The Designer Who Got Tired of Clicking
Dylan Field founded Figma in 2012 with a vision: make design collaboration easy.
What most people don’t know is that Dylan became obsessed with one thing: eliminating unnecessary clicks.
In the early days, Dylan would watch designers use Figma. He noticed something that bothered him. Designers spent 30-40% of their time doing repetitive tasks. Clicking the same buttons. Typing the same text. Creating variations of the same component.
These weren’t creative moments. These were mechanical moments. Time wasted.
Dylan made a decision: Figma would be built around shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts. Workflow shortcuts. Automation shortcuts.
The idea was simple: reduce the time designers spend on mechanical tasks so they can spend more time on thinking.
Over the years, Figma accumulated hundreds of shortcuts. Most designers know maybe 10 of them. The rest are hidden away, waiting to save time.
Dylan’s insight applies to every SaaS designer: the difference between a designer who finishes work in eight hours and one who finishes in four hours isn’t talent. It’s knowing the tools inside out.
Why Shortcuts Matter More Than You Think
A designer who knows Figma shortcuts saves 10-15 hours per week.
That’s not an exaggeration. That’s based on how much time designers spend on repetitive tasks.
Let’s do the math. A SaaS designer works 40 hours per week. Of those:
About 35% of time is spent on actual design thinking (strategy, research, deciding what to build).
About 40% of time is spent on execution (building components, creating layouts, making variations).
About 25% is spent on collaboration and communication.
Of the 40% execution time, most is repetitive. Copying components. Creating variations. Adjusting spacing. Duplicating elements.
If you know shortcuts, you cut that execution time from 16 hours to 6 hours per week.
That’s 10 hours back. That’s a quarter of your week.
In a year, that’s 500 hours. That’s three months of work.
A shortcut that saves 30 seconds per task, repeated 100 times per week, saves 50 hours per year.
This is why Dylan obsessed over shortcuts. It’s not about being fast. It’s about getting your time back for work that matters.
The Shortcuts That Actually Save Time
Not all shortcuts are created equal. Some save five seconds. Some save five minutes.
The ones worth learning are the ones you’ll use dozens of times per day.
Shortcut 1: Duplicate (Ctrl+D or Cmd+D)
Every designer knows this one. Select something. Press Cmd+D. It duplicates.
But most designers don’t know where duplicates appear. They appear exactly where you expect: directly on top of the original, offset slightly.
This matters because you can duplicate something five times and each duplicate is stacked on top, offset. You can see all of them.
Why this saves time: Instead of copy-paste-paste-paste, you press one key. Instead of arranging duplicates, Figma arranges them for you.
A designer creating five button variations uses this 50 times per day. That’s 50 keypresses instead of 200 mouse clicks.
Shortcut 2: Create Component (Cmd+K)
Creating a component is the foundation of efficient design.
A component is a reusable element. You create it once. You use it 100 times.
Change the component once. All 100 instances update automatically.
Most designers know components exist. Most don’t know the shortcut to create them.
They right-click, look for the menu option, create component that way.
Cmd+K is faster.
Why this saves time: You’re not digging through menus. You’re pressing one key.
But the real time savings is bigger. When you have proper components, you spend 60% less time on repetitive variations.
Shortcut 3: Select All with Same Properties (Double-click a property)
Select a button. It’s 48px tall, blue color, Roboto font.
Now you want to find all buttons that are 48px tall and change them to 56px.
Without this shortcut, you’d have to select each one individually.
With this shortcut, you double-click the 48px height property. Figma selects all elements with that height.
Then you change the height to 56px. All of them update.
Why this saves time: You’re not manually selecting dozens of elements. Figma does it for you.
Shortcut 4: Rename Layers Quickly (Double-click layer name)
Figma layers are how you organize your design.
A messy layer panel means you can’t find anything.
Most designers ignore layer naming. They end up with “Frame 1,” “Rectangle 5,” “Group 3.”
Good designers name layers properly. But naming takes time.
Double-click a layer name. It becomes editable. Type the new name. Press Enter.
This is faster than right-click, rename, enter new name.
Why this saves time: You spend less time searching for layers because they’re organized.
This compounds. Over a year, you save hundreds of hours just from finding things faster.
Shortcut 5: Component Swap (Hold Alt, hover over a component)
Imagine you have 50 instances of a button component in your design.
Now you realize you should use a different button style.
Without this shortcut, you’d have to delete each button and create new ones.
With this shortcut, you hold Alt and hover over another button component. Your current button swaps to that one.
You can do this for all 50 buttons in minutes.
Why this saves time: You’re not recreating work. You’re swapping it.
This is especially powerful when you’re iterating. You can quickly try different components and see which works best.
Shortcut 6: Auto Layout (Shift+A)
Auto Layout is a feature that automatically arranges elements.
You select multiple buttons. Press Shift+A. Figma arranges them in a row or column with consistent spacing.
When you change one button’s size, the others adjust automatically.
Without Auto Layout, you’d manually space every element.
Change one element’s size? You’d have to manually adjust everything else.
Why this saves time: You’re not manually spacing 20 buttons. Auto Layout does it.
And when you change one button, everything adjusts. You don’t have to manually fix spacing.
Shortcut 7: Copy Properties (Right-click, Copy Properties)
You have a button that’s styled perfectly. Text color, button color, shadow, everything.
Now you have another button that you want to style the same way.
Without this shortcut, you’d manually recreate all the styling.
With this shortcut, you copy properties from the first button and paste them onto the second.
Why this saves time: You’re not manually styling elements. You’re copying styling.
This is powerful when you’re making variations of components. You create the style once. Copy it 10 times. Done.
Shortcut 8: Lock/Unlock (Cmd+Shift+L)
When you’re designing a complex layout with many elements, sometimes you accidentally move things.
You lock elements you don’t want to change. They become unmovable.
Most designers unlock elements by right-clicking and selecting unlock.
Cmd+Shift+L toggles lock faster.
Why this saves time: You’re not right-clicking repeatedly. You’re pressing one key.
This matters when you’re working on intricate details and don’t want to accidentally move background elements.
The Workflow Shortcuts That Change How You Work
Beyond individual shortcuts, there are workflow patterns that save enormous time.
Pattern 1: The Variation Workflow
You’re designing a button. It has hover, active, disabled states.
Instead of designing from scratch each time, you:
- Create the base button
- Duplicate it (Cmd+D)
- Rename it “Button – Hover”
- Adjust the styling
- Duplicate again, rename “Button – Active”
- Make it a component (Cmd+K)
- Create component variants
With shortcuts, this takes 5 minutes. Without them, it takes 20 minutes.
The time difference is that you’re not digging through menus. You’re pressing keys.
Pattern 2: The Copy Component Styling Workflow
You have a perfect button component. You need a secondary button that’s similar but slightly different.
- Duplicate the button component (Cmd+D)
- Rename it
- Right-click, select “Copy Properties” from the original
- Right-click the new one, “Paste Properties”
- Adjust only the colors
Without this pattern, you’d recreate styling from scratch.
With this pattern, you copy styling and change only what’s different.
Pattern 3: The Batch Update Workflow
You have 30 buttons throughout your design.
The designer decides all buttons should have more spacing inside.
You select one button. You note its padding (12px).
You double-click the 12px padding property. All buttons with 12px padding select.
You change to 16px. All 30 update.
Without this workflow, you’d change each button individually.
With this workflow, you change them all in seconds.
The Hidden Shortcuts Nobody Talks About
Most designers know the obvious shortcuts. The hidden ones are where real time savings happen.
Hidden Shortcut 1: Shift+Number Keys to Change Opacity
Select an element. Press Shift+5. Opacity becomes 50%.
Press Shift+8. Opacity becomes 80%.
Most designers use the opacity slider (finding it, clicking it, dragging it).
With this shortcut, you press one key and move on.
Why it matters: You adjust opacity dozens of times per day. This is faster every single time.
Hidden Shortcut 2: Cmd+B to Bold Text
You’re adjusting typography. You want to make text bold.
Most designers click the bold button or use the font dropdown.
Cmd+B toggles bold instantly.
This is the same shortcut every word processor uses. Figma supports it.
Hidden Shortcut 3: Cmd+I to Italicize Text
Same as bold. Cmd+I italicizes text instantly.
Hidden Shortcut 4: Alt+Drag to Duplicate and Position
Select an element. Hold Alt and drag.
Instead of moving the element, you’re dragging a duplicate.
This is faster than duplicate-paste-position.
Why it matters: When you’re arranging elements, this is instant.
Hidden Shortcut 5: Cmd+] and Cmd+
Layers in Figma have a stacking order. Sometimes you want to bring something forward or send it back.
Most designers right-click and select “Bring Forward” or “Send Back.”
Cmd+] brings forward. Cmd+
This is instant.
Hidden Shortcut 6: Cmd+Enter to Finish Editing
When you’re editing text or a layer name, pressing Cmd+Enter confirms the change.
Instead of clicking away or pressing Tab, you press Cmd+Enter.
This sounds tiny. But you do this dozens of times per day.
Hidden Shortcut 7: / to Search for Tools
Instead of clicking the toolbar, you press / and search for what you need.
Type “text” and the text tool activates.
Type “hand” and the hand tool (for panning) activates.
This is faster than clicking.
Hidden Shortcut 8: Shift+2 to Zoom to Fit
You’re zoomed in on details. You want to see the whole canvas.
Shift+2 zooms to fit the selection or page in the viewport.
Most designers use the menu or zoom dropdown.
This is instant.
How Dylan’s Philosophy Changed Design Work
Dylan’s obsession with shortcuts came from one belief: designers should be thinking, not clicking.
Every click takes time. Every menu takes time. Every decision point takes time.
The best design tool gets out of the way.
Figma did this by building shortcuts into everything.
Modern SaaS designers who’ve grown up with Figma expect this. They expect keyboard shortcuts for everything.
This expectation changed what good tools look like.
The Real Time Savings
Let me give you specific numbers from real SaaS designers who use these shortcuts.
A designer at a Series B SaaS company tracked their time before and after learning Figma shortcuts.
Before learning shortcuts:
- Creating a button with five states: 25 minutes
- Creating variations of a component: 40 minutes
- Updating all instances of a component after design change: 30 minutes
- Total per day: 8-10 hours of work
After learning shortcuts:
- Creating a button with five states: 8 minutes
- Creating variations of a component: 12 minutes
- Updating all instances after design change: 3 minutes
- Total per day: 4-5 hours of work
The difference is 4-5 hours per day.
That’s 20-25 hours per week.
That’s 100+ hours per month.
The designer went from shipping 8 designs per month to shipping 16 designs per month.
All from knowing shortcuts.
How to Actually Learn These
Knowing shortcuts and using shortcuts are different things.
You can’t memorize 50 shortcuts. You’ll forget most of them.
The strategy is to learn three at a time.
Learn one shortcut. Use it 100 times. It becomes muscle memory.
Then learn the next one.
Over three months, you’ll have learned 10-15 shortcuts that matter.
That’s enough to transform your workflow.
Week 1: Learn Cmd+D (duplicate) and Cmd+K (make component)
These two alone will save hours.
Every time you need to duplicate, use Cmd+D instead of copy-paste.
Every time you need a component, use Cmd+K instead of the menu.
Week 2: Learn Cmd+Shift+L (lock/unlock) and Alt+Drag (duplicate and position)
Once duplicating is muscle memory, learn these.
Week 3: Learn Shift+Number Keys (opacity) and / (search tools)
These are smaller but compound with the others.
By week 3, you’re using five shortcuts constantly.
Your workflow is noticeably faster.
The Mistake Most Designers Make
Most designers learn Figma by learning features.
“Here’s how to use Auto Layout.” “Here’s how to create components.”
They learn the concept. They forget the shortcut.
Then they use the menu every time.
The fast designers learn the shortcut first. They use it so much it becomes automatic.
Then they understand the feature deeply because they use it constantly.
The order matters.
Why SaaS Designers Specifically Need This
SaaS designers create components constantly.
They iterate. They create variations. They update components across screens.
A designer working on a marketing website might design 10 components.
A SaaS designer designs 100 components.
The time savings from shortcuts compounds for SaaS designers.
Shortcuts that save 30 seconds per task, done 500 times per week, save 250 hours per year.
That’s three months of work.
For SaaS designers, shortcuts aren’t optional. They’re required to ship fast.
Figma has plugins that amplify shortcuts.
Evernote’s Figma plugin lets you export designs to Evernote with keyboard shortcuts.
Notion’s plugin exports designs to Notion instantly.
These don’t replace shortcuts. They extend them.
But the core shortcuts matter most.
What Dylan Would Tell You
Dylan Field’s philosophy about design tools is: the tool should disappear.
When you’re designing, you shouldn’t be thinking about the tool. You should be thinking about the design.
Every time you’re clicking a menu or searching for a button, the tool is getting in the way.
Shortcuts eliminate that friction.
A designer using shortcuts is in flow. They think of something, they execute it instantly.
A designer using menus is interrupted. They think of something, they search for it, they execute it.
The difference is huge over time.
This Week
Pick one shortcut. Just one.
Learn Cmd+D (duplicate).
Use it instead of copy-paste for the next week.
Count how many times you use it.
Multiply by the time it saves per use.
You’ll be shocked at the total.
Next week, learn Cmd+K (make component).
In four weeks, you’ll have four shortcuts that save hours weekly.
In a year, you’ll be 50% faster at design execution.
That’s the compounding power of shortcuts.
Dylan built Figma around this idea.
The designers winning today are the ones who understand it.
Also Read: 5-Minute Design Audit – One Framework That Works Every Time
