A lot of the time when I’m presenting designs, I will either put together a static slide deck with annotations, or I will walk through the interactive prototype in Figma.
One downside with using the interactive prototype is that it’s not possible to annotate designs, in order to show notes and give people a better understanding of what I’m presenting.
I understand that comments can be added, and ideally I would talk through the design myself, but having annotations that are constantly visible would be a great help.
I noticed Adobe XD has this, as it displays a panel on the right hand side with all notes. Figma has this feature in Design mode, but when in Prototype mode, these comments can only be viewed one at a time.
Does anyone else have this issue? Are there any plugins or workarounds that people have used to get around this?
I share your pain. I’ve tried using annotation plugin/files from the Figma community – they don’t meet my needs – and I’ve tried rolling my own using variants, but it’s dodgy and a huge pain to implement. You mentioned XD, but I prefer the way Axure implements annotations/notes.
This is exactly what I NEED… when pitching we go from google decks to a Figma prototype… and the ability to initiate bubbles with arrows to really send home the message I am making would be so valuable to help me sell the idea in.
Figma please!!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one! Even something as basic as having a title displayed for each page would be valuable. If I need to cycle through 5 different versions of a design to get feedback, I have to create my own little annotation bubble and add it to the bottom of the page so I can tell the difference.
++++++1 Comment panel in prototype mode
and would be awesome to have a filter to switch between “ALL comments in the flow” vs “Comments in this screen”
I’m all for this one. When users discuss the designs, they only need the Presentation mode and a list of all comments posted with their threads and maybe badges where there is a new comment posted. Currently this is only possible in edit mode, but there are too many distractions for the interested parties, that are not designers or front-end devs.
Hey guys,
not sure if this feature was not available already in Apr 21 but Feb 22 you can add comments and annotations to a Figma prototype by simply clicking on the bubble icon, top left on the prototype screen. In doing so, a comments panel to the right will expand and annotations will show on the screen as well as the ability for the viewer (user) to add annotations and comments.
Hope this helps.
That icon you mention adds great notifications to edit mode but they don’t appear when you generate a prototype, which is what this thread is about. Please let me know if I’m missing something here, thanks!
Comments and annotations are two very different things. I’m presenting a mobile prototype tomorrow and it would be amazing to utilize the black space on the left and right sides of the actual prototype (in this example, to dumb it down, the black space on either side of the mobile device on prototype preview mode) If only plugins could allow for displays in prototype view, then Figma wouldn’t have to build out the full functionality
Team members and stakeholders often prefer to see an interactive prototype demonstrating a proposed design, but prototypes often imply the specifics of a design for a limited set of use cases, leaving a lot to be assumed if the audience does not read design annotations, or worse, if they are unaware they exist.
If I could show/hide the annotations living on a frame while presenting my prototype, I could quickly and easily refer to my annotations when and where I need to.
Hi @Sam_Marks, Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I completely understand how useful this feature would be.
I noticed that another community member requested something similar here. Therefore, I combined your post with theirs to consolidate all the feedback in one place!
Please feel free to vote for it here!
