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Evolving the Infinite Canvas

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Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#11

Post by kamikaz1k »

nicksergeant wrote: post #10
cush wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no way to easily and sensibly hyperlink to specific areas/contexts within the canvas There are absolutely ways to hyperlink to specific areas and contexts within the canvas. It's one of the core features that's always been part of Figma. For example, click on anything on the canvas and you'll observe the URL change. You can share that URL

That does indeed work! Fascinating. Now I'm endlessly curious as to why I've never gotten a correctly located link from many designers in several orgs. It is, however, sufficiently buried that I think most designers just copy the browser URL and call it a day. I honestly can't remember a single time I've gotten a targeted Figma link like this from a designer.

Because people will delete and create new modes as they iterate so those hash links become stale. So while the person who replied to you is technically correct, effectively it is still very unstable.

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#12

Post by nicksergeant »

cush wrote: post #8
nicksergeant wrote: post #7

Infinite canvases like Figma give me infinite anxiety. There's no way to easily and sensibly hyperlink to specific areas/contexts within the canvas, and it's really difficult to find things unless you know exactly where to look. It's like the manifestation of a cluttered desk of papers in the digital world - exactly what we tried to avoid when building new digital interfaces for so many decades. Edit: there is a way…

> There's no way to easily and sensibly hyperlink to specific areas/contexts within the canvas There are absolutely ways to hyperlink to specific areas and contexts within the canvas. It's one of the core features that's always been part of Figma. For example, click on anything on the canvas and you'll observe the URL change. You can share that URL

> For example, click on anything on the canvas and you'll observe the URL change.

I think this might be the problem. The URL doesn't change as you move around, so folks just copy the URL at the point in time of whatever they're staring at, and end up sharing whatever area was previously focused / clicked on,

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#13

Post by [deleted] »

nicksergeant wrote: post #7

Infinite canvases like Figma give me infinite anxiety. There's no way to easily and sensibly hyperlink to specific areas/contexts within the canvas, and it's really difficult to find things unless you know exactly where to look. It's like the manifestation of a cluttered desk of papers in the digital world - exactly what we tried to avoid when building new digital interfaces for so many decades. Edit: there is a way…

[deleted]

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#14

Post by ypeterholmes »

nicksergeant wrote: post #12
cush wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no way to easily and sensibly hyperlink to specific areas/contexts within the canvas There are absolutely ways to hyperlink to specific areas and contexts within the canvas. It's one of the core features that's always been part of Figma. For example, click on anything on the canvas and you'll observe the URL change. You can share that URL

> For example, click on anything on the canvas and you'll observe the URL change. I think this might be the problem. The URL doesn't change as you move around, so folks just copy the URL at the point in time of whatever they're staring at, and end up sharing whatever area was previously focused / clicked on,

The feature is pretty easy to use- at what point do we just accept that some people shouldn't be using the tool? If we always design for the least capable user, we will be unnecessarily handcuffing ourselves.

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#15

Post by dimal »

I hated this post up until the last section, then it won me over at the end. None of the infinite canvas interfaces look like anything more than a pile to me. I see no structure at all. If I was forced to use an interface like this for anything crucial, I couldn’t function.

But the last section that shows the same information presented in different formats won me over. This is more of what I’d like to see. Let people who think spacially work spacially if that’s what works for them. Let the people that think however it is that I think work in whatever format the fits in their brain best. Embrace neurodiversity.

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#16

Post by pfranz »

kamikaz1k wrote: post #11
nicksergeant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does indeed work! Fascinating. Now I'm endlessly curious as to why I've never gotten a correctly located link from many designers in several orgs. It is, however, sufficiently buried that I think most designers just copy the browser URL and call it a day. I honestly can't remember a single time I've gotten a targeted Figma link like this from a designer.

Because people will delete and create new modes as they iterate so those hash links become stale. So while the person who replied to you is technically correct, effectively it is still very unstable.

Similarly, on pages like GitLab you can link to specific line(s) of code in a file...but it often is the head of that branch. The URL will resolve in the future, but its pretty common that the chunk of code has moved.

I wish it was easy to grab a URL for that specific version, with a banner at the top saying it's not the newest version of the code (something I sometimes see with documentation). I don't see why Figma couldn't do this, too.

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#17

Post by andsoitis »

nicksergeant wrote: post #10
cush wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no way to easily and sensibly hyperlink to specific areas/contexts within the canvas There are absolutely ways to hyperlink to specific areas and contexts within the canvas. It's one of the core features that's always been part of Figma. For example, click on anything on the canvas and you'll observe the URL change. You can share that URL

That does indeed work! Fascinating. Now I'm endlessly curious as to why I've never gotten a correctly located link from many designers in several orgs. It is, however, sufficiently buried that I think most designers just copy the browser URL and call it a day. I honestly can't remember a single time I've gotten a targeted Figma link like this from a designer.

To be fair, you didn't figure it out either so one could consider this a feature discoverability issue.

I didn't know either, but plan to share with my coworkers!

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#18

Post by amelius »

teucris wrote: post #9

I used to be an infinite canvas fanatic, even building products that leveraged the concept, but ultimately I’ve abandoned it. There are too many issues with having an infinite canvas that make it untenable. This isn’t to say they should never be used, but rather that I believe there are good reasons why they aren’t used more. 1. Ambiguous structure - users cannot easily glean the structure of content from the layout…

Counterpoint: spreadsheets are Infinite Canvases, and are quite successful ...

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#19

Post by defart »

amelius wrote: post #18
teucris wrote: post #9

I used to be an infinite canvas fanatic, even building products that leveraged the concept, but ultimately I’ve abandoned it. There are too many issues with having an infinite canvas that make it untenable. This isn’t to say they should never be used, but rather that I believe there are good reasons why they aren’t used more. 1. Ambiguous structure - users cannot easily glean the structure of content from the layout…

Counterpoint: spreadsheets are Infinite Canvases, and are quite successful ...

You are usually not dropped in the middle of a spreadsheet with infinite rows/cols in each direction. You start at topleft which makes navigating much less 'exploratory'

Re: Evolving the Infinite Canvas

#20

Post by evnc »

amelius wrote: post #18
teucris wrote: post #9

I used to be an infinite canvas fanatic, even building products that leveraged the concept, but ultimately I’ve abandoned it. There are too many issues with having an infinite canvas that make it untenable. This isn’t to say they should never be used, but rather that I believe there are good reasons why they aren’t used more. 1. Ambiguous structure - users cannot easily glean the structure of content from the layout…

Counterpoint: spreadsheets are Infinite Canvases, and are quite successful ...

This is an interesting point, because they are kinda infinite spaces but they also impose a structure on the space, which I would assert is a part of why they are so successful, in contrast to the "infinite structureless blank paper" that the OP is talking about.

The trick is getting the amount of structure just right, not too much to be too restrictive and not so little that users are lost in the way the person you're replying to describes.

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