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 document a component in a design system in Figma

This lesson is exclusive to members

Course contents

Questions

1
1
1
2

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.

How to earn your certificate

Work your way towards your certificate for this course by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz (Merit level courses only)
  • Complete the Distinction Certificate Project (Distinction level courses only) - look out for the video marked with
  • Upload your Distinction project to the My Projects area in your account
  • Request your certificate when you've completed the requirements for the certificate level you're working towards

Good luck!

Pass certificates

We’re awarding ‘Pass’ level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your ‘Pass’ certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Don’t forget to request your certificate when all your projects are complete

Good luck!

Merit certificates

We’re awarding ‘Merit’ level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your ‘Merit’ certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz
  • Don’t forget to request your certificate when you have passed the quiz and completed all your projects

Good luck!

Distinction certificates

We're awarding 'Distinction' level certificates for this course.

You can work your way towards your 'Distinction' certificate by following these simple steps.

  • Watch the course videos
  • Complete the Class Projects - look out for the videos marked with
  • Upload your class projects into the My Projects area in your account
  • Complete and pass the Knowledge Quiz
  • Complete the Distinction Certificate Project - look out for the video marked with
  • Upload your Distinction project to the My Projects area in your account
  • Don't forget to request your certificate when you have passed the quiz and completed all your projects

Good luck!

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Hi everyone. In this video we're gonna look at how to uh,  spec out a component. Okay? Document the different elements that make it up,  color, font sizes, also the layout and spacing and padding. Great for sharing updates with the rest of the design team  or specing out a document for developers. Awesome thing about it is most  of the work is done by a plugin.

Super awesome plugin. We'll look at one that is quite detailed, one  that gives us a bit more simple document measurements. Figma has an inspect option so people can go through  and check it, but often working with larger teams, we need  to do documentation as well. Alright, let's jump in. Alright, to get started, I've created a new page called  Design Spec and it is empty. Uh, let's go optional alt two and I'm gonna type in card  and I'm gonna find this that we made so long ago.

Do you remember this guy? Okay, you need  to have something selected. It could be anything. Okay? And then you need to find the plugin. It's called eight Shapes.

The search feature In the plugins at the moment,  you can't have eight space shapes. It just doesn't find it. So put in eight shapes together. There are other spec options,  but this one here for me at the moment is awesome. Can't believe how good it is. So have something selected first, then click run  and kick back and relax and be amazed at what it makes.

If nothing else, it's a great place to get started. There's probably more detail than we need. It might freak out whoever's looking at this to think  that the heart icon down here depends on icon slash heart. You might have to reword that to make it clearer,  but man, it's a great place to start. The anatomy here and down here. All the layout and spacings.

Again, there's heaps of detail in here. More than we need, which is good. Okay, padding is helpful, but do we need direction? Vertical? Okay, it's the way that the auto  layer stacked it, eh? It's up to you.

Also brings out all my poor naming. Okay, so frame four is obviously not very good. Okay? So we need to go back and do some renaming  before we run this, but such an amazing place  and such a well designed plugin. One thing you might find is that if there's nested,  like this one here was quite a complex  nesting earlier in the course. So it has not defined early bird.

Okay? And number seven, price large. It hasn't been able to dig into the instance that is  that lower card and the early bird. Okay? You can see here it's not documented at all. So sometimes, depending on the structure of it,  let's make another version of it  and you might have to break it apart a bit.

Okay? So I'm gonna use my command option B  or control alt B to break it apart. Let's go to option one and have a look in our layers. So there's my vent card here on off. You can see there, there's nested uh, instances in here. So the heart icon's, not a big drummer, it's this one here.

Okay? That has got stuff inside of it. So I'm gonna break that apart. I'm gonna go inside the price, break that apart  and it should see all of this. Now do I need to break that apart? Eh, why not?

Okay. Kind of trashed it, but at least now  for documentation purposes, okay? Running this suite app. Okay, let's have a look. All right, let's have a look. Did it get into it?

It's a lot longer. Okay. And yeah, it's broken these parts down. It's handy for me as well. 'cause sometimes you're like,  Hmm, did I really mean for that to be five pixels? You see at the top there?

Nope. 10 at the bottom. It's not what I wanted. Okay? And I can go through and make adjustments  before I kind of send this out for development  and add this to the documentation. Another handy one is,  this one here does some really cool stuff.

It's quite long-winded though. And detailed, which is awesome. Uh, sometimes though. Let's grab this, make another version of it. And there's another doc. We looked at this earlier on.

It's called Design Doc. There it is. Okay. Design doc runs a similar sort of thing,  but it's kind of more for look measurements. Okay? It's done.

The height and the width and you can click on stuff,  the stuff that's important to you, okay? And then measure mode again. And it's gone through and added the padding. Okay? And it's a little, I guess just a  different way of documenting it. Okay?

Same thing here. I love it. One thing you'll notice is that in your layers panel,  can you see how massive it is now? Okay. These plugins are creating a lot of detail,  especially that first one. Okay?

So keep it on its own page. And with this design doc, there's a lot of lock stuff. 'cause there's things like, I don't need this side  of the width again, it's already in there. So I'm gonna select all of this. Anybody remember what the shortcut is? Uh, for unlocking command shift L, you guess, right?

Control shift L. It's only done it to the container. Let's do it to all Turner ones as well. Okay, now I can say actually this shift. Enter parent shift, enter parent, give rid all that. Any other double ups?

Nope, that is it. You might use this as either in addition  to this other plugin. It really depends on  what the requirements are for you and your company. One-to-one with a developer. Something like this might be enough. Chat with them, see what they want.

But if you're building a kind of online documentation, okay,  a design system for lots of people  to use in a big organization,  something like this is a lot handier  where you can add a lot more text  and explanation, making sure people  use your components, right? Alright, that's it. That's a great way  to start documenting your components using a sweet plugin in  Figma.
  • Powered by Marvin
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy policy
  • © Bring your Own Laptop Ltd 2025