figmaJan 24, 2024

What’s next for Dev Mode: Annotations, Compare Changes, Plugins, and More | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma is moving Dev Mode out of free beta on January 31, 2024, while adding features designed to improve design-to-development handoff. The update introduces connected annotations, richer visual and code comparisons, customizable plugins, Jira integration, and a redesigned VS Code experience. Dev Mode will require a paid seat after the beta ends. ## Annotations for clearer handoff - Designers can add measurements, properties, specifications, and contextual notes directly to design layers. - Annotations update automatically when the associated design changes. - They appear or disappear at different zoom levels, keeping designs informative without cluttering the canvas. - Teams can use plugins to create and manage annotations in bulk. ## Visual and code-based change comparisons - The compare changes experience has been redesigned to show differences both visually and in code. - The Figma for Jira app brings design context into Jira issues. - Jira users can receive notifications when related designs change. ## Custom code generation with plugins - Codegen plugins let teams generate code for technologies such as HTML, React, Tailwind, and Bootstrap. - Organizations can customize generated output around their frameworks, design systems, component libraries, and internal APIs. - Plugins can validate design-system usage, link to documentation, and identify existing code components. - Enterprise administrators can pin plugins and configure them to run by default across organizational files. - Figma highlights custom implementations such as Razorpay’s RazorSharp plugin. ## Improvements to Figma for VS Code - The extension makes it easier to inspect designs without switching between tools. - A redesigned navigation experience replaces difficult canvas panning with a grid of frames. - Developers can open individual frames in a focused view. - Plugins can now run directly in VS Code, including private and customized tools. Teams using Dev Mode should prepare for the paid-seat requirement and evaluate annotations, plugins, Jira integration, and the VS Code extension to fit their existing handoff and design-system workflows.

bootstrapfigmadesign-systemsdev-mode+4

figmaNov 7, 2018

Creating atomic components for an atomic design system in Figma | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

littleBits built an atomic design system in Figma to support four mobile and tablet apps across iOS and Android within a six-month roadmap. Drawing on Atomic Design and Bootstrap, the team organized reusable styles and components while adapting the structure to their actual workflow. They concluded that a simplified system aligned with React Native components was more practical than rigidly preserving separate “molecule” and “organism” categories. ## Atoms: Styles, colors, and icons - Text styles and colors were defined with Figma Styles. - A customized icon set based on Modern Pictograms was imported and converted into components. - Colors used semantic names inspired by Bootstrap, including categories for: - UI states - Grayscale values - Brand colors - Backgrounds - Overlays - Outlines - Semantic naming made future theme changes safer. For example, `bg-light` could consistently represent backgrounds while `ui-dark` represented foreground elements. ## Simplifying molecules and organisms - The team found that complex molecules and organisms were rarely reused across multiple templates. - Instead, both categories were grouped under the simpler name “Components.” - This structure mapped more naturally to the React Native components being developed in parallel. - Components included cards, tooltips, and foundational controls such as buttons. ## Combining styles without unnecessary components - Figma Styles enabled designers to combine text styles and color swatches directly. - Rather than creating separate components for every color-and-text combination, the team documented combinations in a style guide and applied styles as needed. - Mixing text styles within a single text box also supported copy with variable lengths. - This approach reduced document complexity and improved usability and performance. ## Reusable button components - Buttons were treated differently because they appeared frequently and included styling details such as outlines that were harder to manage centrally in Figma. - The team created nested components for: - Primary buttons - Secondary buttons - Tertiary buttons - Other frequently repeated custom buttons - These reusable button components provided a consistent foundation for the broader design system. The resulting system balanced atomic design principles with the team’s real reuse patterns, creating a practical Figma library that supported both design work and React Native implementation. The next step was applying these components to responsive layout templates.

bootstrapfigmadesign-systemsreact-native+2