Designilo

Introduction: From Static to Smart

In real products, buttons get hovered, dropdowns expand, toggles switch. But traditional static mockups don’t show these dynamic behaviors—until now. With Interactive Components in Figma, you can bring your UI to life without duplicating screens or layers.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up interactive components to show hover, focus, pressed, toggled, and other states—all from a single component. Let’s make your design files not just pretty, but powerful.

1. What Are Interactive Components?

Interactive Components are components that contain built-in prototyping behavior between their own variants.

Instead of linking between entire frames, you can define:

• A hover state inside a button component
• A toggle switch with on/off states
• A dropdown with open/closed behavior
• A tab set that shows selection

🎯 The result: faster prototypes, fewer screens, and realistic demos.

2. How It Works: Variant + Prototype = Magic

The structure is simple:

1. Create a component with multiple variants
2. Go to Prototype mode
3. Draw a connection between one variant and another
4. Choose an interaction trigger (e.g. While Hovering, On Click)
5. Choose an animation (e.g. Smart Animate, Instant)

That’s it. Your component is now interactive.

📦 All interactions live within the component—no external frames needed.

---

3. Common Use Cases

Here are the most valuable patterns to start with:

Component	Variants	Trigger
Button	Default / Hover / Pressed	While Hovering, On Click
Toggle Switch	On / Off	On Click
Dropdown	Closed / Open	On Click
Tabs	Tab A / Tab B / Tab C	On Click
Checkbox	Checked / Unchecked / Disabled	On Click
Accordion	Collapsed / Expanded	On Click

💡 You can even nest interactive components inside other components!

4. How to Build One: Step-by-Step Example

Let’s make a button with a hover and pressed state:

1. Create 3 variants inside a component set:
   • Button / Default
   • Button / Hover
   • Button / Pressed
2. Add color/style differences to each state
3. Go to Prototype mode:
   • Connect Default → Hover with While Hovering
   • Connect Hover → Pressed with On Click
   • Connect Pressed → Default with After Delay 100ms
4. Drop the main Button component into a prototype frame and test it!

🧪 Tip: Use Smart Animate to smooth transitions.

5. Organize Variant Properties for Reuse

Instead of naming states manually, use structured properties like:

• State = Default | Hover | Pressed
• Size = Small | Medium | Large
• Icon = True | False

This helps Figma’s Instance Panel stay clean and lets developers understand expected states.

🏗️ Your interactive set should have predictable logic for every input.

6. Add Interactions Inside Component Sets

You don’t need separate frames to show interactivity.

Benefits:

• Less clutter in your canvas
• Easier testing and iteration
• Centralized control—update once, update everywhere

📁 Store these in a file page called 💡 Interactive Components or UI States.

7. Tips for Better Interactions

• ✅ Use “Smart Animate” for smooth transitions
• ✅ Keep variant names simple and logical
• ✅ Test in Figma’s Prototype view (hit Present)
• ✅ Combine with Auto Layout for responsive behavior
• ✅ Use Delay triggers (e.g. for reset-to-default) carefully

🚫 Avoid over-animating or over-complicating—keep it functional.

8. Developer Handoff Benefits

In Dev Mode, interactive components:

• Still show clear token values
• Retain consistent properties and names
• Offer devs a preview of expected states

You can link to live prototypes to show behavior clearly—especially helpful for animations and toggles.

🔗 Add a section in your handoff page labeled “Component Behavior Examples.”

Conclusion: Interactions That Teach Themselves

Interactive Components are one of Figma’s most powerful features—and one of the least used. They don’t just impress stakeholders in a prototype. They help your team understand, reuse, and implement designs exactly as intended.

Don’t just design how things look. Show how they behave.

Next up: “Designing State-Driven Components in Figma (Without Losing Your Mind)” — a guide to structuring complex UIs with multiple states and logic.