A well-organized workspace is essential for any design team. By thoughtfully structuring your projects and folders, you can help everyone quickly find what they need—no more digging through messy directories or wondering if you’re looking at the latest version.
In this guide, we’ll walk through best practices for setting up your LottieFiles platform. You’ll learn how to invite the right people, assign proper roles, and structure your folders so that the entire team, from designers to developers, can work more efficiently.
Inviting your team and setting roles
Before you start building your folder system, think about who actually needs access to your workspace. Consider the following questions:
- Who creates the animations?
For example, your motion designers, product designers, or visual designers. These team members likely need full editing capabilities and will be central to maintaining your content library. - Who approves the animations?
Perhaps marketers, product leads, or design managers need to review and sign off on work before it’s finalized. - Who uses the animations downstream?
This might include developers integrating animations into apps or sites, or stakeholders who want to quickly preview and reference animations without editing them.
In LottieFiles, roles and permissions help streamline collaboration:
- Owner: The primary leader of the workspace, with full control over access and settings.
- Admin: Managers memebers and all content within the workspace.
- Editor: Can manage all animations within the workspace.
- Developer: Can view and download all animations within the workspace.
- Viewer: Can only view animations in your workspace.
Not sure if someone should join your workspace? Think about their involvement in the animation lifecycle. If they’re hands-on—creating, reviewing, or integrating—invite them. If they just need a peek at certain animations, you can share individual files instead of adding them to the entire workspace.
Sharing individual animations without workspace access
Like mentioned earlier, sometimes, you might need to share an animation with a client or stakeholder who shouldn’t see everything else in your workspace. Instead of inviting them in, simply share a link to a specific animation. This way, you maintain full control over what they see without exposing other projects.
How to organize my project folders?
Within your workspace, you will find two areas: a project section and a collection section.
- Collections in LottieFiles work a bit like Pinterest boards—quick, visual ways to gather and present animations that already exist in your projects and folders. They’re great for creating mood boards, presenting ideas to stakeholders, or highlighting specific sets of animations without rearranging your core folder structure.
- Projects are where the majority of your team’s active work happens. Think of them as the main containers where you store and manage animations related to ongoing initiatives. A project might represent a product line, a specific campaign, a platform release, or a client engagement, depending on your chosen organizational strategy.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to structuring your folders within these spaces. Every team and organization's Lottie platform will have unique workflows, priorities, and output. The goal is to create a system that feels intuitive and sustainable over the long term—one that helps your team find what they need, when they need it, with minimal friction. Consider blending a few of these strategies or experimenting over time to see what works best.
By product
Ideal for:
- Companies offering multiple distinct products, features, or services
- Teams that need to maintain a clear boundary between product lines
How it works:
Organizing folders by product makes sense when each product or service within your organization has its own unique set of animations. For example, imagine a company like Grab, which goes beyond ride-hailing to offer services like GrabFood, GrabExpress, and GrabPay. By creating a separate folder for each product line, you’re effectively giving every sub-team its own design “territory,” making it easier to maintain focus, ensure consistency, and streamline the workflow.
Key benefits:
- Clarity for cross-functional teams: Designers, developers, and stakeholders working on GrabFood animations know exactly where to look for relevant assets —they go straight to the GrabFood folder.
- Contextual design decisions: Each product’s animations can align more closely with its unique brand voice, user journeys, and design patterns.
- Scalability: As products evolve and new features launch, simply add or reorganize subfolders within each product’s main folder. This modular approach allows your folder structure to grow organically with your business.
By platform
Ideal for:
- Teams building platform-specific animations (e.g., Web vs. Mobile)
- Organizations that maintain separate design systems or codebases for each platform
How it works:
If you have different teams or design patterns for iOS, Android, Web, or even tablet and plugin integrations, sorting by platform ensures that each group knows exactly where to go. Start with top-level folders labeled by platform, then add subfolders for individual products, features, or app versions as needed.
Key benefits:
- Faster developer handoffs: Developers looking for the latest iOS animations don’t have to wade through assets meant for Web—they can jump straight into the appropriate folder.
- Consistent platform-specific styles: Design elements that differ between platforms—like navigation patterns or interaction styles—stay neatly contained within their respective folders. This helps maintain consistency and reduces confusion
By function
Ideal for:
- Teams that reuse the same types of animations (e.g., loading spinners, success messages, error states) across multiple products or platforms
- Organizations aiming for a consistent brand language and animation style library
How it works:
Instead of dividing by product or platform, you group animations by their purpose or function—like “Onboarding Animations,” “UI Transitions,” “Marketing Banners,” or “Branding Elements.” This approach shines when your team wants to maintain a flexible design system that can be applied widely, ensuring that the same loading animation is reused across your entire product portfolio.
Key benefits:
- Reduced duplication: Rather than remaking a loading animation for every new platform or product, you have a single go-to folder where the canonical version lives.
- Consistent brand experience: By reusing the same set of functional animations, you keep users’ experience coherent and on-brand, no matter where they encounter your product.
- Streamlined updates: When it’s time to refresh a particular animation (like a new brand color or updated illustration style), you only need to do it once. All places where the animation is embedded will be updated immediately.
4. By client or project
Ideal for:
- Agencies or consultancies working on distinct projects for different clients
- Organizations that manage multiple independent initiatives in parallel
How it works:
If your company operates like an agency—producing animations for clients that are usually kept separate—organizing by client can simplify your workflow. Each client gets their own top-level folder, and you can add project-specific subfolders beneath it. This ensures that any given client’s animations are contained and easy to locate without risking accidental mixing of different projects.
Key benefits:
- Clear boundaries: Client A’s animations never get confused with Client B’s, which helps avoid mix-ups and accidental sharing of proprietary content.
- Straightforward permissions: If a client needs to review their animations, you can easily share animations with that folder.
- Project-based workflows: As a project concludes, you can archive the entire folder without affecting your ongoing work for other clients by labeling it as done or moving it into a different folder.
Bonus Tips: Test Folders & Iteration
No matter which approach you choose, it’s a good idea to maintain a dedicated “Test” folder. This can be a space for experimentation—where designers, illustrators, and animators try out new techniques without cluttering finalized work. Think of it as a sandbox: once an idea is polished and finalized, move it into the appropriate folder in your main structure.
Suggestions for using a Test folder:
- By Team or Designer: Give each team member their own subfolder for experiments, so they can explore freely.
- By Project or Style: Create a test folder for each project or style exploration, letting you quickly compare different concepts side by side.
This “Test” area can evolve as your team grows more comfortable with the platform and refines your organizational strategy over time.
Conclusion
Your team’s workspace is more than just a digital filing cabinet—it’s a living, breathing environment where your designs, ideas, and experiments come together. By taking the time to thoughtfully structure your LottieFiles workspace, you’ll make it easier for everyone to stay aligned and productive.
Key takeaways:
- Start with people and roles: Invite the right contributors to your workspace and assign roles that match their responsibilities.
- Find the right organizational system: Choose (or combine) methods that fit your workflow—by product, platform, function, or client.
- Use collections to curate content: Collections provide an easy way to highlight certain animations or themes without disrupting your folder structure.
- Leave room for experimentation: A “Test” folder encourages innovation while keeping your main workspace clean and focused.
By implementing these principles, you’ll reduce confusion, speed up design and development work, and foster a more collaborative, transparent culture. As your team and projects evolve, don’t hesitate to revisit and refine your folder structure. A well-organized workspace isn’t just about tidy files; it’s about empowering your team to do their best work together.
