12. Collaboration - Figma 101

Let's take a look at an essential aspect of design work, collaboration and sharing. We'll look at different ways we can communicate within the context of our design file. Plus we'll explore how we can share Figma files, control permissions, and export our work. With Figma, you can have real time communication directly within your design files. Whether you're working with a team or getting feedback from stakeholders, there are several ways to do this.

One of the primary ways is by using comments. You or anyone with access to your file can add comments directly onto the canvas. This way, feedback is visually associated with specific elements or areas in your design. In the properties panel, you can also view all of the comments at once, so you can make sure nothing gets overlooked. Another handy feature is the cursor chat.

You can activate this by hitting backslash and typing. It turns your cursor into a small chat bubble so you can have a little mini conversation in real time. And while I was skeptical at first, Figma's audio chat within the document lets you have live calls without leaving your design file. - Hello, can you hear me? - This works great for having quick design reviews without needing to export a bunch of work, spend half a day making a slide deck, and then have a big group of people join a Zoom call that you've been preparing for all day.

Not that I've ever had that happen. But in all seriousness, to keep your workspace tidy, you can resolve comments when they're no longer needed. But in order to get others access to your design file, you have to share it first. To invite others into your design process, we're gonna need to click the blue share button in the top right of the toolbar. By clicking on that, you'll find options to directly invite others by entering their email addresses.

This is useful when you wanna share your file with specific people, like a team member or a stakeholder. However, it's not always about inviting specific people. Sometimes you need to share your design with a broader audience, and for this, you can simply copy the link. But there is a small catch, and this has happened to me a number of times. When you share the link, you'll also need to share your permissions.

Otherwise, someone trying to view it may end up seeing a screen with restricted access. So at the very least, when sharing a link, you'll need to update the permissions to be anyone with the link can view. In addition to that, the other options are anyone with the link, anyone with the link and the password, or only people invited to this file. You can also grant access for collaborators to view, edit, or even view prototypes only. If you just wanna share the finished product rather than everything in your file.

To share a prototype, you'll go into prototype mode and then share your link. This way, you can make sure that the right people have the right amount of access into your Figma file. So now we know how to share a file, let's look at how you can export your work, whether it's full frames or individual assets. Once your design is ready to leave the Figma workspace, there are a couple of ways to do it. If you wanna share a snapshot of a particular point in your design process, or if you need to present a complete layout, exporting a full frame is the way to go.

You can export a single frame, or you can export multiple frames all at once. To do this, select the frame you want to export by either clicking the name on the canvas or in the layers panel. Then go to the properties panel and click on the export button. Here you can choose the format and resolution of your export. Once you're happy with the settings, click export again, and Figma will export the file to your device.

It will default to your layer name as the exported file name, and if you're working on a project that's going into production, you'll likely need to export specific assets. This works the same way. You'll just select the specific object or objects you wish to export and follow the same process that we need for frames. One last handy exporting tool is the ability to export all of your frames to PDF. To do this from the desktop app, we can go to file export frames to PDF.

So that's the basics of exporting and Figma. We've checked out all the tools Figma has for working as a team and sharing our designs. We know how to use comments, we know how to share our work, control who has access and export our designs when they're ready to head out into the world. But remember, quality design work isn't only about making things look great. It's also about communicating your ideas effectively and working well with others.

Keep practicing, keep sharing, and keep refining.