Balancing exciting new releases with ongoing improvements is a challenge every product development team faces. While flashy, headline-grabbing updates often steal the spotlight, enhancing the core user experience is just as critical.
At Knapsack, we understand that, and we’ve been hard at work over the past few months focusing on just that—fine-tuning our platform based on your feedback. We've tackled a long list of improvements to make your day-to-day smoother and more efficient. Read on to discover all the ways we've made getting work done even easier!
Layout Improvements
We've made significant strides in improving the layout and overall user experience with our latest updates. From tightening up the user interface to creating more flexible content layouts, we've worked to make every interaction smoother and more efficient.
- Stage UI: A cleaner, more consolidated interface to keep your workspace organized.
- Slot Layout Options: More control over spacing and margins for flexible content layouts.
UX/UI Enhancements
Our user interface and experience have undergone a thoughtful overhaul with usability in mind. We've made a series of improvements, from introducing loading indicators for patterns to refining text editors and code snippets. Navigation has also become more intuitive, making it easier to jump between content and link to specific sections. Our efforts extend to mobile layouts and dropdown improvements, creating a more responsive and refined experience across all devices. A notable highlight is the new block type that allows teams to upload their own videos directly, adding more versatility to your workspace.
- Loading Bars for Patterns: Clearer visual cues when the system is processing.
- Improved Text Editors & Expandable Code Snippets: A better, more flexible editing experience.
- Easier Navigation: Jump between sections with enhanced mid-page links and smarter template staging that adapts to content height.
- Mobile & Dropdown UI Enhancements: Optimized mobile layouts and updated dropdowns for a seamless experience on any device.
- New Video Block: Upload videos directly to your workspace for more versatile documentation.
Better Render support
Rendering is faster, smarter, and more compatible with your favorite tools. We've updated our support for Vue, Angular, and Web Components, ensuring better compatibility with modern libraries and standalone modules. New features like improved file support and caching ensure a more efficient and seamless rendering process for all types of components, taking the headache out of building and maintaining component libraries.
- Improved/updated Vue renderer
- Improved/updated Angular renderer: Support for standalone libraries and modules
- Improved/updated Web Components renderer: Lit components support
- Infer Spec and Template Suggestions now works for Web Components
- Vue + React Renderers: Better support .mjs and .cjs files
- Knapsack renderer caching backend is now faster and more robust
Command Search
Efficiency is at the heart of our command search improvements. We've optimized Pattern Admin Search to help users find exactly what they need faster, and our help documentation has been updated to make sure you're never more than a click away from answers.
- Pattern Admin Search: Quickly locate patterns and documentation with improved search functionality
Help Doc Updates
Our help documentation has been enhanced to streamline your workflow when publishing content. The updated Publishing Workflow guide now includes step-by-step instructions on how to manage changes, request reviews, and publish effectively, ensuring best practices are followed throughout. This improvement helps users navigate the publishing process more confidently, segment changes into commits, and maintain consistency. Our goal is to make content management intuitive and efficient, empowering users with the tools they need for a smooth publishing experience.
Tokens
Our design token system has seen multiple upgrades, adding flexibility and stability to your workflow. You can now reset static or reference fields after editing and enjoy better performance when importing Figma variables. We've also improved the color variable previews, making it easier to visualize changes before committing your updates.
- Reset Static or Reference Fields: After editing, fields can now be easily reset.
- Figma Variable Imports: Smoother performance when importing variables from Figma.
- Color Previews: Preview color variables before committing changes, making it easier to visualize adjustments.
Figma Integration
We’ve enhanced our Figma integration to make managing your design source files more intuitive and secure. Streamlined import processes and deletion protection are just a few of the ways we're making it easier to maintain consistency and protect your design work.
- Streamlined Figma Imports: Simplified and faster import processes.
- Design Source Deletion Protection: Improved clarity and protection when managing your Figma files.
That’s a lot of updates! If you want to see these improvements in action and talk to our product team directly, sign up for our product updates webinar on October 23rd. And don’t forget, we LOVE feedback, so let us know what features and enhancements you want to see our team tackle next.
