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Roberto
Roberto
April 16, 2021

Display scroll bar in prototype preview mode

  • April 16, 2021
  • 123 replies
  • 28288 views

There’s no visible scrollbar in Figma prototyping mode. Yesterday we’re having user testings and once again this same topic popped out. Some of the users didn’t thought that they could scroll prototype because scrollbar wasn’t visible. One of the user was using laptop’s touchpad and he wasn’t able to scroll with only using touchpad. Guiding user how to use prototype during test can harm testing situations. Atleast it’s sure that if user thought that he can’t scroll it leads to biased feedback about product.

If there’s some reason not to have scrollbar it could be atleast optional feature that designer could turn visible scrollbar on from options.

It’s not only who has came across with this weakness in Figma. Here’s old Spectrum thread about same topic but Figma hasn’t done anything for this yet and I hope this get more attention here.

    123 replies

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    Grice_Luke_Homes_Platform
    March 1, 2023

    This is needed for prototype user testing. Its causing issues

      Anthony_ioannidis
      Anthony_ioannidis
      March 7, 2023

      Definitely a major issue, which doesn’t seem too complex to implement.

        Elizabeth_Carpenter
        April 19, 2023

        Interesting that a tool used by User Experience, UI Designers, Designers, etc. would be designed with no input from their research teams.

        Did anyone even ask a UX/Design Researcher if hiding the scroll bar would be OK when running UX/Design Research?!

        This may be fine for people who use a MAC, but not for others. (There are actually more people using non-Mac computers than MAC computers. (Linux, Windows, Chrombook).

        I was so looking forward to using Figma, but y’all failed me.

          Dustin_Hansen1
          Dustin_Hansen1
          New Participant
          April 24, 2023

          I’m new to Figma, and this is one of those things that is just so stunning to me I’m at a loss for words… 😲

            Marcio_Gutheil
            Marcio_Gutheil
            May 3, 2023

            +1 big time

            Tiffany10
            Tiffany10
            New Member
            May 12, 2023

            +1 need this

            Vlad_Malik
            June 7, 2023

            It’s insane they still have not fixed this. I keep having to tell people Figma just doesn’t work on its own, too wonky. Gotta wrap it in Maze or something or do screen share.

              Tor_Hylen
              July 19, 2023

              +1
              We need to see a scrollbar inside the prototype.

              1. because scrollbars actually exist in our products.
              2. because scrollbars exist practically everywhere else.
              3. because scrolling without a mouse on PC often just doesn’t work when conducting user testing.
              4. because you’ve bound the page up and page down keys to the prototype flow.
              5. because it has been years.
                KellyK
                KellyK
                Active Member
                August 8, 2023

                Having the same problem, doing user testing and users on Windows machines don’t know they can scroll. Since these are prototypes they already have the expectation that some features won’t work / that it’s incomplete, so that further gives the impression that they can’t scroll.

                Even had a user try zooming out in the browser, which did reveal a little more of the page, but it appeared cropped at a certain point so it REALLY looked like there was nothing else to scroll to.

                User testing is a HUGE part of what prototypes are for! We need a scrollbar!

                gilgongo
                gilgongo
                August 8, 2023

                Just adding my vote to this after seeing some user testing playbacks and guess what? No scroll bar, no scrolling. That Figma can just casually turn off scroll bars like this shows that they don’t understand a pretty fundamental aspect of interaction design.

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