Figma's newest version of Auto Layout allows you to create highly responsive components with similar rules and behaviors used by developers. These powerful features allow you to add, remove, and resize layers without having to manually update the layout. In this article, I'll go over all the necessary basics and breakdown how six different example components can be built using Auto Layout.
Before we get started, let's go over the basics. There are many different Auto Layout and Resizing settings that can be used to achieve different goals. See each one in action to understand how they work.
Direction: Use the two arrows to determine the direction (horizontal or vertical) your layout will flow when items are added, removed, or reordered. As of now, only one direction be can be used at a time. Think of all your items as being stacked horizontally, side-by-side, or vertically, one on top of another.
Spacing Between Items: Use the second input to adjust how much spacing is between each item. This spacing amount will be applied to the current items, as well as any future items that are added.
Padding Around Items: Use the third input to evenly adjust the padding between all your items and the boundaries of your parent frame. Or, click into the "alignment and padding" option and individually adjust the padding between the items and each boundary (top, bottom, left, right).
Alignment & Distribution: Choose the desired alignment (eg. top & left) inside the "alignment and padding" option. By default, the distribution will be set to "packed" and will maintain the set spacing between each item.
Change the distribution to "space between" to have items space themselves evenly across their horizontal or vertical direction. Doing this will update the spacing between items to "auto", allowing for the space to be dynamic and change as needed.
Resizing parent Auto Layout frames: Use the dropdown menus to change the resizing behavior for the width and height of the parent frame. Setting the behavior to "hug contents" means the parent frame size is dynamic and will adapt to perfectly fit all of its contents (aka its children) with zero extra space.
Setting the behavior to "fixed width/height" means the parent frame will maintain its dimensions despite the size of its contents. When the resizing behavior is set to "fixed width/height" it is possible to have extra space, or not enough space, for the contents.
Resizing child Auto Layout objects: Use the dropdown menus to change the resizing behavior for the width and height of each object. Setting the behavior to "fill container" means the object size is dynamic and will stretch itself to either end of the parent frame. This is useful for objects like text boxes and images. They will change their size to fill the available space.
Setting the behavior to "fixed width/height" means the object will maintain its dimensions despite the size of its parent frame. This is useful for objects like icons and buttons. They will maintain their same size despite the available space.
Now that we understand the basics, lets put them together walkthrough some examples..
The button is probably the easiest and most valuable use case for Auto Layout. Auto Layout allows for buttons to have dynamic text, icon usage and resizing behaviors without having to make any manual adjustments. Buttons can either hug their contents and have dynamic sizing, or they can have a fixed width and maintain their original size.
Example 1: Simple Button
How does the button grow wider as text is added?
Example 2: Icon Button
How does the button look so nicely spaced?
Example 3: Fixed button
How does the button stay the same size when text is added?
Cards are another great use case for Auto Layout. Auto Layout allows cards to have responsive sizing for different devices and varying amounts of content. They can be simple with only a few objects inside, or more complex with multiple nested auto layout frames inside.
Example 1: Simple Card
How does the card grow longer when more text is added?
How do the image and text box stretch when the parent frame size changes?
How does the button stay pinned to the corner?
Example 2: Card with Nested Auto Layout Frames
How is there padding on the bottom half of the card but not the top half?
How is the button able to resize with the card?
Example 3: Card with Double Nested Auto Layout Frames
How are items pinned to each corner in the header?
Reading about Auto Layout is great, but hands on learning is better! Master Auto Layout by completing the 6 step-by-step Auto Layout exercises in the (free) UI Prep Auto Layout Playground.
Learn how to create a simple button, icon button, fixed button, simple card, intermediate card (with nested auto layout frames), and an advanced card (with double nested auto layout frames).
👉 Get the (free) Auto Layout Playground here