Style Guides and Design Tokens in Figma
Key Concepts
- Style Guides
- Design Tokens
Style Guides
Style Guides in Figma are comprehensive documents that outline the visual and interactive standards for a design system. They include details on typography, color schemes, spacing, and component usage. Style guides ensure consistency across different design elements and help maintain a cohesive look and feel throughout the project.
To create a style guide in Figma, you can use frames to organize different sections such as typography, colors, and components. Each section should include examples and guidelines on how to use the elements effectively. For instance, the typography section might include headings, body text, and captions with their respective font sizes, weights, and colors.
Design Tokens
Design Tokens in Figma are the building blocks of a design system, representing raw values such as colors, fonts, spacing, and shadows. These tokens are stored as variables and can be reused across different elements and components. Design tokens ensure consistency and make it easier to update the design system globally.
To create design tokens in Figma, you can use the "Design Tokens" plugin or manually define them in the properties panel. For example, you can create a token for a primary color and apply it to buttons, text, and backgrounds. If you need to update the color, changing the token value will automatically update all instances where the token is used.
Examples and Analogies
Style Guides
Think of a style guide as a cookbook that provides recipes for different dishes. Each recipe (section) includes ingredients (design elements) and instructions (guidelines) on how to prepare and serve the dish. Just as a cookbook ensures consistency in cooking, a style guide ensures consistency in design.
Design Tokens
Consider design tokens as the ingredients in a recipe. Just as you use specific amounts of salt, sugar, and spices in cooking, you use specific values for colors, fonts, and spacing in design. By storing these values as tokens, you can easily adjust the recipe (design system) without having to change each dish (element) individually.
By mastering style guides and design tokens, you can create a robust and consistent design system in Figma, ensuring that your collaborative design projects are cohesive and easy to maintain.