figmaMay 22, 2026

What Matters When Anyone Can Build | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

AI has made building products faster and more accessible, but speed alone no longer creates an advantage. When anyone can ship, the differentiators become choosing the right direction and shaping the result with care. Figma’s Yuhki Yamashita argues that strong teams combine rapid exploration, deliberate decision-making, and relentless craft. ## Choosing What’s Worth Building - The abundance of possible ideas makes it easy to commit prematurely to the first promising concept. - Iterating deeply on one idea can become “local hill-climbing,” refining a path without questioning whether it is the right one. - AI tools can worsen tunnel vision by accelerating a chosen direction without challenging its assumptions. - Traditional strategic methods, such as MECE option mapping, encourage breadth but can remain too abstract to create conviction. - A stronger approach combines breadth and depth: - Explore several distinct directions in parallel. - Turn each direction into a realistic, end-to-end interactive prototype. - Compare actual user experiences rather than abstract diagrams or wireframes. - Invite teammates and AI agents to react and build on ideas collectively. - This creates a more collaborative, parallel way of working instead of a siloed, sequential process. ## Making the Product Yours - AI-generated products tend to converge on familiar patterns and statistically likely solutions. - “Good enough” becomes easy to produce and easy to accept, creating interchangeable products. - The main danger is passivity: accepting the first convincing result because it looks polished. - Craft requires active judgment: - Question every decision. - Revisit and refine multiple times. - Remove unnecessary elements. - Push beyond the first few acceptable versions. - Develop a distinct point of view. - As AI raises the baseline quality of products, differentiation will come less from tools or execution speed and more from the care and intention behind the final result. ## What Matters Now - The essential capabilities are **speed, direction, and craft**. - The best teams do not treat these as competing priorities: - They move quickly. - They choose deliberately. - They refine relentlessly. - In a world where nearly anything can be built, the lasting advantage lies in deciding what deserves to exist and shaping it into something distinctive.

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figmaApr 21, 2026

How AI Leaders Are Borrowing From the Design Playbook | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

AI transformation requires more than deploying new tools; it requires redesigning how organizations work. Figma argues that the most effective AI leaders adopt design practices—hands-on experimentation, close observation of workflows, and rapid prototyping—to turn adoption and innovation into meaningful business change. ## AI Leadership as Organizational Design - New AI innovation and acceleration roles are emerging to improve workflows, speed product launches, and expand tool adoption. - These leaders often coordinate AI strategy across product, support, internal operations, and technology investments. - A major risk is “performative progress”: adopting tools for appearances without changing the underlying systems and processes. - Effective leaders connect technology, teams, workflows, and business outcomes. ## Learn the Material by Using It Yourself - Leaders need firsthand experience with AI tools rather than relying only on strategic or executive-level perspectives. - Prompting, building agents, and experimenting across different tools reveals practical limitations, trade-offs, and adoption barriers. - Personal projects—such as planning travel, organizing events, or managing volunteer work—can provide low-risk opportunities to develop AI fluency. - Leaders cannot effectively guide organizations through probabilistic technologies without understanding how those technologies behave in real situations. ## Observe How Teams Actually Work - Understanding AI use across the business requires studying workflows, not just tools and their outputs. - Useful signals include Slack discussions, survey responses, usage patterns, frustrations, and points where employees get stuck. - An automation may appear successful technically but fail because it adds friction to an already complicated process. - When adoption stalls, teams may be routing around the official solution and creating unofficial alternatives; observing this behavior helps identify the real problem. ## Turn Ideas Into Prototypes - Ideas often fail because teams cannot visualize or evaluate them, not because the ideas themselves are flawed. - Prototyping converts abstract AI concepts into tangible experiences that teams can discuss and test. - Tools such as Figma Make can help leaders and teams explore concepts quickly and make early possibilities easier to understand. - Design combines observation with action: leaders should learn from real behavior, then use prototypes to test potential solutions. AI leaders should therefore combine technical curiosity with design discipline: use the tools personally, study how people work, and prototype proposed changes before attempting broad implementation.

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figmaSep 8, 2025

How to Harness Skills That AI Can’t Automate | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Great products require more than AI-generated functionality; they depend on human craft, including curiosity, intuition, taste, and intention. AI accelerates prototyping and iteration, but people must decide what questions to ask, when to expand the scope, and whether an experience truly resonates. The article argues that these uniquely human skills are essential for steering AI toward thoughtful, high-quality outcomes. ## Curiosity: Starting from First Principles - Curiosity means asking “why” and “what if,” exploring multiple directions, and validating ideas through iteration. - Tools such as Figma Make, Claude, and ChatGPT make it faster to generate prototypes, campaign concepts, and alternative approaches. - AI can expand possibilities within a prompt, but it cannot independently challenge the original scope, follow an unexpected hunch, or recognize that a tangent deserves deeper investigation. - Early exploration improves confidence and reduces rework: - Figma designer Natasha Tenggoro used Figma Make to test video-playback concepts for Figma Buzz. - Prototyping exposed edge cases, clarified feasibility, and helped engineers understand the feature before implementation. - Curiosity can also lead to valuable scope expansion: - While designing icons for four new Figma products, Tim Van Damme realized the existing icon family needed a broader redesign. - He explored hundreds of variations and redesigned the suite for greater consistency, distinctiveness, scalability, and a unified Figma identity. ## Intuition: Following a Feeling - AI can help bring products to market quickly, but it cannot determine what will emotionally or practically resonate with customers. - Human designers can recognize when an interaction feels confusing even if it technically works. - Intuition may also identify qualitative improvements—such as adding white space to a crowded layout—that are difficult to express as strict requirements. - Eliel Johnson of CVS Health describes design as an active practice centered on asking whether an experience “feels good,” not merely whether it satisfies functional constraints. The practical lesson is to use AI for speed and breadth while reserving human judgment for direction, exploration, emotional resonance, and quality. Human craft is what turns technically workable output into a product people genuinely value.

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figmaApr 1, 2025

Why Design is for Everyone | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Design is presented not as a discipline owned by professional designers, but as a shared way of solving problems and communicating ideas. As technology evolved from physical products like Sony’s Walkman to software and digital interfaces, design became increasingly central to usability, accessibility, and product success. The author argues that organizations achieve better products and systems when design knowledge is shared across teams rather than confined to a single department. ## Design as a shared practice - Design is described as: - A tool for solving problems - A mindset for approaching challenges - A framework for communicating and developing ideas - Professional designers may identify strongly with the discipline, but design should remain accessible to everyone. - Observing hundreds of teams and thousands of individuals led the author to conclude that individual expertise has limits. - Teams equipped with shared design knowledge can create: - Better user experiences - More effective processes - Stronger organizational systems - The future of design is therefore organization-wide, built through a design-driven culture rather than isolated design departments. ## Design through technological change - Design evolves alongside technology, helping transform technical possibilities into products people can understand and use. - Its role extends beyond appearance: design bridges the gap between prototypes and market-ready experiences. ## The Walkman: engineering combined with user-centered design - Sony’s 1979 portable stereo began with engineering advances from the Pressman tape recorder. - Engineers made the device smaller and lighter, removed recording functionality, and improved sound quality. - Design was essential to the Walkman’s widespread adoption: - User testing shaped its intuitive interface. - Field research identified ways to improve portability and usability. - Dual headphone jacks supported shared listening. - The “hotline” button allowed users to talk while listening. - Its distinctive blue-and-silver body and orange button differentiated it from conventional black, gray, and white electronics. - The Walkman illustrates how engineering, interface design, accessibility, user research, and design thinking can combine to create a cultural icon. ## The rise of interface design - By the mid-2000s, industry attention shifted from hardware toward the software that powered devices. - Apple’s products demonstrated that hardware alone was insufficient; interfaces, touch interactions, haptics, and software usability were equally important. - The App Store created a new mobile-software economy and intensified competition around digital experiences. - Web 2.0 and mobile apps accelerated investment in software and helped establish new technology companies. - Software expanded interface design beyond the constraints of physical controls, enabling more powerful and flexible interaction models. ## Digital-native interfaces - Early digital products often used skeuomorphism, imitating familiar physical objects such as buttons, sliders, and scroll wheels. - These visual metaphors helped users understand unfamiliar digital interfaces by connecting them to established physical experiences. Design works best when it is treated as a shared organizational capability. Giving non-designers a seat at the table allows teams to apply user-centered thinking to products, processes, and systems at scale.

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figmaMar 3, 2025

Why Everyone Can (and Should) Be a Great Storyteller | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

The article argues that storytelling and writing are not specialized talents reserved for professional writers; they are skills anyone can develop. Clear communication helps turn technical ideas, product plans, and design decisions into shared understanding and action. The difference between “good” and “bad” writers is largely practice, feedback, and willingness to revise—not innate ability. ## Why Storytelling Matters at Work - Strong products, designs, and ideas depend on people who can explain: - Why something should exist - Who it serves - How it improves people’s lives - Writing helps teams bridge the gap between imagination and execution. - At Figma, engineers write technical proposals, designers explain their decisions, and product managers create PRDs to align teams. - Companies such as Microsoft and Slack also use writing to encourage deep thinking, clear communication, and buy-in. ## Challenging the “Bad Writer” Myth - Many people mistake their rough first drafts for the polished writing they read elsewhere. - Every writer begins with imperfect work; improvement comes through: - Feedback - Editing - Deliberate practice - Writing is described as organized thinking: putting ideas on paper can clarify problems and lead to better decisions. - The ability to think clearly is a foundation for becoming a better writer. ## Overcoming the Blank Page - Speaking an idea aloud or explaining it to someone else can reveal a clearer, more natural structure. - Reading widely—including books, magazines, product packaging, and online discussions—helps develop writing ability. - Leslie Lamport’s observation captures the central lesson: without writing, people may only think they are thinking. The practical recommendation is to treat writing as a learnable muscle: read often, write imperfect drafts, seek feedback, and use storytelling to make ideas understandable and actionable.

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figmaMar 19, 2024

AI + Design: Figma Users Tell Us What’s Coming Next | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Generative AI’s impact will depend not only on technical capability but also on how effectively it is designed into products and everyday workflows. A Figma survey of more than 1,800 designers, developers, and executives shows high expectations for AI, but limited evidence that current implementations are delivering meaningful value. The findings point to a risk of “AI feature fatigue” and suggest that thoughtful, user-centered design will determine whether AI becomes genuinely useful. ## Survey Scope and Methodology - Figma surveyed more than 1,800 users between February 26 and March 3, 2024. - Participants included designers, developers, and executives across the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Japan, France, and Germany. - The research examines how organizations view AI’s near-term impact and how teams are incorporating it into products. ## High Expectations, Limited Results - 89% of respondents expect AI to affect their company’s products or services within 12 months. - 37% anticipate a “significant or transformative” impact. - Executives are especially likely to view AI as important to company goals. - Despite this optimism, 72% of people whose products include AI say it has only a minor or non-essential role. - Only about one-third report improvements in business metrics such as revenue, costs, or market share. - Fewer than one-third say they are proud of what they have shipped. ## The Risk of AI Feature Fatigue - Figma researchers observed growing indifference toward adding “yet another AI feature.” - More than 20% of teams building AI products identify failure to solve a real user need as a major challenge. - This concern is particularly strong among designers. - Fewer than half of respondents working on AI products or features have shipped anything, indicating that a larger wave of AI products may still be coming. - Organizations risk flooding the market with novelty features that users do not find useful. ## Designing AI Into Existing Products - One-third of respondents rank integrating AI coherently into existing products as a top challenge. - Simply adding AI without improving the overall user experience is unlikely to drive adoption. - Teams need to help users understand: - What AI tools are available - When those tools are useful - How AI improves existing workflows - The article uses ChatGPT as an example: its rapid adoption was driven partly by a simple, accessible conversational interface, even though the underlying model capabilities already existed. - Good design can make powerful technology more approachable, aligned with user expectations, and easier to use. ## Practical Implication AI products are more likely to succeed when they address concrete user problems rather than adding AI for its own sake. Organizations should prioritize coherent product integration, clear user experiences, and measurable improvements over ambitious but disconnected features.

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figmaJan 25, 2024

Six Myths Holding You Back from Embracing Design Systems | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Design systems are not reserved for large companies or teams with advanced design practices. Figma argues that the best system is practical, goal-oriented, and tailored to an organization’s brand, users, and needs—not copied from industry trends or famous examples. By challenging common assumptions, teams can adopt design systems more confidently and incrementally. ## Design Systems Benefit Teams of All Sizes - Small organizations can use design systems to improve efficiency, consistency, and collaboration. - The system’s scale and appearance may vary, but its core purpose remains the same. - Mixpanel’s redesign is cited as an example of using a design system to reduce costs, improve consistency, and make analytics more accessible. ## A Design System Does Not Need Every New Technique - Design trends change constantly, and no single approach is universally correct. - Teams should learn from industry practices without becoming distracted by building a “perfect” or fashionable system. - A useful design system should serve clear organizational goals rather than imitate the latest trends. ## Material Design Is Not a Universal Solution - Google’s Material Design is influential, but it is not automatically suitable for every organization. - Design systems should reflect a company’s brand identity, user needs, and business objectives. - Teams should balance established standards with solutions appropriate to their current context. - Examples such as Uber Base, Spotify Backstage, Pipedrive, Microsoft Teams, and Salesforce Lightning demonstrate that successful systems can differ significantly. ## You Do Not Have to Build Everything From Scratch - The article begins addressing the misconception that every design system must be created internally from the ground up. - Open-source design-system resources and existing UI kits can provide a starting point. - Reusing proven foundations can help teams move faster while adapting components to their own requirements. The practical recommendation is to start with the problems your team needs to solve, then adopt or create only the structure necessary to address them.

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figmaNov 12, 2023

Figma’s State of the Designer Report 2023 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Designers appear more satisfied and optimistic despite the disruption of the past three years. Figma’s survey of 470 designers in Europe and Asia–Pacific examines how remote and hybrid work have affected collaboration, productivity, career prospects, and fulfillment. Its central conclusion is that designers are adapting successfully, while the growing strategic importance of design is improving both morale and opportunity. ## Remote Work and Job Satisfaction - 69% of designers report greater job satisfaction than before the pandemic. - Individual contributors are especially positive: 82% say their satisfaction has improved. - Designers generally feel more in control of where and how they work. - Many believe their workflows and ability to create high-quality digital products have improved, even as remote work has become more common. - Group meetings and collaborative design practices are helping teams work together remotely. ## Design’s Growing Influence - Nearly five times as many designers feel more positive about the design profession as feel more negative. - Design is increasingly viewed as a business-wide way of thinking rather than a function limited to one department. - Visible support from CEOs and other executives reinforces designers’ sense that their work is strategically important. - Leaders who participate in design files, give direct feedback, and experience product development firsthand create stronger connections with design teams. ## Improved Career Prospects - 69% of respondents say their employment options have improved or greatly improved. - Designers are encouraged by organizations placing design at the center of product and business decisions. - The profession’s growing influence is changing how designers view their roles and future opportunities. The report suggests that remote collaboration and increased executive engagement have helped designers feel more satisfied, empowered, and optimistic. Organizations can build on this momentum by supporting flexible work, investing in collaborative practices, and treating design as a core part of business strategy.

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figmaSep 27, 2023

Figma and Google: Transforming education for Japan’s K-12 students | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma and Google for Education are expanding their partnership to give Japan’s K–12 schools free access to Figma and FigJam through Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education. The initiative aims to address students’ limited access to digital design tools and build skills in collaboration, visual communication, problem-solving, and creative expression. Districts can apply to deploy and manage Figma Enterprise licenses through Google’s admin console. ## Bringing Industry-Standard Design Tools to Japanese Schools - Japan has high household internet access, but digital design software is often restricted to computer labs or specific classrooms. - The partnership enables schools to provide Figma on students’ personal Chromebooks. - Schools can centrally manage Figma Enterprise licenses for free using Google’s administration tools. - Students can brainstorm, collaborate, prototype, and design with tools used in professional environments. ## Building Future-Ready Skills - Figma’s earlier US Chromebook partnership attracted applications from educators in all 50 states. - Students used Figma to: - Develop design concepts - Support nonprofit initiatives - Prototype apps for local government services - Teachers used FigJam for lesson plans, group projects, study guides, and interactive classroom activities. - Figma argues that design education strengthens complex problem-solving, collaboration, visual communication, and creative expression. - The company cites research linking strong design practices with faster revenue and shareholder-return growth. ## Supporting Japan’s Next Generation of Designers - Japan has a strong record of technological innovation, educational equity, and high graduation rates. - Despite these strengths, Japanese schools historically adopted computers more slowly than many other countries. - The government launched the GIGA School Program in 2019 to provide every student with a device and high-speed school connectivity. - Figma’s browser-based tools build on that infrastructure by adding accessible, collaborative design software to students’ devices. - Google describes the partnership as a way to expand creativity, collaboration, and opportunity for a new generation. Schools and districts in Japan can apply to bring Figma and FigJam into their classrooms, helping ensure that design and digital collaboration skills are available beyond specialized programs or computer labs.

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figmaSep 20, 2023

The Long and Short of It: Issue no.1 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s first editorial issue argues that personal and professional growth often comes from stepping outside conventional roles, metrics, and workflows. It highlights human creativity in an AI era, alternative career paths, unconventional organizational structures, and the danger of reducing work to easily measured outcomes. The overall conclusion is that progress requires embracing ambiguity, risk, and broader definitions of success. ## Human Creativity in the Age of AI - John Maeda argues that people remain valuable because they think in circuitous, non-linear ways. - Unlike machines optimized for efficiency and shortcuts, humans can make unexpected creative leaps. - This “uphill thinking” involves greater uncertainty and risk, but can produce greater rewards. - The accompanying discussion explores how designers can work with AI without abandoning distinctly human innovation. ## UX Design as a Second Chance - CROP, a California nonprofit, trains formerly incarcerated people for careers in UX design. - Its program uses Figma to provide practical skills and an alternative path into the technology industry. - Fellow Ron Scott, released after 27 years in prison, sees product design as a way to influence how people interact with technology. - The program also reflects a broader belief that more people should have a voice in shaping products and services. ## Challenging Conventional Product Roles - Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s Config talk described how he helped rescue Airbnb by emphasizing design and eliminating the traditional product management function. - The decision sparked debate about the relationship between designers and product managers. - Figma presents the issue less as a true rivalry than as an opportunity to question inherited workplace structures. - Industry leaders suggest that teams may benefit from abandoning rigid titles and recognizing that everyone is working toward the same goal. ## Rethinking Productivity and Perspective - The issue points to criticism from Gergely Orosz and Kent Beck of attempts to measure developer productivity through narrow, quantifiable outcomes. - It asks whether an apparently unproductive colleague might instead be judged by an inadequate definition of success. - A reference to filmmaker Wong Kar Wai reinforces the importance of framing: what is excluded from view can matter as much as what is visible. ## Making Space for Better Ideas - The closing reflection argues that conversational interfaces such as ChatGPT can confine thinking to “chat boxes.” - Product designer Aosheng Ran suggests that giving ideas more space could reveal possibilities missed by conventional text-based interaction. Figma’s issue recommends looking beyond labels, efficiency metrics, and established roles. In practice, that means protecting room for creative detours, evaluating work more thoughtfully, and using technology to expand—not narrow—human possibilities.

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figmaSep 14, 2023

Meet the nonprofit training formerly incarcerated people for careers in UX design | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

CROP Organization is a nonprofit helping formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives through holistic reentry support and UX design training. Its year-long Ready 4 Life program combines personal development, career preparation, employment services, and stable housing, using Figma to open pathways into tech. The organization argues that access to education, tools, mentorship, and opportunity can reduce recidivism and challenge assumptions about what formerly incarcerated people can achieve. ## CROP’s Mission and Ready 4 Life Program - Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP) was founded in Oakland by people with extensive personal experience of incarceration. - The organization addresses gaps in reentry services, where housing, employment, counseling, and other support are often fragmented. - Its Ready 4 Life program provides: - Personal development - Career training - Employment services - Stable housing - The first cohort included 12 fellows living in apartments on CROP’s West Oakland residential and training campus. - Fellows also receive personal coaches and a monthly stipend. ## Founding the Organization Through Lived Experience - CROP’s founders collectively spent roughly 100 years incarcerated. - After one founder’s release exposed serious weaknesses in existing reentry services, the group designed a more integrated, “wraparound” model. - Jason Bryant describes education as transformative; during 20 years in prison, he earned a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and certification as a drug and alcohol counselor. - CROP seeks to help participants build skills and stability rather than simply return them to disconnected support systems. ## UX Design as a Career Path - CROP trains fellows in UX design using Figma. - Instructor Alexis Bustos joined after five years as a UX designer because she wanted to make a direct contribution to diversity and inclusion in technology. - She sees fellows’ storytelling, problem-solving, and ability to connect with people as valuable strengths in UX. - According to Bustos, the fellows primarily need technical training and access to tools—not a fundamentally different set of abilities. ## Reducing Recidivism Through Opportunity - The program aims to help address California’s approximately 50% recidivism rate. - California spends about $106,000 per incarcerated person annually, while only 3.4% of that spending goes toward rehabilitation. - CROP says its program costs roughly half the per-person cost of incarceration. - In 2021, the organization secured a three-year, $28.5 million partnership with California after presenting its plans to Governor Gavin Newsom. ## Challenging Social Stigma - CROP’s broader mission is to demonstrate that formerly incarcerated people can transform their lives when given meaningful opportunities and resources. - The program combines practical support with professional development so fellows can envision futures beyond the limitations imposed by criminal records. - By preparing participants for careers in technology, CROP also seeks to create new entry points into an industry where formerly incarcerated people have historically had limited access. CROP’s approach suggests that successful reentry requires more than isolated services: stable housing, coaching, education, technical skills, and employment support must work together. Programs that pair this holistic foundation with real career opportunities can benefit both participants and the communities they return to.

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figmaAug 9, 2023

Navigating the intersection of design and business: a conversation with Airbnb’s Brian Chesky | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky argues that design should shape business strategy, not merely product appearance. He describes how Airbnb drifted from its design-led origins as it grew, becoming fragmented, experiment-heavy, and less innovative. By reconnecting with the principles of Apple’s design renaissance, Chesky began reconsidering how the company should be organized and led. ## Pulling Airbnb Back from the Brink of Failure - Airbnb was founded by two designers and an engineer, challenging conventional views that designers do not start companies. - Its original philosophy was to bring design into the boardroom and create a product that felt distinctive and meaningful. - By late 2019, Chesky feared Airbnb had become unrecognizable: - The company had roughly 10 divisions, each with numerous subdivisions. - Product managers and A/B testing dominated decision-making. - More employees and projects produced fewer visible product changes while increasing costs. - Chesky believed he had lost the courage required for creative leadership and that conventional corporate practices had displaced Airbnb’s founding vision. - The timing was especially difficult because Airbnb was preparing for its IPO, making major organizational changes risky. ## Rediscovering Design-Led Leadership - During the 2019 holiday season, Chesky met Hiroki Asai, a former Apple creative director, and Jony Ive, Apple’s former design leader. - Their perspective reminded him of the design-centered culture Steve Jobs had established at Apple. - Chesky began exploring whether Airbnb could return to a similarly integrated model, where design and creative judgment played a central role in how the company operated. ## Design’s Place in Business - Chesky suggests that designers are rarely elevated to CEO roles because businesses tend to favor scientific, analytical, and operational methods. - Creative work requires conviction and risk-taking, qualities that can weaken as organizations become larger and more bureaucratic. - His experience led him to question whether standard corporate structures are compatible with maintaining a company’s original creative vision. The excerpt presents Chesky’s central lesson: sustained growth can dilute a company’s founding principles unless leaders deliberately preserve design, courage, and customer-centered decision-making at the heart of the business.

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figmaJul 12, 2023

Paula Scher’s 10 Rules for Play | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Paula Scher argues that creative “play” comes from freeing the mind to make unexpected connections between existing ideas, not from inventing something completely original. Her approach combines deliberate mental wandering, exposure to history and other disciplines, supportive collaborations, and a willingness to reject trends. The goal is to create conditions where designers can experiment and initiate new directions. ## Creating Space for Ideas - Meet the client, understand the brief, then do a mindless task such as cleaning to clear mental space. - Look through design-history books broadly, without copying or bookmarking ideas; begin the project later. - Use boring or uncomfortable situations—waiting rooms, traffic, offline flights—as opportunities to sketch and let the mind wander. ## Building Conditions for Play - Nurture long-term relationships that allow creative freedom, such as Scher’s decades-long work with the New York Public Theater. - Maintain a healthy mix of projects, support the team, and encourage people to question assumptions. - Treat better work as a way to raise expectations and generate even better work. - Recognize that genuine opportunities to experiment are rare, and consider pro-bono or low-paid projects as spaces for discovery. ## Escaping Familiar Influences - Change tools and leave the computer behind. - Visit bookstores, museums, galleries, or shops, and explore disciplines unrelated to the current project. - Accept that all creative work is influenced by something else; originality comes partly from how influences are combined and from avoiding passing trends. - Avoid mood boards when they merely encourage producing a slightly altered version of existing marketplace styles. ## Starting New Directions - Initiate your own creative “cluster” by doing something daring. - Design trends often become ordinary when others imitate the first bold example, so innovation requires being willing to go first. Designers can cultivate play by creating distance from routine, seeking varied experiences, and protecting relationships and projects that enable experimentation rather than imitation.

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figmaJun 20, 2023

Figma & Chromebook expand to K12 and Japan | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma and Google for Education are expanding their Chromebook partnership to make Figma and FigJam freely available to all K–12 districts in the US, with Japan as the first international expansion. The initiative aims to give students industry-standard design and collaboration tools while helping educators create more visual, interactive learning experiences. Figma argues that the tools can improve technical skills, classroom engagement, confidence, inclusion, and students’ ability to express ideas. ## Expanding Figma access in schools - A beta program previously gave Figma and FigJam access to students in 50 US school districts. - The program included large urban districts and smaller rural districts. - Figma is now offering free access to all K–12 districts across the US. - Students of every age can use Figma on Chromebooks, including younger learners. - Districts can receive free Figma Enterprise access, giving administrators: - Greater control over school environments - Visibility into usage - Class-management features - Support for student safety - The Chromebook partnership is expanding globally, beginning with Google schools in Japan. ## Design tools as a foundation for future skills - Figma is intended to help students develop: - Problem-solving skills - Iterative thinking - Collaboration - Empathy - Its infinite canvas lets students combine diagrams, images, mind maps, videos, and other media. - Students can demonstrate understanding visually rather than relying only on traditional written assessments. - Beta participants created projects such as nonprofit design concepts and app prototypes for improving local government services. ## Reimagining classroom collaboration - Teachers used FigJam for lesson plans, group projects, study guides, and interactive curricula. - The tools created a shared space where students and educators could build learning experiences together. - Projects included prototypes, visual explanations, and other forms of digital storytelling. - Figma describes the impact as extending beyond academic work to classroom culture and students’ sense of belonging. ## Supporting student voices and inclusion - Teachers reported that quieter students became more confident expressing ideas in digital spaces. - Features such as sticky notes, comments, reactions, and other collaborative interactions gave introverted students more ways to participate. - Digital collaboration helped some students build connections after years of remote learning. - The visual and flexible format was especially valuable for neurodiverse students who may find traditional tools difficult. - One special education teacher reported improvements among autistic students in: - Social skills - Executive functioning - Self-regulation - Collaboration ## Encouraging engagement and creative learning - Teachers said students were more excited to attend class and engage with coursework. - Some students continued working on Figma projects at home. - Figma enabled alternative forms of assessment, including: - Infographics - Storyboards - Prototypes - The platform functions as a creative sandbox where students can construct and communicate their own understanding. - In some classrooms, previously disengaged students rediscovered interest in learning through design. Figma’s recommendation is to make collaborative, visual design tools a normal part of K–12 education. By combining broad Chromebook access, administrative controls, and flexible creative workflows, the company aims to help every student participate more actively and become better prepared for a digital future.

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figmaJun 29, 2022

Digital Design Is Now A Real Job | Figma | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Digital design has gained formal recognition as a distinct profession, reflecting its growing importance to businesses and everyday life. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics now separately tracks “web and digital interface designers” and projects nearly 40% growth in the broader category through 2030. This change confirms a global surge in demand driven by the increasing importance of digital products, subscriptions, and user engagement. ## Formal Recognition of Digital Design - The BLS previously grouped digital designers with web developers or did not track them separately. - Its new category recognizes web and digital interface design alongside established fields such as graphic, industrial, interior, and architectural design. - The broader web development and digital design category is projected to grow from 2020 to 2030 by almost 40%. - Projections for 2030 increased from 188,000 jobs before the pandemic to 225,000 by February 2022. ## Demand Is Growing Globally - Design recruiter Judy Wert describes demand for designers as unprecedented, with company inquiries reportedly tripling in recent years. - LinkedIn identified design and UX research as fast-growing job categories across countries including the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and India. - Figma’s survey of 280 enterprise companies in four countries found that design teams grew by an average of 31% between 2019 and 2022. ## Why Businesses Need More Designers - People increasingly depend on digital interfaces for essential activities, including banking, work, healthcare, entertainment, education, and personal planning. - Many companies now operate through subscriptions or user engagement, making retention and satisfaction critical. - Frequent product updates and rapidly changing user expectations require organizations to respond quickly to feedback. - Design therefore influences not only how products look, but also how companies compete, retain customers, and operate. - Design thinking and initiatives such as Stanford’s d.school have made design methods more accessible across organizations, reducing resistance to design work. Digital design’s recognition by the BLS is less a symbolic change than evidence of a broader business transformation. Organizations should treat design as a core strategic capability and continue investing in designers who can shape effective, adaptable digital products.

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