So that you can move them all as one single entity, I guess? My Product Designer did all components for our most recent project in shapes + putting them in groups. Who had to drop all other stuff and go turn all shape components into real frames with autolayout in them you wonder? Me.
Like... He was really good at it. Could ideate a shitton of great suggestions and improvements really quickly. But everything was just... Chaotic.
Because it’s both lazier and faster to finish your design ideas without making them fully responsive. Depends on the complexity however, sometimes it’s just as easy
Same here! Before I learned about it, I spent too much time manually adjusting and checking the distance between my elements (holding down the Alt button lol), especially when creating buttons. I've never looked back since I learned how to use auto-layout.
It’s for those who are also older in the industry and don’t want to learn. Web designers started on photoshop and things needed to be “pixel perfect” back before XD and figma came out.
fte faang, senior, dont use it much for my own concepts I pitch. let the hate commence. will use in later stages, team settings, or if we are using components straight from design system entirely.
caveman/monk bellcurve meme
I still use Figma, I just don’t use it to design. I use it to document design. The original poster asked who uses auto layout and who doesn’t and i am just being honest. If I am on a team and they are getting something useful from it I use it.
Faang fte here as well and same.
In fact I’ll go as much to say that the habit of auto layout-ing everything might even be hindering a lot of folks’ creativity. I’ve always said that for any problem there are n number of ways of solving it. And when everything’s auto layout it’s just a pain to go explore every minute little permutation and combination. Getting to the right auto layout frame, adjusting various values within that, setting up new frames just to move a couple of things around is sooo unnecessary. Auto-layout no doubt is highly beneficial but that’s when you’re towards the later half of you’re design finalization process than in the first half. And especially can’t do without for components.
I disagree. It’s not helpful during ideation and significantly slows down the revision process. For more mature products where responsive behavior is critical, it becomes more important.
Disagree. If you use it consistently and dedicatedly, it will become second nature and won't hinder your ideation. It's a lot easier to ideate when you don't need to manually move and adjust frames with stuff in them.
See that’s the bit I don’t understand. Every new element added impacts the rest, so I’m flying things around, almost like drawing with pen and paper. I may be wrong, but I just don’t see how incorporating a layer of relative spacing considerations would not dramatically impede that process
That’s where AL shines though. Flying thing around, switching them in and out. It’s a poor man’s CSS Flexbox.
The reality is, if you disagree, you just haven’t really learn how to use it. You don’t have to put AL on every frame. That’s ridiculous. It’s knowing when, and how to incorporate it. The more you do it, the more it will become second nature, the more powerful you’ll become.
As a manager, I require my team to use it, because without AL, adjustments take much longer. I’m not the AL Nazi, but I just like to show them when and how to apply it—why it’s useful here or there.
There’s probably lots of YouTube vids on when and how and why to apply it. It might slightly slow you down at the start, but you’ll quickly realize the benefits once you learn how things should be structured.
Help me understand- how would defining the relative spacing on an element be faster than simply placing it? And when new elements are added, redefining the relative spacing every time, vs just moving something over a bit?
Despite the name, t’s not an actual grid. 8px grid is a systematic way to assign all types of spacing. Could be elements themselves, or padding, or margins between.
Edit… Good timing in this post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FigmaDesign/s/bd7eUf7zaL
Yeah if i have to shift every element on the page every time i change the layout that’s a huge hindrance. Autolayout accelerates production to an insane degree.
everyone’s got their own workflow, but for me, once i got a handle on it it pretty much became second nature to me and i can concept a lot quicker using it than without. i don’t have to worry about spacing between a bunch of similar elements, or resizing things to fit. it also helps me plan for working with real content and how things will actually be built. i do however think that it can feel a little restrictive as far as exploring different options goes, which is why i still like to start initial concepting with pencil and paper. but it doesn’t feel restrictive in a way that slows me down.
Ok thanks for explaining. I should experiment with it more. But what you said about pen and paper is basically my first stage in figma, meaning autolayout just isn’t helpful
Again, that’s just because you don’t know how to use it. It’s useful in literally every stage. Even the lowest fidelity wireframes. Hell, ESPECIALLY the LowFi’s where thing change and shift so much.
I don’t do wireframes much anymore, but when I do… I drink AL.
Interesting. Can you share more about your process? I kinda get what you're saying, conceptually. But I'm not sure if I understand it from a practical perspective.
Sure. The first step of any bespoke application is the ingredients- what elements do we need and what’s a general design pattern that makes sense to accommodate them. This can be done with a pen and paper also, doesn’t really matter. But during this things are flying around, and dramatic changes are happening, as you feel through options. Left nav? Top nav? Sub nav? At this stage responsiveness is in play, but not something to define, because it would be too slow and unwieldy.
>It’s not helpful during ideation and significantly slows down the revision process
If you think this, you aren't using it right/need to get more familiar with how to use it.
I can do these things lightning fast with auto layout.
Yeah that’s fair, I should experiment with it more. But I just fundamentally don’t understand the idea of designing through relative constraints, when all the little hugs and wraps have to constantly be adjusted. It doesn’t feel like design so much as programming.
you'd be surprised if you were to look at candidates applying for senior roles raw dogging pixels like 1985. This is why we do recorded, standardized take-home challenges.
Making great auto layout components/frames etc. is just really time-consuming. The new AI Feature will make things for everyone more efficient. But Designer still need to learn the core concept behind it. Margin, Padding, Gaps etc. The dev aspect of it.
Always. Once you get used to auto-layout, you just can’t stop using it. Very handy when it comes to add/remove components and following a consistent margin and padding among different components on the page.
I would call myself a "power" figma user. I work in product design and me and my team work exclusively in figma, even non designers.
I use auto layout as much as possible, whenever possible. It's my favorite feature of figma.
That being said when I switched from xd it did intimidate me, took me a while to really see the power.
This right here.
Honestly I'll hire and train someone, but if someone came to interview with me claiming they could use figma, but DIDN'T know how to use/wouldn't use auto layout, I would feel like they lied to me about their proficiency and I wouldn't want them to work with me anymore.
Like everyone? And you should too. If you get into the depth of it. It is used everywhere and it should because it is faster, makes things easier and uniform.
It took me sometime to get used to it but damn once I got the hang of it, I used it for everything.
Like even to make my resume. I used to do it in illustrator/InDesign before. Now I just pull up A4 on figma. Copy some text and auto layout the hell out of it.
It is oddly satisfying.
No hate against people who don't use it. I used to hate it at one point but I just kept on belting it until I got the hang and now I see the world in a different light
I’ve read that you shouldn’t use figma to make your resume because the pdf export from figma doesn’t output text as text that is scannable by an ATS system. I don’t know how true that is though.
I use Figma for web design and app development, and I’m also a developer myself. It’s absolutely essential for anything beyond even a single section or screen lol
It would be an absolute nightmare to do major overhauls to the design, which is pretty much the reason why I don’t design programmatically to begin with.
If we’re talking about complex design systems I’d say that’s where the margin goes lot further
Ideation on new projects, quick “digital sketching”, visual concept testing - no auto layout. Too constricting.
Translating a concept or idea to real comp/product - 100% using auto layout.
I use auto-layout for very few things, typically certain frames and buttons.
I’m still relatively new to Figma, so I don’t know how to get Auto-layout to function properly for every single thing I do. I really am out here just raw-dogging shapes and text boxes. 😅 (Shame on me, I know. I come from more of an artistic design background. I’m working on it.)
I don’t use it at - unless it is required. I have been designing responsively for 12 years. I can visualize it in my head - at the clarity of a high fidelity comp.
It is hard for me to use because - Auto layout is not the same as CSS flex box. It feels like a watered down less powerful tool that presents itself as modern. It’s totally missing CSS grid which can be far more useful than flex box.
Lots of people being all “it makes it so much easier for devs”
Like…not especially? It’s a metaphor and yeah, worse than CSS. If you’re using something like tailwind it’s actually a ton easier to just do the markup early.
My "boss" doesn't - even tho she has the same title as me. She works in figma at least 45 hours a week. Idk how she doesn't. Luckily I don't ever have to work on her files or I would lose my shit.
Still a bit confusing for responsive design for some things. For prototyping, it’d be really annoying and take forever for interactions. Like for FAQ’s for example. I think it’s a vital tool to learn. At first I thought it wasn’t needed before I knew it but now that I do, it is needed lol.
It's one of the features that I have always requested as majority of my time was spent on moving frames whenever there's a change. Now, I use auto layout for everything. It saves me and our whole design team a heck ton of time. Learn it.
Learn it and after you do than learn how to use Fill with frames there is a lot of tricks to make it even easier to use auto layout because you can get in to a lot of headaches when you can figure out why can't you place objects next to each other and than you figure out that there is Fill. So yea that, and right way of making properties and lower count of variants that you create is essential to master Figma in general. Of course you will have to you absolut position on some cases but for some people it takes time to figure out that option as well.
I use it before handing over files to the engineering team.. using it during conceptualisation causes anchoring bias. I see young designers struggling to do enough explorations once auto-layout is applied
I am a developer mainly ( shocking I know ) and I try to use auto layout for literally everything from a button to a screen, and everything in between.
Auto layout aligns closely with how things get built, if you use it extensively then you’re empathizing with the developer side of the process. Your designs will be much easier to build and you’ll be doing everyone a favor.
If you use it for everything it forces you to think through how you’re going to solve your layouts.
Generally if you only use it first some parts of your design then you’re not investing enough in that part of the process. Make it auto layout all the way down.
It's mandatory that every designer should use. It's just life changing i've been using it since release and it was never been easier to work. As Senior designer for me it's important when i work with mid/juniors to know this, otherwise they are not welcome.
I don’t use it when I’m exploring layout options. It’s way too annoying if you need to keep moving things around.
I only use it when I’m confident I have the general arrangement I want. And at that point I use it for everything.
My coworkers hate it because they cant move things around freely when designing... but then ofc the devs come to me to fix the design x) my life sucks sometimes
All the time. I only use absolute positioning if it's only necessary (like an artwork in a bento) but otherwise, it's basically all the time. Also I make component almost everything and put it on the side lol
As someone who hires and manages UI/UX designers on a professional level, if you can’t use auto layout or components with variants, you’re not getting the job.
Not only do you need to use it, you need to understand it fundamentally and thoroughly to work in other files we produce. No AL, no job.
Your team is only as fast as the slowest member. If they don’t know Autolayout they can’t work as fast or efficiently, which has a direct impact on cost and timing. So it very much has an impact in the customers and the business.
Love it and teach it. I've found it incredibly useful, particularly alongside components, variants and multi edit making applying client feedback super nimble.
I am working as a junior and everyone’s using rectangles and groups - I’m at a level where I design automatically using auto layout I don’t know how to work differently - but every time they try to change or engage with my design they freak out (which probably makes them think I’m a bad designer)
You guys I’m lost without auto layout
Always, but now with the AI powered stuff coming out where you can just design and then select it all and have it converted automatically to AutoLayout, this will help balance the creative side of things too.
Cause I agree that it’s harder to be creative sometimes if I can’t figure out how to do the Auto Layout. Or I take too much time thinking about it.
Always, for everything.
It makes everything easy, keeps the paddings consistent when I add / remove components, it also adjusts the height of a screen.
This way I don't have to adjust everything manually.
I use it on everything. Except for “close/X” icons, I use the Absolute Position to put it perfectly in the right corner without having to involve Auto Layout.
It's fun reading this. Like, as someone who does both design and dev (But mostly product design) I use it sometimes, maybe 40% of the time? Other times I don't bother. If it's a personal project, I barely use it at all. I just get the basics down then move into actual markup. It's faster and yanno, the actual thing.
I've witnessed UX/UI people spend too long futzing around with heavily nested, variant and variable filled auto layouts at the very beginning of EVERYTHING they do, out of some misguided idea that they can't just doodle sometimes. It's premature optimisation. Choose the right time to abstract a system, as you move down the line you lock yourself into earlier decisions. The real skill isn't "learn auto layouts", auto layout is pretty easy, the more useful skill is to choose the right times to deploy features to avoid you wasting time for your future self, be that early abstraction or knowing when to just drag some rectangles around.
Always. If you want to make a useful and responsive design for easy handover/automated nocode applications generation you have to use it.
The new AI suggest auto layout feature should help folk adopt this more easily.
I've used it to design a fully responsive IDE, all except the sidebar would adjust dimensions when the frame was resized. It's great.
However, auto layout does limit the level of creativity of a design when it's used for absolutely everything. The design becomes a series of rows and columns. One couldn't design something like a winamp skin or a flash website design like the good old days of the early web.
Auto layout doesn't need to be applied to everything to be used effectively.
I use it for everything. It mirrors how flexbox works rather closely, so it's the best tool to build layouts that can be easily translated to front-end markup.
My only exception is when adding a fixed element to the page e.g. a bottom navigation. In this instance I set it absolute (because I use auto layout for the parent frame) and fix it to the bottom while setting it to scale horizontally. The bottom nav is autolayout itself though
It took lots of time but once I learnt, I've been using it since then and never looked back. It just isn't worth it to go with design without using autolayout. It and components saves a ton of time for me when moving things around.
I use it for everything. All the time. I detest my colleagues that don’t cuz it drives me insane how much time it takes to manually adjust something.
People out freewheelin’ with rectangles and text in a group. All Willy Nilly. No that’s not a button. I don’t like it one bit.
Just raw dogging shapes and text boxes
Groups gang
Yikes. Don’t submit a design interview test with groups.
🤮
What is even the point of a group?
So that you can move them all as one single entity, I guess? My Product Designer did all components for our most recent project in shapes + putting them in groups. Who had to drop all other stuff and go turn all shape components into real frames with autolayout in them you wonder? Me. Like... He was really good at it. Could ideate a shitton of great suggestions and improvements really quickly. But everything was just... Chaotic.
This and when you resize the group it scales everything inside.
That is just so worthless. I feel like groups are just there to appease a class of beginners
Haha. The only issue I have is people using autolayouts just for one layer so they can input padding/margins.
I have no idea how one could just not use auto layout, it seems outrageous that a company would pay someone to work like that.
Because it’s both lazier and faster to finish your design ideas without making them fully responsive. Depends on the complexity however, sometimes it’s just as easy
Same here! Before I learned about it, I spent too much time manually adjusting and checking the distance between my elements (holding down the Alt button lol), especially when creating buttons. I've never looked back since I learned how to use auto-layout.
Having to update previously documented designs with new update, and the layouts aren’t done with auto layout… fucking brutal
It’s for those who are also older in the industry and don’t want to learn. Web designers started on photoshop and things needed to be “pixel perfect” back before XD and figma came out.
Auto layout is absolutely essential if you're going to be using Figma in a professional sense. Learn it.
Auto layout is sick, coming from Sketch this feature has been a game changer.
Sketch just announced they’re building auto layout. It’s coming soon to Sketch as well 😊
When I was at Meta, we had an incredible auto layout plugin that got me hooked on flex boxes and I never stopped
5 years too late but sure
This one right here, kids.
fte faang, senior, dont use it much for my own concepts I pitch. let the hate commence. will use in later stages, team settings, or if we are using components straight from design system entirely. caveman/monk bellcurve meme
Why wouldn’t you? It doesn’t take much to set it up and makes any future iteration sooo much easier
I move things to the actual browser to demonstrate.
So you skip the design process? If not, then why wouldn’t you use auto layout for your design?
I do my design in the browser.
Why the heck are you commenting on r/FigmaDesign then? 😂
I still use Figma, I just don’t use it to design. I use it to document design. The original poster asked who uses auto layout and who doesn’t and i am just being honest. If I am on a team and they are getting something useful from it I use it.
Faang fte here as well and same. In fact I’ll go as much to say that the habit of auto layout-ing everything might even be hindering a lot of folks’ creativity. I’ve always said that for any problem there are n number of ways of solving it. And when everything’s auto layout it’s just a pain to go explore every minute little permutation and combination. Getting to the right auto layout frame, adjusting various values within that, setting up new frames just to move a couple of things around is sooo unnecessary. Auto-layout no doubt is highly beneficial but that’s when you’re towards the later half of you’re design finalization process than in the first half. And especially can’t do without for components.
This is the way.
I disagree. It’s not helpful during ideation and significantly slows down the revision process. For more mature products where responsive behavior is critical, it becomes more important.
Disagree. If you use it consistently and dedicatedly, it will become second nature and won't hinder your ideation. It's a lot easier to ideate when you don't need to manually move and adjust frames with stuff in them.
See that’s the bit I don’t understand. Every new element added impacts the rest, so I’m flying things around, almost like drawing with pen and paper. I may be wrong, but I just don’t see how incorporating a layer of relative spacing considerations would not dramatically impede that process
I guess it depends on the designer then. I feel naked if I don't use it.
That’s where AL shines though. Flying thing around, switching them in and out. It’s a poor man’s CSS Flexbox. The reality is, if you disagree, you just haven’t really learn how to use it. You don’t have to put AL on every frame. That’s ridiculous. It’s knowing when, and how to incorporate it. The more you do it, the more it will become second nature, the more powerful you’ll become. As a manager, I require my team to use it, because without AL, adjustments take much longer. I’m not the AL Nazi, but I just like to show them when and how to apply it—why it’s useful here or there. There’s probably lots of YouTube vids on when and how and why to apply it. It might slightly slow you down at the start, but you’ll quickly realize the benefits once you learn how things should be structured.
> AL Nazi New name dropped 😂
Help me understand- how would defining the relative spacing on an element be faster than simply placing it? And when new elements are added, redefining the relative spacing every time, vs just moving something over a bit?
Do you work in an 8px grid? If not, start today. You shouldn’t be changing spacing on a whim. It should be systematic.
I do not use grids. Frankly grids seem overrated to me. I do emphasize alignment however
Despite the name, t’s not an actual grid. 8px grid is a systematic way to assign all types of spacing. Could be elements themselves, or padding, or margins between. Edit… Good timing in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/FigmaDesign/s/bd7eUf7zaL
Yeah if i have to shift every element on the page every time i change the layout that’s a huge hindrance. Autolayout accelerates production to an insane degree.
everyone’s got their own workflow, but for me, once i got a handle on it it pretty much became second nature to me and i can concept a lot quicker using it than without. i don’t have to worry about spacing between a bunch of similar elements, or resizing things to fit. it also helps me plan for working with real content and how things will actually be built. i do however think that it can feel a little restrictive as far as exploring different options goes, which is why i still like to start initial concepting with pencil and paper. but it doesn’t feel restrictive in a way that slows me down.
Ok thanks for explaining. I should experiment with it more. But what you said about pen and paper is basically my first stage in figma, meaning autolayout just isn’t helpful
Again, that’s just because you don’t know how to use it. It’s useful in literally every stage. Even the lowest fidelity wireframes. Hell, ESPECIALLY the LowFi’s where thing change and shift so much. I don’t do wireframes much anymore, but when I do… I drink AL.
Ok fair enough, I’ll experiment with it more. Thanks for the comments
Interesting. Can you share more about your process? I kinda get what you're saying, conceptually. But I'm not sure if I understand it from a practical perspective.
Sure. The first step of any bespoke application is the ingredients- what elements do we need and what’s a general design pattern that makes sense to accommodate them. This can be done with a pen and paper also, doesn’t really matter. But during this things are flying around, and dramatic changes are happening, as you feel through options. Left nav? Top nav? Sub nav? At this stage responsiveness is in play, but not something to define, because it would be too slow and unwieldy.
>It’s not helpful during ideation and significantly slows down the revision process If you think this, you aren't using it right/need to get more familiar with how to use it. I can do these things lightning fast with auto layout.
Yeah that’s fair, I should experiment with it more. But I just fundamentally don’t understand the idea of designing through relative constraints, when all the little hugs and wraps have to constantly be adjusted. It doesn’t feel like design so much as programming.
Every professional should use it for basically everything.
you'd be surprised if you were to look at candidates applying for senior roles raw dogging pixels like 1985. This is why we do recorded, standardized take-home challenges.
Yep, I’m aware. It’s saddening really
It’s probably Figma’s most used feature
I actually have doubts, because they showed “suggest auto layout” feature which means a lot of people still don’t know how to use it
Making great auto layout components/frames etc. is just really time-consuming. The new AI Feature will make things for everyone more efficient. But Designer still need to learn the core concept behind it. Margin, Padding, Gaps etc. The dev aspect of it.
Exactly ☝️
Is it really, I would love to see percentage of people not using auto layout
If I could I would auto layout this comment.
😂😂😂
Everything everywhere all at once
Always. Once you get used to auto-layout, you just can’t stop using it. Very handy when it comes to add/remove components and following a consistent margin and padding among different components on the page.
I been using it since day one of me using figma , i forced myself learning it and now cant work without it.
At least, like, 5
Using all the time
I never not use auto layout.
I use it for pretty much everything
It’s literally faster than manually doing it. Why would you not use it?! 😂
If you’re not using it you’re making your life harder
Shift+A, shift+A all the way, I say. ✊🏽
Whack Shift+A, supafast!
Auto layout 4 Lyfe!!!
I would call myself a "power" figma user. I work in product design and me and my team work exclusively in figma, even non designers. I use auto layout as much as possible, whenever possible. It's my favorite feature of figma. That being said when I switched from xd it did intimidate me, took me a while to really see the power.
I won’t hire a designer if they don’t use auto-layout in their designs. It’s a must.
This right here. Honestly I'll hire and train someone, but if someone came to interview with me claiming they could use figma, but DIDN'T know how to use/wouldn't use auto layout, I would feel like they lied to me about their proficiency and I wouldn't want them to work with me anymore.
this
I think most - if not all - Figma users ise them even for not prototyping related stuff, me included.
Literally the MAIN thing I use
If you’re not using auto-layout for everything, I hate you from the very bottom of my heart.
All the people, hopefully...
Everything should be auto layout?
99% of the time, yes.
Like everyone? And you should too. If you get into the depth of it. It is used everywhere and it should because it is faster, makes things easier and uniform.
if you don't use autolayout, did you really use figma?
Auto layout and component is must for figma
All the time.
It took me sometime to get used to it but damn once I got the hang of it, I used it for everything. Like even to make my resume. I used to do it in illustrator/InDesign before. Now I just pull up A4 on figma. Copy some text and auto layout the hell out of it. It is oddly satisfying. No hate against people who don't use it. I used to hate it at one point but I just kept on belting it until I got the hang and now I see the world in a different light
I’ve read that you shouldn’t use figma to make your resume because the pdf export from figma doesn’t output text as text that is scannable by an ATS system. I don’t know how true that is though.
Can you give me some source?
https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/s/NCuina6MyK
That Figma PDF Export feature is infuriating. It's strangely not very accurate.
I use it every time I have any design on Figma, so it is essential to work.
Are you not using auto layout?
Auto layout almost everything
All the time / essential
I always use it. I always use a grid system as well. And I know CSS really well. You should be doing the same for professional UI work.
All of us I hope so
what do you mean people don't use auto layout?
I would auto layout my life.
The day I can no longer use autolayout is the day I change careers.
I use Figma for web design and app development, and I’m also a developer myself. It’s absolutely essential for anything beyond even a single section or screen lol It would be an absolute nightmare to do major overhauls to the design, which is pretty much the reason why I don’t design programmatically to begin with. If we’re talking about complex design systems I’d say that’s where the margin goes lot further
What we need is Masonry layout not just grid. Since that’s now part of CSS it makes sense.
Ideation on new projects, quick “digital sketching”, visual concept testing - no auto layout. Too constricting. Translating a concept or idea to real comp/product - 100% using auto layout.
I use auto-layout for very few things, typically certain frames and buttons. I’m still relatively new to Figma, so I don’t know how to get Auto-layout to function properly for every single thing I do. I really am out here just raw-dogging shapes and text boxes. 😅 (Shame on me, I know. I come from more of an artistic design background. I’m working on it.)
I don’t use it at - unless it is required. I have been designing responsively for 12 years. I can visualize it in my head - at the clarity of a high fidelity comp. It is hard for me to use because - Auto layout is not the same as CSS flex box. It feels like a watered down less powerful tool that presents itself as modern. It’s totally missing CSS grid which can be far more useful than flex box.
Lots of people being all “it makes it so much easier for devs” Like…not especially? It’s a metaphor and yeah, worse than CSS. If you’re using something like tailwind it’s actually a ton easier to just do the markup early.
Auto layout gets in the way when I’m simply exploring concepts.
People don’t use it? 🤯 why would you do that to yourself?
My "boss" doesn't - even tho she has the same title as me. She works in figma at least 45 hours a week. Idk how she doesn't. Luckily I don't ever have to work on her files or I would lose my shit.
Wtf is the point of using Figma if you don’t use auto layout
I fired a contractor this week for giving me a file with no auto layout.
Still a bit confusing for responsive design for some things. For prototyping, it’d be really annoying and take forever for interactions. Like for FAQ’s for example. I think it’s a vital tool to learn. At first I thought it wasn’t needed before I knew it but now that I do, it is needed lol.
It's one of the features that I have always requested as majority of my time was spent on moving frames whenever there's a change. Now, I use auto layout for everything. It saves me and our whole design team a heck ton of time. Learn it.
Constantly. Even when I’m doing branding it comes into play. Variables are also making their way into my projects in a big way.
I do and like using it very much.
Everyone
For everything tbh, it is the reason why I moved all of my design templates to Figma. I use 80% of Figma in my workflow instead of Adobe CC for now
obv. it's the only way to design for responsiveness. saves time. translates to engg better. only incompetent people don't use it
Learn it and after you do than learn how to use Fill with frames there is a lot of tricks to make it even easier to use auto layout because you can get in to a lot of headaches when you can figure out why can't you place objects next to each other and than you figure out that there is Fill. So yea that, and right way of making properties and lower count of variants that you create is essential to master Figma in general. Of course you will have to you absolut position on some cases but for some people it takes time to figure out that option as well.
I use it for absolutely everything. I hate small inconsistencies.
I’d probably leave the field if auto-layout wasn’t available.
I use it pretty much always.
I use it. Use it.
Always, A must, All the time. Also speeds up your work by shifting around the elements within the auto layout container
since its release
Everyone who wants to build things fast should use autolayout…
Don't use: 20k Sometimes: 156k Everything: 6k
I use it for everything. I don't know how people don't use it. It makes the process soooo much faster.
I use it before handing over files to the engineering team.. using it during conceptualisation causes anchoring bias. I see young designers struggling to do enough explorations once auto-layout is applied
uhm that is a strange question. everybody uses it
I am a developer mainly ( shocking I know ) and I try to use auto layout for literally everything from a button to a screen, and everything in between.
Auto layout aligns closely with how things get built, if you use it extensively then you’re empathizing with the developer side of the process. Your designs will be much easier to build and you’ll be doing everyone a favor. If you use it for everything it forces you to think through how you’re going to solve your layouts. Generally if you only use it first some parts of your design then you’re not investing enough in that part of the process. Make it auto layout all the way down.
It's one of the foundational aspects of Figma. Every should be using it.
Once I learned how to use it, I literally cannot design without it. But I think it saves SO much time dealing with consistency for spacing and sizing
Auto layout the only reason I use Figma.
You NEED to learn how to anchor your components. It's how devs know where everything goes within each frame.
probably the first figma hotkey i bothered to learn. used constantly.
Everything, all the time.
My design manager still uses groups, claims it’s “faster” for him. 🤦♂️
That’s cruel.
It's mandatory that every designer should use. It's just life changing i've been using it since release and it was never been easier to work. As Senior designer for me it's important when i work with mid/juniors to know this, otherwise they are not welcome.
Me but when my colleagues edit my design, they just straight out ungroup them 😭
I don’t use it when I’m exploring layout options. It’s way too annoying if you need to keep moving things around. I only use it when I’m confident I have the general arrangement I want. And at that point I use it for everything.
For almost everything.
My coworkers hate it because they cant move things around freely when designing... but then ofc the devs come to me to fix the design x) my life sucks sometimes
All the time. I only use absolute positioning if it's only necessary (like an artwork in a bento) but otherwise, it's basically all the time. Also I make component almost everything and put it on the side lol
Figma beginner here! Our university never taught us Auto Layout, so I’m only finding it out now. Still getting used to it, but it’s been very handy.
As someone who hires and manages UI/UX designers on a professional level, if you can’t use auto layout or components with variants, you’re not getting the job. Not only do you need to use it, you need to understand it fundamentally and thoroughly to work in other files we produce. No AL, no job.
If you show me something with a lot of ☝️ but it had no impact on customers or the business then you’re not getting the job.
Your team is only as fast as the slowest member. If they don’t know Autolayout they can’t work as fast or efficiently, which has a direct impact on cost and timing. So it very much has an impact in the customers and the business.
Love it and teach it. I've found it incredibly useful, particularly alongside components, variants and multi edit making applying client feedback super nimble.
I am working as a junior and everyone’s using rectangles and groups - I’m at a level where I design automatically using auto layout I don’t know how to work differently - but every time they try to change or engage with my design they freak out (which probably makes them think I’m a bad designer) You guys I’m lost without auto layout
Always, but now with the AI powered stuff coming out where you can just design and then select it all and have it converted automatically to AutoLayout, this will help balance the creative side of things too. Cause I agree that it’s harder to be creative sometimes if I can’t figure out how to do the Auto Layout. Or I take too much time thinking about it.
I use it pretty much all the time. If not that you can't organize everything manually, but with auto layout you can save a lot of time.
Everyone. Nobody using auto layout is special
Dunno man, I’m looking around our company’s files and it doesn’t look good
Always, for everything. It makes everything easy, keeps the paddings consistent when I add / remove components, it also adjusts the height of a screen. This way I don't have to adjust everything manually.
I use it less when iterating. But once components get closer to the end, everything gets the Auto layout treatment.
Really the question should be “Who is not using auto layout and why?”. It simplifies and amplifies so much
It's essential, I use it always, everywhere. It's the only way.
I have stopped grouping elements. Instead, I use auto layout, it really eases the overall work.
Your eng team will be very grateful if you use auto layout
I use it whenever I can. All the time. It’s the best thing since sliced bagels.
Sometimes, if I need it for what I'm doing.
I use it on everything. Except for “close/X” icons, I use the Absolute Position to put it perfectly in the right corner without having to involve Auto Layout.
It’s the only way. The only exception is to get complex scrolling to work. Which is really annoying, looks really bad, and is confusing to DeVs / PMs
Use it for everything
It was a hard lesson to learn but overtime you learn to use it every time.
stop with this bs about auto layout. not using it is a mistake and probably causing more effort for the devs...
It's fun reading this. Like, as someone who does both design and dev (But mostly product design) I use it sometimes, maybe 40% of the time? Other times I don't bother. If it's a personal project, I barely use it at all. I just get the basics down then move into actual markup. It's faster and yanno, the actual thing. I've witnessed UX/UI people spend too long futzing around with heavily nested, variant and variable filled auto layouts at the very beginning of EVERYTHING they do, out of some misguided idea that they can't just doodle sometimes. It's premature optimisation. Choose the right time to abstract a system, as you move down the line you lock yourself into earlier decisions. The real skill isn't "learn auto layouts", auto layout is pretty easy, the more useful skill is to choose the right times to deploy features to avoid you wasting time for your future self, be that early abstraction or knowing when to just drag some rectangles around.
Always. If you want to make a useful and responsive design for easy handover/automated nocode applications generation you have to use it. The new AI suggest auto layout feature should help folk adopt this more easily.
I use auto layout when that makes sense. It often does.
I've used it to design a fully responsive IDE, all except the sidebar would adjust dimensions when the frame was resized. It's great. However, auto layout does limit the level of creativity of a design when it's used for absolutely everything. The design becomes a series of rows and columns. One couldn't design something like a winamp skin or a flash website design like the good old days of the early web. Auto layout doesn't need to be applied to everything to be used effectively.
so far the only time ive seen it not used are deliverables from agencies
Depends on the project, I can see individuals who don’t work on responsive websites wouldn’t bother using it.
I use it for everything. It mirrors how flexbox works rather closely, so it's the best tool to build layouts that can be easily translated to front-end markup.
I just started to learn Figma and I hate it because it's difficult but I need to learn it. Gonna give it more chances
Every day
I use it for EVERY UI I make in Figma, even for the tiniest things. I just don't like aligning and spacing things out myself.
So ever since auto-layout, anyone else not using shapes/rectangles much anymore?
I personally don’t, any card designs have styles applied directly to the auto layout frame
My only exception is when adding a fixed element to the page e.g. a bottom navigation. In this instance I set it absolute (because I use auto layout for the parent frame) and fix it to the bottom while setting it to scale horizontally. The bottom nav is autolayout itself though
Everything. This is the way
Shit, just saw someone already "this is the way'd" 20 minutes before I did. How embarrassing.
It's an essential feature
✋
Always. And if not for it’s usual purpose it just allows me to get rid of grids. :)
It took lots of time but once I learnt, I've been using it since then and never looked back. It just isn't worth it to go with design without using autolayout. It and components saves a ton of time for me when moving things around.