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Organize CI/CD UX designs in dedicated product area Figma files

🧩 Problem

We typically create a new Figma file for each feature addition, change or new exploration. These files are usually named after a specific issue and aren't easy to find for other product designers.

There's no SSOT for the existing designs for a specific product area.

For example, a product designer or product manager from a different team can't easily answer the question "what are the designs that exist for the pipeline editor?" since there are multiple related Figma files, some of them contain visionary exploration, some production designs... And if I'm honest, some are in my drafts and no one can see them at all. 👀

Bringing more structure to how we organize our Figma files can help enable cross-stage collaboration on the UX team by making our work easier to discover, provide feedback on, and build upon.

💡 Proposal

Pilot a new organization system for Figma files on the CI/CD UX team that organizes designs in the dedicated product area files.

How it works

Examples:

This system is being used by other Product Designers at GitLab, I copied this approach from @andyvolpe 's Vulnerability Details file.

  • Each file serves as a SSOT for the designs for a specific product area or big feature.
  • Each file has a Readme that links to the docs and/or epics/issues for that product area, and contribution guidelines so anyone can contribute to the file.
  • The pages in the file follow specific naming conventions to differentiate between the designs in production, active feature design work and visionary exploration (see the Readme for details).
  • Figma files can have as many pages as we need, so it's scalable even for big product areas or features.
  • This results in fewer files per stage group project, making the files much easier to browse and find. Each file is named after a product area or feature, so even those not familiar with specifics will be able to find it and dig into the designs.
  • A dedicated file with organized pages also provides a chronological view of how the designs evolve which is very helpful.

Further improvements

We can iterate on this process. Some improvements I'm thinking about:

  • The SSOT page can have a "last updated" timestamp so we know if the designs are up-to-date with production or not.
  • The feature work pages should have links to the related issues or epics.
Edited by Nadia Sotnikova