Design Etiquette

Within Figma, it’s relatively easy to work on designs by yourself. You can create mockups without fear of interference. However, when working as a team, a number of challenges present themselves when multiple people are working on the same design file.

Rumble Respectfully

As a team we don’t own the files we work on. While as a designer it can be tempting to feel like our creations belong to us only, but realistically we are working together as an organization toward a common goal of creating designs geared towards customers. We often get too close to our work to see potential flaws. It is perfectly fine to provide constructive criticism to team members to ensure that the final product is of a quality that the team and the company can stand behind.

If someone wishes to work on a file you have created, it’s wise to allow them to do so. Similarly, you may wish to apply edits to someone else’s work to create a better user experience.

That said …

Edit Respectfully

Often we may see a design where we may wish to make changes or modifications for numerous reasons. Unfortunately, even if your changes are well-intentioned, it’s relatively easy to step on the toes of another designer.

Worse, if a change is made to a common component, it can replicate to many places, particularly if someone is already using this component. Fixing problems that come up as a result can be complicated.

The solution to this potential problem can be boiled down to communication. It is important that if you wish to modify someone else’s design to let them know you plan to do so.

Please follow these basic guidelines

• If you would like to suggest changes to a design, please leave comments on the existing mockup, explaining what you would like to change.
• If you would like to make specific changes to a component, please create a copy of the file, or a new frame, detach all instances and make copies in the copied and detached frame. There is a plugin which can help recursively detach instances.