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Lesson 3 of 3 · 5 min

The home screen: teams, projects, files

Every time you open Figma you land in the same place. Once you understand how that place is organised, you always know where a file is, who can see it and where the next one should go.

Four levels, one inside the other

Figma organises your work like nested boxes. It is the same idea you will use later with frames, so it is worth getting it right from the start.

Your account contains teams, teams contain projects, projects contain files. Drafts live in the team but outside the projects.

When you sign up, Figma creates a personal team for you. You don't need anything else for now: in the book we use that team for the whole project.

The left sidebar

  • Recentsthe files you opened or edited last, whatever project they are in
  • Draftswhere new files land first, perfect for experiments and tests
  • Projectsthe team's shared work, organised by project
  • Communityfiles, templates, plugins and widgets shared by other designers

Drafts are yours until you decide otherwise. When a draft is ready to be shared, move it into a project and the whole team can work on it.

More than design files

From the home you can create different kinds of files: Design for interfaces, components and prototypes, FigJam for whiteboards and flows, Slides for presentations, and newer ones like Buzz, Sites and Make. In this Academy you will use mostly Design and FigJam.

At the top you also find search, which looks into files, projects and the Community, the bell for comments and invites, and your account menu.

Try it

  1. Open the home and find your personal team in the sidebar.
  2. Create a new project and call it Travel app.
  3. Create a Design file in Drafts, then move it into the project.
  4. Create a FigJam board in the same project: you will need it in the next course.

Remember

  • Account, team, project, file: four levels, one inside the other.
  • Drafts are for experiments, projects are for shared work.
  • Design is for interfaces, FigJam for research and flows.
  • Keep each project's files together from day one.