Workplace & CollaborationWorkplace & Collaboration GlossaryPart 7 of 11
Design and Visual Collaboration Glossary
30 terms from the Workplace & Collaboration book's Design and Visual Collaboration part, each defined in a line and linked to the chapter that explains it.
- Alias (design token): A token whose value is a reference to another token, written
{group.token}in the W3C format, resolved per mode (Design Systems & Handoff). - Annotation toolkit: A Figma kit of stamps for documenting accessibility intent (headings, landmarks, focus order, alt text) before handoff, such as GitHub's and CVS Health's (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Binding (canvas): A record attaching one canvas object to another, such as an arrow to a shape, so the attachment survives moves (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Branch (design file): A separate working copy of a design file or library that reaches the main file only by a reviewed merge (Design Tools).
- Brand kit: Canva's set of approved colors, fonts and logos applied through templates and approvals, its design system for non-designers (Design Tools).
- Code Connect: Figma's mapping from a design component to the real code component, so Dev Mode shows the codebase's import and usage (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Component property: A named, typed way an instance may vary from its master (boolean, instance swap, text, variant, slot) without detaching (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Culling: Skipping the drawing of canvas objects whose bounds fall outside the viewport while keeping them selectable and exportable (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Design Tokens Format Module: The W3C Design Tokens Community Group's JSON format for tokens, stable since version 2025.10 (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Detach: Breaking an instance's link to its library component, after which it no longer receives updates; the main health signal for a design system (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Dev Mode: Figma's inspection mode for engineers, with code, applied variables, measurements, annotations and ready-for-dev status (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Dev seat: A Figma seat with full Dev Mode access but no design editing, priced for engineers (Design Tools).
- Diagram-as-code: Writing a diagram as text (Mermaid, PlantUML) rendered by a layout engine, so it lives and diffs with the code (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Editable-board limit: The free-tier cap on how many boards can be edited at once (three on Miro and Mural) (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Facilitator lock: A whiteboard control that stops participants from moving a board's structure during a session (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Fractional index: A sibling-order key between two neighbors' keys, so an insert or move changes one object only (Design Tools).
- Library (design): A design file whose components, styles and variables are published for other files to use and update from (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Library update: A published change that each consuming file reviews and accepts when it chooses; it is never pushed automatically (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Mermaid: A text syntax and JavaScript renderer for flowcharts, sequence, class, state and other diagrams (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Mode (variables): One of several values a variable holds for a context such as light and dark or a brand (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Multiplayer: Figma's term for live co-editing through a server process that owns each open document (Design Tools).
- Page space: A canvas's own coordinate system, in which object positions don't change when a viewer pans or zooms (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- PlantUML: A text-to-diagram tool for UML and other notations that uses Graphviz for layout (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Presence (canvas): Live cursors, selections and similar state that sync to collaborators but are never saved (Whiteboards & Diagrams).
- Ready for dev: A status a designer sets on a frame or component to tell engineers it can be built, with changes tracked from that version (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Resolver Module: The W3C design tokens companion spec that resolves token sets and modifiers into one context, such as a dark theme (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Style Dictionary: An open-source build tool that turns token files into platform code (CSS, iOS, Android) and reads the W3C format (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Variable (Figma): A named, typed value (color, number, string, boolean, timing, easing) bound to layer properties, Figma's form of a design token (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Variable scoping: Restricting a variable to the properties it may apply to, such as spacing tokens to gaps and padding (Design Systems & Handoff).
- Version history (design file): Automatic checkpoints plus named versions of a design file, restorable without losing later work (Design Tools).