Figma detach instance blocker

This is a deep cut. If you aren’t a designer, this one probably will go over your head. I’m sorry in advance.

Figma is a design tool that allows multiple users to collaboratively design. Adobe is trying to buy them for a lot of money, but TBD if that deal goes through. One of the many amazing features Figma offers is components. Instead of needing to design a button over and over and over again, you can just make one component and use it everywhere. Better yet, you can make different variants of that button (think primary, secondary, tertiary, etc.). This allows large design teams to operate quickly and consistently at scale.

However, there is always an option for a designer to detach an instance of a component. This means that the component will no longer inherit the properties specified by the system. No big deal, right?

Well… when you have a large design team, it starts to break things when you have a lot of people detaching instances of a component and building custom versions. This means less efficient processes for engineers, and eventually code that is less performant.

So what if Figma added a little more friction to this process? Instead of being able to simply detach a component, what if it notified your teammates? Or worse, what if it dispatched law enforcement to your current location?

There are varying degrees of severity here (and maybe it escalates if you’re a repeat offender), but I could definitely see some designers loving this feature.

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