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Boards in Infa: Organization, Collaboration, and Discovery

Learn about the concept of boards in Infa, their types, use cases, and best practices for effective component organization and collaboration.

What are Boards?

Boards in Infa serve as containers for organizing, managing, and sharing your components and pages. Similar to Miro boards, Figma files, or Jira projects, boards provide a structured way to categorize and access your design system assets.

We at Infa have designed boards to be flexible and adaptable to various workflows, whether you're documenting your design system, researching competitors, or collaborating with team members.

Key Use Cases for Boards

Design System Documentation and Onboarding

Boards excel as onboarding tools for design systems. By creating a comprehensive board of your components:

  • New team members can quickly understand your design system's structure
  • Components can be viewed in their actual implementation context
  • Documentation links and usage guidelines can be centralized

Research and Competitive Analysis

Boards serve as excellent research and analysis tools:

  • Collect and organize components from various websites and products
  • Compare different implementation approaches side by side
  • Track emerging design patterns across the industry
  • Organize components by competitor
  • Track changes to competitor interfaces over time
  • Compare your own components against industry standards
  • Identify gaps or opportunities in your design approach

Planning and Refactoring Design Systems

Boards help you plan and implement design system adoption across products:

  • Track inconsistent components that need standardization
  • Create roadmaps for future design system enhancements
  • Identify components requiring refactoring or replacement
  • Link components across products using XPath selectors to visualize impact
  • Prioritize design system work based on usage patterns
  • Monitor design system adoption progress across products

Types of Boards

Local Boards

Local boards are stored within your Chrome browser and are included in the free plan:

✓ Complete privacy for personal use ✓ No server connection required ✓ Exportable as JSON files for backup or transfer ✓ Ideal for personal research and experimentation

✗ No cloud synchronization ✗ Limited to the browser where they were created ✗ No screenshot cloud storage ✗ No collaboration features

Cloud Boards

Cloud boards unlock advanced features through Infa's paid plans:

✓ Cross-device synchronization ✓ Screenshot cloud storage ✓ Sharing capabilities for team collaboration ✓ AI-powered features for component tagging and analysis ✓ Version history and change tracking

Community Boards

Community boards allow public sharing with the Infa community:

✓ Showcase your design system or research ✓ Contribute to collective design knowledge ✓ Allow others to learn from your organization methods ✓ Gain visibility in the design community

Board Configuration

Each board includes the following key fields:

Board Title

The name of your board should be descriptive and reflect its purpose or content. Consider including:

  • Project name or design system version
  • Category of components
  • Team or department if applicable

Board Description

The board description is visible to anyone with access to your board. We at Infa recommend including:

  • Purpose of the board
  • Brief introduction to the content
  • Links to related documentation
  • Instructions for contributors or viewers
  • Contact information for the board maintainer

Board URL

The starting URL defines the initial webpage that opens when someone accesses your board. This feature:

  • Provides immediate context about where components are implemented
  • Accelerates onboarding by showing components in their native environment
  • Can be updated at any time to reflect the most relevant starting point

Best Practices for Board Management

Organizational Structure

  • Group related components logically
  • Use consistent naming conventions
  • Consider creating separate boards for major categories (e.g., UI components, page templates)
  • Regularly review and clean up outdated components

Documentation Integration

  • Link to external documentation where appropriate
  • Include usage guidelines directly in component descriptions
  • Add code snippets for implementation examples
  • Document component dependencies and relationships

Collaboration Workflow

  • Establish clear ownership and editing permissions
  • Create a process for reviewing and approving changes
  • Use board descriptions to communicate status and updates
  • Consider regular review sessions to maintain board quality

Getting Started with Boards

  1. Navigate to the Boards section in your Infa extension
  2. Select "Create New Board"
  3. Choose the board type (Local, Cloud, or Community)
  4. Set a descriptive title and detailed description
  5. Configure your starting URL
  6. Begin adding components to your board

For more detailed instructions on creating and managing components within boards, see our Component Tagging documentation.

Next Steps