Building a Navigation Component with Variables

The Importance of Navigation in Digital Interfaces

Navigation is crucial in any digital interface, ensuring users can interact smoothly with your design. Smart Components allow us to create custom, interactive navigation elements that seamlessly integrate with the rest of your prototype. In this guide, we’ll explore how to nest components, add events to elements using Event Variables, and pass these events through your components. One of the key advantages of using nested components is the ability to fully control their states, such as creating unique hover effects for elements within another component.

Starting from the Basics

Framer empowers you to create fully interactive and animated components, with the flexibility to nest components within each other. In this example, we’re designing a navigation bar for a website, which will include two types of nested components, each with its own unique interactions. Our project will feature a navigation bar that contains various nested elements—specifically, five navigation items and a shopping cart component. The design and interactions of these nested components will directly influence the overall design of the navigation bar. Therefore, it’s best to start with the ‘deepest’ nested component and build outward from there.

Nesting Components

Once our two components are ready, we can begin creating the main component where these will be nested. To do this, design your navigation bar, select it on the canvas, and click the Component tool in the Toolbar. To nest another component within your new component, simply drag it onto the Component Canvas and place it within your designed navigation bar.

Triggering Interactions from the Navigation Bar

Returning to the main canvas, let’s say you want to tap on ‘Clothing’ and navigate to a new screen. You could connect the component to a new screen using the Prototyping Connector to set up an interaction. However, this setup would trigger the interaction if any part of the component is tapped, which isn’t ideal. Instead, you want the transition to occur only when a specific element is tapped. This is where Event Variables come into play. Unlike standard variables, Event Variables aren’t tied to properties like opacity or fill but are linked directly to events, allowing for more precise control over your interactions.