What are Effects in Figma?

Intro (short definition)

Effects in Figma let you add visual depth and style to your designs using shadows, blurs, and other reusable properties. Just like text and color styles, effects can be saved and applied across your project for consistency.

Deep Dive (how they work + why they matter)

Effects go beyond decoration — they help communicate hierarchy and usability. For example, a shadow can make a button feel clickable, or a background blur can create focus on a modal window. In Figma, you can save these effects as styles so they’re consistent across your project and easy to update later.

When combined with Components, Color Styles, and Typography, effects become part of a unified design system. They also work well with Variables for scaling across different themes, and with Design Systems for keeping visual rules documented and reusable.

Use Cases (practical examples)

• Adding shadows to buttons and cards for better visual hierarchy

• Using background blurs to highlight modals or popovers

• Creating consistent glow effects for alerts or status indicators

• Saving reusable effect styles inside a shared Design System