Toplist
- Mistakes
- Fixes
Toplist
- Mistakes
- Fixes
Toplist
- Mistakes
- Fixes
These 4 Mistakes Keep Dragging Your Framer Sites Down
In this blog, we’ll go over four common mistakes that can make your Framer sites feel clunky, inconsistent, or just a little off. More importantly, we’ll go over how to fix them… Fast.
Posted by
Nandi
Table of contents
1. Overriding bounce causes color flashing
You know that nice bouncy animation Framer adds to transitions? It looks smooth when moving elements, but it can backfire if you’re not careful.
When you have a component that transitions between two states, Framer’s bounce curve doesn’t just affect position. It also affects color changes. That means when you switch from one variant to another, your background or icons might “overshoot” the intended color, flashing red or darker shades before settling into place.
1. Overriding bounce causes color flashing
You know that nice bouncy animation Framer adds to transitions? It looks smooth when moving elements, but it can backfire if you’re not careful.
When you have a component that transitions between two states, Framer’s bounce curve doesn’t just affect position. It also affects color changes. That means when you switch from one variant to another, your background or icons might “overshoot” the intended color, flashing red or darker shades before settling into place.
1. Overriding bounce causes color flashing
You know that nice bouncy animation Framer adds to transitions? It looks smooth when moving elements, but it can backfire if you’re not careful.
When you have a component that transitions between two states, Framer’s bounce curve doesn’t just affect position. It also affects color changes. That means when you switch from one variant to another, your background or icons might “overshoot” the intended color, flashing red or darker shades before settling into place.
Overriding bounce causes color flashing.
Overriding bounce causes color flashing.
Overriding bounce causes color flashing.
The fix:
Separate the elements that need bounce from those that don’t. For example, if your toggle switch circle should bounce but your background shouldn’t, move them into separate frames.
Apply the bounce transition only to the moving circle, and set the background transition’s bounce to 0. This way, your animations stay smooth, without the awkward color flicker.
2. Not updating the primary variant
This one catches almost everyone. Let’s say you’re working on a hover animation. You create two variants — “default” and “hover.” You hide the text in the default state and make it visible on hover. Then you tweak the text style in the hover variant (font, size, etc.).
It looks perfect, until you preview it. Suddenly, the text jumps between fonts and sizes when transitioning back to default. Why?
Because the primary variant still holds the old font and size. When you change styling only on the hover state, Framer still animates between both versions.
How to fix it:
Always make design and typography changes on the primary (default) variant, not just the hover. Or, if you’ve already made changes on another variant, right-click that variant and choose “Update Primary.”
That pushes your current styling back to the main variant so all your animations stay consistent.
Always keep your primary variant up to date.
3. Misaligned navigation layouts
You’ve centered your navbar, or so you think. But when you look closely, the links aren’t actually centered. The right side looks heavier because your button or icon has more width than the logo on the left.
This happens when your navigation uses “Space Between” distribution. It aligns items to the left, center, and right. However it doesn’t account for uneven element widths.
The fix:
Wrap your logo and your button in their own stacks, and set both stacks to Width: Fill. Then, align your navigation content to center instead of space-between.
This ensures that both sides take up equal space, perfectly centering your links. So no more lopsided layouts.
4. Layout jumping with accordions
This one’s subtle but ruins the feel of your site instantly.
When you have accordions or expanding sections that suddenly “push” everything below them, it creates an ugly jump effect — especially when your footer leaps up and down.
The solution:
Use the Layout Jump Preventer component.
The fix:
Separate the elements that need bounce from those that don’t. For example, if your toggle switch circle should bounce but your background shouldn’t, move them into separate frames.
Apply the bounce transition only to the moving circle, and set the background transition’s bounce to 0. This way, your animations stay smooth, without the awkward color flicker.
2. Not updating the primary variant
This one catches almost everyone. Let’s say you’re working on a hover animation. You create two variants — “default” and “hover.” You hide the text in the default state and make it visible on hover. Then you tweak the text style in the hover variant (font, size, etc.).
It looks perfect, until you preview it. Suddenly, the text jumps between fonts and sizes when transitioning back to default. Why?
Because the primary variant still holds the old font and size. When you change styling only on the hover state, Framer still animates between both versions.
How to fix it:
Always make design and typography changes on the primary (default) variant, not just the hover. Or, if you’ve already made changes on another variant, right-click that variant and choose “Update Primary.”
That pushes your current styling back to the main variant so all your animations stay consistent.
Always keep your primary variant up to date.
3. Misaligned navigation layouts
You’ve centered your navbar, or so you think. But when you look closely, the links aren’t actually centered. The right side looks heavier because your button or icon has more width than the logo on the left.
This happens when your navigation uses “Space Between” distribution. It aligns items to the left, center, and right. However it doesn’t account for uneven element widths.
The fix:
Wrap your logo and your button in their own stacks, and set both stacks to Width: Fill. Then, align your navigation content to center instead of space-between.
This ensures that both sides take up equal space, perfectly centering your links. So no more lopsided layouts.
4. Layout jumping with accordions
This one’s subtle but ruins the feel of your site instantly.
When you have accordions or expanding sections that suddenly “push” everything below them, it creates an ugly jump effect — especially when your footer leaps up and down.
The solution:
Use the Layout Jump Preventer component.
The fix:
Separate the elements that need bounce from those that don’t. For example, if your toggle switch circle should bounce but your background shouldn’t, move them into separate frames.
Apply the bounce transition only to the moving circle, and set the background transition’s bounce to 0. This way, your animations stay smooth, without the awkward color flicker.
2. Not updating the primary variant
This one catches almost everyone. Let’s say you’re working on a hover animation. You create two variants — “default” and “hover.” You hide the text in the default state and make it visible on hover. Then you tweak the text style in the hover variant (font, size, etc.).
It looks perfect, until you preview it. Suddenly, the text jumps between fonts and sizes when transitioning back to default. Why?
Because the primary variant still holds the old font and size. When you change styling only on the hover state, Framer still animates between both versions.
How to fix it:
Always make design and typography changes on the primary (default) variant, not just the hover. Or, if you’ve already made changes on another variant, right-click that variant and choose “Update Primary.”
That pushes your current styling back to the main variant so all your animations stay consistent.
Always keep your primary variant up to date.
3. Misaligned navigation layouts
You’ve centered your navbar, or so you think. But when you look closely, the links aren’t actually centered. The right side looks heavier because your button or icon has more width than the logo on the left.
This happens when your navigation uses “Space Between” distribution. It aligns items to the left, center, and right. However it doesn’t account for uneven element widths.
The fix:
Wrap your logo and your button in their own stacks, and set both stacks to Width: Fill. Then, align your navigation content to center instead of space-between.
This ensures that both sides take up equal space, perfectly centering your links. So no more lopsided layouts.
4. Layout jumping with accordions
This one’s subtle but ruins the feel of your site instantly.
When you have accordions or expanding sections that suddenly “push” everything below them, it creates an ugly jump effect — especially when your footer leaps up and down.
The solution:
Use the Layout Jump Preventer component.
Layout jump preventer.
Layout jump preventer.
Layout jump preventer.
Just copy it to your clipboard, paste it inside your expanding component, and set the direction (usually vertical for accordions).
It’s invisible but automatically smooths out layout transitions so everything flows naturally instead of snapping.
Wrapping up
Each of these mistakes might seem small, but together they can make a massive difference in how professional your site feels.
Keep your bounce transitions under control
Update your primary variant regularly
Balance your nav layout with equal stacks
And stop layout jumping dead in its tracks
Follow these and your Framer sites will instantly feel cleaner, smoother, and more premium.
Just copy it to your clipboard, paste it inside your expanding component, and set the direction (usually vertical for accordions).
It’s invisible but automatically smooths out layout transitions so everything flows naturally instead of snapping.
Wrapping up
Each of these mistakes might seem small, but together they can make a massive difference in how professional your site feels.
Keep your bounce transitions under control
Update your primary variant regularly
Balance your nav layout with equal stacks
And stop layout jumping dead in its tracks
Follow these and your Framer sites will instantly feel cleaner, smoother, and more premium.
Just copy it to your clipboard, paste it inside your expanding component, and set the direction (usually vertical for accordions).
It’s invisible but automatically smooths out layout transitions so everything flows naturally instead of snapping.
Wrapping up
Each of these mistakes might seem small, but together they can make a massive difference in how professional your site feels.
Keep your bounce transitions under control
Update your primary variant regularly
Balance your nav layout with equal stacks
And stop layout jumping dead in its tracks
Follow these and your Framer sites will instantly feel cleaner, smoother, and more premium.
