Can You Nest Variants in Figma?

In Figma, you can create nested variants to easily manage and organize your design components. This powerful feature allows you to create variations of a component within the main component itself. Let's explore how you can nest variants in Figma to enhance your design workflow.

What are Variants?

Variants in Figma are different versions or states of a component. For example, you may have a button component with different styles for its primary, secondary, and disabled states. Instead of creating separate components for each state, you can utilize variants to manage them all within a single button component.

Creating Variants

To create variants in Figma, follow these steps:

1. Select the component you want to add variants to.
2. In the right sidebar, click on the "Add variant" button.
3. Give your variant a name that represents its purpose or state (e.g., "Primary", "Secondary", etc.).

Once you've created the initial set of variants for your component, you can start nesting them to create even more variations.

Nesting Variants

Nesting variants allows you to combine different states of a component into new variations. This is particularly useful when creating complex components with multiple interactive states or dynamic content.

To nest variants in Figma:

1. Select the main component that contains the initial set of variants.
2. In the right sidebar, click on the "Add variant" button again.
3. Create a new variant with a name that represents the combined state (e., "Primary Hovered", "Secondary Disabled", etc.
4. Customize the properties of this nested variant, such as color, size, or visibility.

By nesting variants, you can easily manage and update different combinations of component states without cluttering your design files with numerous separate components.

Using Nested Variants in Your Design

To use nested variants in your design:

1. Select the component that contains the nested variants.
2. In the right sidebar, choose the desired variant combination from the dropdown menu.

Once you select a specific variant combination, Figma automatically applies the corresponding styles and properties to your component. This makes it easy to visualize and work with different variations of your design without duplicating or manually adjusting individual components.

Conclusion

Nesting variants in Figma is a powerful way to organize and manage complex design components. By creating variations within a main component and combining them through nesting, you can streamline your design workflow and create dynamic designs efficiently. Start experimenting with nested variants in Figma and unlock new possibilities for your designs!