A masterclass in modelling Components in Figma

Should you go property-heavy or composition-heavy? A cautionary tale.

I took some effort on this cover—does it deserve a clap?

Figma is now at the point you can model your components in 100’s of ways, but which way is right for you? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all, but I do believe I’ve experimented enough to develop a method of finding what works for you as quickly as possible—as well as my personal favourites for common components.

A concrete example

For me to explain best how to strike that balance, let’s take the example of putting together a presentation deck.

Yes this is Google Slides, but it’s a helpful real world example.

You can split the building blocks you’ll need into two main categories:

• Slide layout—cover slide, section title, quote, blank, one column etc
• Slide contents—text, shapes, images, diagrams etc

The content is probably easier to envision, as we can simply use native Figma or FigJam layers, and let the presenter assemble—or compose—what they need.

At first the slide layout seems quite simple, too, but there are many ways to approach it: