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Question

There is no way to write an expression in Design mode

  • May 14, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 12 views
electrolyte

I am trying to design something where when I click one chip it becomes active and every other chip becomes inactive. 

I cannot achieve this no matter what I try. AI is telling me to write an expression in design mode; i cannot do this. This is for potentially hundreds of chips, I can’t make a variable for each one.

Ideally I would like to do the following:

  1. In PROTOTYPE: When a chip is clicked, set a variable to that name.
  2. In DESIGN: In the instance, set its state to a condition, ie “if chipName == [this chip], make this active. Otherwise inactive:

I cannot find any way to do this. Someone please help me. AI says that there should be a f(x) button in the assign variable dropdown in design mode but it’s not there, despite me being on a pro plan. 

    2 replies

    Jaycee Lewis
    Figmate

    Hey, ​@electrolyte I took this to my internal resources to get us clarification on what is possible in Figma Design currently. Out of curiosity, which AI tool gave you this suggestion? Talk soon! — Jaycee 

    electrolyte
    • electrolyte
    • Author
    • New Member
    • May 15, 2026

    I’m glad to hear this. I was using Gemini and I was sure that this wasn’t a thing but it kept insisting that it was, and I thought maybe I was missing something. The Figma resources on using variables tend to be really simplistic and it’s hard to get a sense of what variables actually can and can’t do - you’d think that things like selecting one element which would deselect all others would be a pretty standard thing variables can do since that’s so common in prototyping, but apparently it’s not so.

    Thanks for this response. I’m all ears if you have more info. 

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