Figma 2024: We shipped it, you shaped it | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)
Figma’s 2024 product work was driven by community feedback, spanning 180 releases, UI3, AI tools, performance improvements, and new workflows for moving from concept to delivery. The company’s central conclusion is that meaningful progress comes from reducing friction while preserving designers’ existing habits. Community input shaped both major launches and small refinements across Figma, FigJam, and Figma Slides. ## UI3: Putting the Work Front and Center - Figma redesigned its interface for the first time substantially since 2019, updating typography, layout, colors, icons, labeling, and panel behavior. - Early UI3 testing revealed that floating panels disrupted users’ speed and daily workflows. - Based on feedback, panels became docked and resizable, while users could hide panels to maximize canvas space. - The eyedropper was upgraded to reuse styles and variables, switch between color formats, and create new styles or variables. ## Improving Core Design Workflows - Multi-edit simplified making changes across multiple designs. - Typography improvements added support for italic, bold, underline, underline styling, mixed paragraph spacing, and better local-font detection. - File organization improved through pinning, enhanced search filters, page dividers, and split tabs. - Drafts, content transfers, and file-moving workflows became easier for teams working across organizations. - “Suggest Auto Layout” helped users make designs more responsive. - Figma also introduced playful retro cursors inspired by DOS, Y2K, skeuomorphism, and Windows Vista. ## Performance, Collaboration, and Administration - Dynamic page loading made large design files more manageable. - Memory optimization and a revamped memory-management system improved performance in large files. - Multiplayer collaboration became smoother and more reliable. - Admin tools received new sidebar navigation and a dedicated content-management tab. - Infrastructure improvements included EU-localized file hosting, better support for large asset libraries, and stronger Enterprise security controls. ## AI Features That Reduce Friction - Visual search lets users find designs by uploading an image or selecting part of the canvas. - Asset search understands context instead of relying only on exact component names. - AI-assisted layer renaming improves file organization. - Replace Text Content generates realistic copy, while Rewrite, Translate, and Shorten help revise text. - Make an Image enables image creation and editing directly on the canvas, and Remove Background isolates subjects without requiring another tool. - FigJam’s AI mindmaps became a popular way to explore ideas and visualize connections. - Figma AI can turn a FigJam board into a Figma Slides outline and generate presenter notes. - First Draft, formerly Make Designs, was redesigned to help users move from an idea to an initial design. It was in limited beta, with planned support for custom libraries and deeper integration with existing design systems. ## Moving from Work in Progress to Shipping - Figma continued expanding tools intended to connect design work with development and presentation. - Dev Mode and Code Connect aimed to reduce developer context switching by translating design components into code. - Figma Slides supported creating high-fidelity presentations, extending Figma’s workflow beyond interface design. - The broader goal was to help teams move more smoothly from early concepts to implementation and delivery. ## Community-Led Product Development - Figma reported 10,000 Config attendees and more than 220 Friends of Figma groups worldwide. - Product decisions were shaped through beta testing, user conversations, and feedback from individual designers and organizations. - The company emphasized thoughtful AI development: AI should help express ideas and remove tedious work without replacing designers’ judgment. - Community members influenced both flagship features such as UI3 and First Draft and smaller quality-of-life improvements. Figma’s 2024 updates show a strategy focused on practical acceleration rather than novelty alone: improve the fundamentals, apply AI where it removes real friction, and build stronger bridges between design, development, and presentation. For teams, the most valuable improvements are likely the cumulative ones—better organization, faster search, stronger performance, and workflows shaped directly by how people already work.