5 Framer Tips from a Design Studio
A beginner’s guide to web design in Framer
1. Start with a clear system
Every good website starts with structure. Before worrying about animations or effects, build a clear design system. Reusable components, defined colors and typography and a tidy layer hierarchy will save you hours later.
A clean system makes your site easier to scale, edit, and hand over.
2. Set up your canvas with intention
Designing without considering devices is where most beginners go wrong. Framer makes it easy to design responsively, but it starts with choosing the right canvas. Set up your project with desktop, tablet, and mobile in mind from the beginning, and adjust canvas sizes based on how people will actually experience the site.
3. Components are where the magic is
Components are the backbone of efficient web design. Components help you reuse elements, stay consistent, and update your website faster. Framer’s pre-built components follow best practices, so you don’t need to design everything from scratch. Build once, reuse everywhere. When components are set up properly, updates feel effortless instead of overwhelming. Instead of editing each instance manually, you can update the parent component, and the changes will automatically apply everywhere — as long as they are not overridden.
Components can be created by right-clicking any frame and selecting "Create Component". To insert “component”, click on assets panel and you will find all of the “components”. Then you can click and drag it directly onto the canvas.
4. Preview, Test, Repeat
A design isn’t finished until it’s tested.
Preview your site often. Check how it behaves across devices. Scroll through it like a user, not a designer. This is also the moment to test your animations. When something feels off, it usually is. Testing early saves time later.
5. Use the Resources
No one designs in isolation. Framer’s resources, community forums, and tutorials are incredibly helpful when you’re learning. Most of the challenges you’ll face have already been solved by someone else, so use what’s available.
Here are some of our current favorite free components from Framer Resources:
