So one of the more useful features of applications such as Figma, Framer, Penpot etc. is the ability to use frames as a layout element rather than groups.
There are certain advantages to using frames rather than grouping such as:
You don’t have to create background elements on things such as buttons to style, instead just styling the frame itself.
Elements within the frame align to the frame itself rather than the master artboard
Frames run the risk of creating confusion, when to use a frame instead of a group, a very known problem with Figma for instance. But there may be ways of enhancing groups to offer the advantages of frames while keeping the concept simpler.
The recent announcement of auto layout like features coming to Sketch may take a lot of these features into account, but I thought I’d throw the idea into the cosmos.
I think I mentioned something similar recently? But yeah I’m very down with the idea of allowing groups to do some of the things frames do, rather than an additional layer container type.
I used Figma every day for 5 years and my muscle memory from every app ever meant I’d instinctively press cmd+G then have to go back and selectively convert those groups to frames. The methodology is kinda dumb, just let users progressively enhance a known idea.
Thanks for sharing and we have some good news! The team is currently working on a new layout feature similar to auto layout and this relates to what you’ve mentioned.
Excellent, very happy to hear. I’ve done a few product calls with you guys in the past, very happy to jump on another if you guys are testing the feature or doing exploratory calls.
