get my 24... there we go, rows are better than grids, in my opinion. This one's not lining up...

so I'm just going to delete this guy and go, you... there we go, 24, nice... remember to check, select on the actual thing... hold down the 'Option' key on a Mac, 'Alt' key on a PC, and then... kind of hover above the component above it, look at that, it's 24, perfect. 'Shift 1' to see everything, let's click on this, 'Shift 2'...

and it looks like, where's Waldo, or where's Wally, where I'm from... kind of stripy red and white... but that's only handy when you are laying things out... when you're trying to design, they're in the way... what's the shortcut to make sure it goes away, that's right, 'Shift G'. So that's using rows and columns, you can see, my top one is not enough...

so that's rows and columns in Figma, and grids if you want to use them... all right, on to the next video.
  • Powered by Marvin
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
  • © Bring your Own Laptop Ltd 2025