My thoughts on the new Figma Component Properties

Bye, bye to that ocean of Variants.

One thing the new Comp Props (let’s shorten that name from here on in) reduces massively is the number of Variants required in your design file.
Buttons, for one. No more do you need a Variant for a Button with a left icon, one with a right icon, and just a regular button with text. You can strip things right back to just the one variant and control the changes required simply by using the Boolean feature of Comp Props making for a much lighter file.
The downside of this is that for someone new jumping into your design file, they don’t have a visual aid out-of-the-box to see all the different variants (text button, button with left icon, right icon etc...) they’re flying blind.
This is not an absolute deal-breaker, but this is one of those times where detailed documentation within your Figma file is needed more than ever. Just having examples of the variants in use can help a newcomer to your file easily understand what their options are when choosing a Component, and this is something I’ll be looking at improving with the next version of my Design System.

Are Component Props taking the fun away from our design tools?

Ok. I appreciate the benefits Comp Props bring to the party and how powerful they could become as this new feature matures.
But.
As much as I love the accessibility and time-saving that they bring. Everyone loves a simple toggle switch to show/hide an icon, right? I feel, and this may be the grumpy old designer in me coming out, that having an Inspector Panel full of Toggles and Text Fields to control my designs is taking away a little of the manual control and the fun of getting low-down and dirty on a design file.
It starts to make things feel like the settings screen on a video game more than a design tool, and there’s this disconnect happening more and more, flick a few switches and here’s your new design! Where’s the fun in that?
Right. I’ll snap out of grump mode now. Let’s return to our regular broadcast...