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Project Thumbnail System

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The Problem

The Solve

The Impact

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How a simple thumbnail system made our entire product team more efficient

As time went by and more projects added, our Figma workspace became increasingly hard to navigate. Thumbnails were uninformative, titles were easy to overlook, and even I—who created most of the files—found it frustrating to locate what I needed.

I set out to fix this by creating a better system for organizing files that would reduce friction, improve clarity, and scale with the team.

Quick wins in the form of—

product team satisfaction

🥳🥳🥳

Figma file search accuracy

🎯🎯🎯

How a simple thumbnail system made our entire product team more efficient

As time went by and more projects added, our Figma workspace became increasingly hard to navigate. Thumbnails were uninformative, titles were easy to overlook, and even I—who created most of the files—found it frustrating to locate what I needed.

I set out to fix this by creating a better system for organizing files that would reduce friction, improve clarity, and scale with the team.

Quick wins in the form of—

product team satisfaction

🥳🥳🥳

Figma file search accuracy

🎯🎯🎯

How a simple thumbnail system made our entire product team more efficient

As time went by and more projects added, our Figma workspace became increasingly hard to navigate. Thumbnails were uninformative, titles were easy to overlook, and even I—who created most of the files—found it frustrating to locate what I needed.

I set out to fix this by creating a better system for organizing files that would reduce friction, improve clarity, and scale with the team.

Quick wins in the form of—

product team satisfaction

🥳🥳🥳

Figma file search accuracy

🎯🎯🎯

The problem

Figma dashboard was not scannable and gave little contextual clues

We used clear titles, but they were visually deprioritized in the Figma dashboard, making them easy to miss.

As our project count ramped up, the cognitive load to find the right file became a real problem. Other teammates often asked me for help locating specific parts of a project. The lack of intentional organization created unnecessary friction and slowed down collaboration.

Imagine a bunch of these laid out all across your screen 😵‍💫

The SOlve

A new replicable and scalable system with maximum contextual clues

I proposed and implemented a new system for organizing files where a dedicated “about this file” page was created inside each project with purpose-built thumbnails and supporting structure.

Each page included:

The Impact

An immediate difference and quick win

The Figma home became cleaner, more intentional, and far easier to scan. Teammates stopped asking me where to find things—a quiet but meaningful win.

As our team continued to grow, the improved organization made onboarding smoother and more intuitive. New designers were able to navigate and contribute faster, and the system was adopted with minimal guidance.