Figma

532 posts

figmaSep 21, 20202 min readCurated summary

The many dimensions of trust in design | Figma Blog

Trust is presented as the foundation of open, inclusive design collaboration. Insights from Figma’s Config Europe show that trust grows through human relationships, clear communication, transparent processes, and space for honest disagreement. Teams that invest in these practices can give better feedback, collaborate more effectively with clients, and consider the broader impact of their work. ## Building Strong Relationships - Trust starts with understanding teammates and everyone involved in product development. - Informal conversations, quick calls, and regular check-ins can build connections more effectively than relying solely on email. - A foundation of trust makes design critiques more constructive because feedback is interpreted as supportive rather than threatening. - Teams should assume positive intent and develop empathy by learning about one another’s working styles and challenges. ## Embracing In-Progress Work - Clear communication and agreed-upon operating processes help build trust with both clients and colleagues. - Real-time collaboration in Figma exposes early design work, which can make designers uncomfortable when ideas are still evolving. - Teams should establish rules for shared files, including: - Clearly marking the stage of the design process with status annotations - Indicating whether feedback is currently welcome - Specifying the level or type of feedback needed - Project documents should reflect the current state of the work so clients and internal teams remain aligned. ## Opening the Dialogue - Trust also requires conversations about design ethics, technology, and the broader consequences of products. - Rakuten Viki designer Shirley Lai created “The Designated Dissenter,” a card game that encourages people of any role or seniority to challenge team assumptions. - The game assigns one participant to object to proposed ideas and structures discussion around stakeholders, values, and ethical questions. - Deliberately making room for dissent helps teams develop an open feedback culture and consider consequences beyond immediate project goals. Building trust takes time, but teams can make steady progress by getting to know one another, defining collaboration norms, keeping work transparent, and encouraging thoughtful disagreement.

Figma Product Design Real Time Collaboration Design Collaboration+1

figmaSep 16, 20202 min readCurated summary

Embracing the tension between code and design | Figma Blog

Figma argues that design and code should not be forced into identical workflows, but should learn from each other. Designers need freedom to explore, while developers benefit from structure, reuse, and consistency. At Config Europe 2020, Figma announced features intended to connect these strengths through more code-like design systems and more efficient handoff. ## Design Systems That Mirror Code - Teams often maintain separate component libraries for design and development, even when the components represent the same product elements. - Differences between the two systems can cause miscommunication and slow implementation. - Figma introduced **Variants**, which group related versions of a component—such as button sizes, styles, interaction states, or platform-specific versions—into one component. - Variants are intended to make Figma components more closely resemble reusable code components and simplify the asset panel. ## Interactive Prototyping with Variants - Before Interactive Components, designers often had to connect multiple frames and overlays to simulate component behavior. - **Interactive Components** allow designers to define prototype transitions directly between Variant states. - This makes component instances immediately interactive in prototype mode and reduces the work required to simulate UI behavior. ## Auto Layout Inspired by CSS - Auto Layout already allowed designs to respond automatically to content changes, such as expanding a button when its label changes. - Figma planned to make Auto Layout more closely match the web’s CSS box model and Flexbox. - Planned improvements included: - A simpler user interface - Stretching elements along both axes - Independent padding controls - Better spacing options for common patterns, such as navigation icons ## Making Large Design Systems Easier to Use - The redesigned **Instance Swap Menu** helps users navigate large component libraries with: - Thumbnails - Search - Keyboard shortcuts - These improvements reduce the need to remember exact component names or browse long lists manually. ## Improving Developer Handoff with Inspect - The new **Inspect Tab** replaces Figma’s Code panel and presents implementation-relevant information more clearly. - It displays the selected layer’s name prominently, helping designers and developers identify what is being built. - Developers can inspect values for Variants, colors, shadows, content, typography, borders, and other properties. - Values and complete key-value snippets can be copied directly into code. Figma’s overall direction is to preserve the creativity of visual design while adding the structure and reusability associated with software engineering. Features such as Variants, Interactive Components, improved Auto Layout, and the Inspect Tab aim to make design systems easier to maintain and translate into production.

Figma Design Systems Prototyping CSS+4

figmaSep 15, 20203 min readCurated summary

On pitching and presenting | Figma Blog

Storytelling is the foundation of an effective pitch, more important than statistics or polished visuals alone. Abigail Africa argues that strong presentations come from understanding the audience, structuring a clear problem-and-solution narrative, delivering it with authentic energy, and using visuals to support—not replace—the story. These skills can be learned and improved through preparation and practice. ## Storytelling as the Core of a Pitch - Africa learned this lesson during a Pet Rocks pitch: market research and clever observations failed, while the winning team succeeded by telling a story. - Storytelling helps clarify complex ideas, persuade decision-makers, lead meetings, and perform well in interviews. - Presentations depend on three connected elements: - **Content:** what you say - **Delivery:** how you say it - **Visuals:** how you bring the idea to life ## Building Content Around the Audience - Research the people in the room before developing the presentation: - What challenges, needs, and goals do they have? - Why are they listening? - What could they gain? - What language or industry terminology do they use? - Building trust requires demonstrating that you understand the audience and their situation. ## Structuring the Story - A strong presentation typically: - Establishes an audience-relevant problem - Introduces a solution - Explains how the solution addresses the problem - Ends with a specific call to action - A useful problem statement template is: “A [stakeholder] who feels [feeling] about [a task] needs to [act] but [faces an obstacle].” - Reusing language, characters, or events from the problem section helps connect the solution to the story. - The call to action might ask the audience to approve further exploration, provide funding or mentorship, or reconsider an issue. ## Delivering with Energy and Awareness - Tone, posture, movement, and vocal variety can turn a sequence of slides into a persuasive pitch. - Africa recommends practicing by recording yourself and listening for limited vocal inflection. - Authentic excitement encourages audiences to mirror that emotion. - Gestures, movement, leaning forward, and purposeful eye contact can emphasize important points. - Audience behavior provides feedback: - If people seem disengaged, move around, speak more loudly, or make eye contact with individuals. - Adjust your delivery based on their body language and attention. ## Presenting Virtually - Remote presentations introduce technical risks and can weaken the impact of familiar gestures or vocal patterns. - Recording yourself reading aloud can reveal how your voice and delivery sound to a virtual audience. - Virtual presenters need to consciously adapt their energy and communication style so that enthusiasm and emphasis remain clear on screen. Effective pitching is therefore less about naturally having charisma and more about deliberately practicing audience awareness, narrative structure, expressive delivery, and clear supporting visuals.

Figma Presentation Design Storytelling Design Strategy+2

figmaSep 6, 20202 min readCurated summary

Figma’s new EMEA HQ | Figma Blog

Figma announced a new London office serving as its EMEA headquarters, part of its broader hybrid-work strategy. The hub is intended to improve support for users through better time-zone coverage, stronger local partnerships, and access to diverse talent. Although the office’s in-person opening was delayed by COVID-19, Figma planned to continue building regional connections remotely. ## A Regional Hub for a Global User Base - Figma’s hybrid model combines remote work with centralized hubs. - London was selected as the EMEA headquarters to bring the company closer to users across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. - An office represents more than physical workspace: it provides shared time zones, local market knowledge, and stronger relationships with regional design communities. - In 2020, 81% of Figma’s weekly active users lived outside the United States. ## Expanding Support Across EMEA - Figma recognized that its existing US-centered time-zone coverage was insufficient for international users. - The company established a product-specialist team in Amsterdam in early 2019. - Figma had engaged with communities and customers in cities including London, Paris, Helsinki, Kyiv, Moscow, Jakarta, and Singapore. - The London team had grown to 14 remotely working employees and supported customers such as Deliveroo, Zalando, Spotify, and Booking.com. ## Opening During the Pandemic - Figma postponed the in-person opening until it was safe for employees to return to offices. - The company emphasized that regional expansion could continue even without immediate physical gatherings. - Figma introduced Config Europe, its first virtual user conference, as a way for users and employees to share knowledge and maintain community connections. Figma’s London hub reflects a strategy of combining remote flexibility with regional offices that improve customer support, hiring, and community engagement. The company’s experience also demonstrates that international presence can be developed virtually while in-person work remains limited.

Figma Collaboration Design Tools Web Design+2

figmaSep 2, 20202 min readCurated summary

Making Design Within Reach for online shoppers | Figma Blog

Design Within Reach (DWR) redesigned its e-commerce site to recreate the personalized showroom experience online, responding to changing consumer expectations and increased online shopping during COVID-19. In partnership with BASIC®, DWR adopted a transparent, collaborative workflow using Figma, conducted extensive customer research, and launched a responsive site with live sales support. The redesign increased sales and established a scalable design system for Herman Miller’s broader family of brands. ## A Transparent Agency Partnership - DWR partnered with BASIC® to combine the agency’s e-commerce expertise with DWR’s internal brand and product knowledge. - Both organizations worked as one co-creative team rather than in separate workstreams. - Shared Figma files allowed designers in different companies and time zones to collaborate in real time. - Continuous access to the latest files eliminated version-control issues and effectively created 14-hour workdays across teams. - Figma prototypes also made it easy for executives and other stakeholders to review progress through shareable links. ## Bringing the Showroom Experience Online - The redesign was informed by 110 hours of customer research and testing with more than 200 participants. - Interactive Figma prototypes enabled rapid usability testing and iteration. - The site launched in July 2020 with responsive layouts and video chat connecting shoppers with sales associates. - Customers using the new live chat features were nine times more likely to complete an online purchase. - DWR saw an immediate increase in purchases after launch instead of the typical temporary decline following a major website release. ## A Scalable Design System - The redesign became the foundation for Herman Miller’s first design system spanning multiple brands. - DWR and BASIC® created a shared set of reusable components and a consistent visual language. - Developers can implement standardized components more quickly. - Content authors can assemble pages by dragging in prebuilt components, updating images, and editing text. - Cloud-based Figma libraries make it easier to share assets and scale the system across internal teams and external partners. DWR’s experience suggests that combining close agency collaboration, user-centered research, real-time design tools, and reusable components can make complex showroom-style retail experiences effective online while preparing a brand for future growth.

Figma Design Systems User Experience Responsive Design+3

figmaAug 26, 20203 min readCurated summary

Inside Figma: enterprise, explained | Figma Blog

Figma’s enterprise product work is not simply about implementing customer requests; it requires designing systems that serve organizations of vastly different sizes and roles. After learning that its original Admin Settings console no longer supported growing customer needs, Figma chose to redesign the experience around key administrative workflows rather than apply incremental UI changes. The project illustrates how customer research, cross-functional collaboration, and scalable foundations shape enterprise product development. ## Reassessing the Admin Experience - Figma Organization grew significantly after launching in early 2019, bringing more designers, developers, and collaborators into company workflows. - As organizations expanded, admins took on broader responsibilities, exposing limitations in the original Admin Settings console. - Feedback from customers, support, sales, and other teams revealed that admins: - Lacked enough information to make effective decisions during true-ups. - Were unaware of relevant features. - Had to export information manually. - Figma concluded that the existing interface constrained the value of individual features and needed a broader product redesign. ## Starting from First Principles - The team aimed to: - Improve member-management workflows. - Make existing functionality easier to discover. - Create a foundation for adding future features. - A cross-functional brainstorm included product, engineering, design, research, data, support, marketing, and sales. - Ideas were organized into “Do now,” “Worth considering,” and “Wild & crazy” categories. - The team synthesized these suggestions with user feedback to establish priorities. - What initially looked like a UI refresh became a full product update because the underlying information architecture prevented admins from making effective decisions. ## Designing for Organizations of All Sizes - Figma supports teams ranging from five people to thousands, unlike enterprise-only products focused on a narrow company profile. - Enterprise tooling must account for different organizational structures: - In small companies, one person may be an admin, design-operations lead, and active designer. - In larger companies, these responsibilities may belong to separate departments. - Different stakeholders need different information: - Budget owners need to understand organization-wide value. - Design-operations teams need appropriate permissions and resource access. - Security teams need confidence that company data is protected. - Individual users need tools that support their daily work. - Admin settings may be invisible or secondary to regular users, but they are central to admins’ daily responsibilities. ## A Scalable Product Foundation - Figma’s approach emphasizes building flexible foundations rather than narrowly targeting current customer requests. - The redesigned admin experience was intended to make future features easier to introduce and existing features more useful. - Effective enterprise development requires understanding not only individual users, but also buyers, stakeholders, organizational roles, and internal dynamics. Figma’s central recommendation is to treat enterprise products as evolving systems, not collections of one-off customer-requested features. Strong user research, broad cross-functional input, and an architecture designed for organizational scale can produce an admin experience that remains useful as customers and their needs grow.

Figma User Experience Product Design Enterprise Software+2

figmaAug 12, 20203 min readCurated summary

How we use Figma templates to facilitate collaboration at Shopify | Figma Blog

Shopify developed a standardized Figma template to make project files easier for designers, product managers, engineers, and other collaborators to navigate. The template applies Shopify’s lightweight “Get Sh*t Done” framework—Think, Explore, and Build—while presenting build-ready work first. Consistent file structure, clear status indicators, dates, links, and annotations reduce confusion about a project’s current state and next steps. ## The Problem: Collaboration Creates File Complexity - Figma makes collaboration easy, but projects accumulate designs, prototypes, feedback, and multiple versions over time. - Teams were using different file-organization methods, making it difficult to find: - The latest designs - Approved layouts - Prototypes intended for user testing - Relevant project context and contacts - Shopify’s template provides a predictable structure across files and helps teams start projects faster. ## The Template’s Project Structure - The template is based on Shopify’s “Get Sh*t Done” framework: - **Think:** Understand the problem space. - **Explore:** Investigate and test possible solutions. - **Build:** Finalize the chosen direction for implementation. - Pages appear in reverse process order, with build-ready work placed first so collaborators see the most important information immediately. - Teams should create the cover and project overview first, then begin documenting the Think phase before moving into exploration. ## Cover and Project Overview - The cover communicates: - Project name - Owning team - Current project status - A cover also makes files easier to identify in Figma’s grid view. - The status indicator should be updated as the project progresses. - The project overview provides: - Additional context - Links to briefs, research, and related documents - Contact information for questions and feedback - Links to documents or Slack profiles can be added directly to the Figma file for quick access. ## Think: Establish the Foundation - The Think section collects the information needed to understand the project and begin design work. - Useful content includes: - User flows and journey maps - Job stories - Design sprint explorations - Screenshots and previous designs - Inspiration and links to external documents - Its purpose is to preserve the project’s background and problem space before solutions are explored. ## Explore: Investigate Possible Solutions - Explore is the flexible collaboration area where teams diverge, test ideas, and converge on promising approaches. - Recommended practices include: - Create separate pages for different devices or form factors. - Add titles to explorations and flows. - Use badges to show the state of each exploration. - Add a date to every new page to indicate freshness. - Keep user-testing prototypes on separate pages. - Use sticky notes for commentary, ideas, and feedback. - This section is expected to contain substantial collaboration, comments, and alternative layouts. ## Build: Prepare the Chosen Direction - Once a solution is selected, move the relevant pages or layouts from Explore into Build. - This keeps finalized work separate from experimentation and makes implementation-ready designs easier to find. - The structure supports a clear transition from exploration to delivery while preserving earlier thinking and feedback. Using a shared template like Shopify’s gives every collaborator the same mental model for navigating Figma files. Teams should adapt the sections as needed, while consistently maintaining project status, dates, ownership, context, and a clear separation between exploratory and implementation-ready work.

Figma Design Systems Prototyping Design Collaboration+2

figmaAug 11, 20203 min readCurated summary

An open letter about my gap year | Figma Blog

The post explores Abigail Africa’s uncertainty about returning to USC during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether taking a gap year would better serve her education, finances, and career. She argues that remote classes cannot fully replace the community, hands-on projects, and extracurricular experiences she planned for her senior year. Her decision is also shaped by family expectations, cultural background, and Silicon Valley’s complicated “dropout” mythology. ## The Case for a Gap Year - Africa had envisioned her final year around a senior capstone involving pitching, running, and growing a startup. - A remote semester would mean losing experiences such as: - Collaborating in makerspaces - Experimenting with hardware - Recording podcasts and producing videos - Building close relationships with classmates and professors - Many students faced different constraints: - Some would attend classes from their childhood bedrooms. - Others questioned paying full tuition for Zoom-based education. - International students risked visa complications if they did not return. - Africa’s reasons for considering time off were: - Waiting to return until she could fully participate in campus life - Working during the pandemic and building savings - Gaining more startup experience before potentially founding a company ## Family Expectations and the Value of Education - Africa’s family worried that a gap year could become permanent and prevent her from finishing her degree. - Her immigrant grandparents sacrificed established careers and worked minimum-wage jobs to support their children’s education. - Her parents similarly prioritized education over luxuries and invested heavily in her schooling. - For Africa’s family, education is the reliable path to success, while gap years and dropping out appear risky and difficult to justify. - Africa recognizes that she does not yet have a convincing answer to the fear that delaying graduation could mean never returning. ## Education, Economics, and Cultural Identity - Students were weighing the practical consequences of enrolling, taking time off, or graduating during an unstable economy. - Key questions included: - How employers would interpret a gap year - What a degree is worth under these circumstances - How losing access to a campus community would affect students - Whether delaying school would create financial advantages - Africa also considers whether these calculations differ for her as a woman of color, particularly in an industry shaped by unequal access and representation. ## Silicon Valley’s Dropout Mythology - Technology culture often celebrates the highly privileged, frequently male, elite-university dropout who becomes a successful founder. - Africa has rarely seen herself represented in that narrative. - Her startup internship gives her hope that the industry may be opening to broader kinds of talent and that meaningful opportunities can exist without a completed degree. - At the same time, she questions whether apparent meritocracy is truly based only on ability, since representation, privilege, and access strongly influence who receives opportunities. Ultimately, Africa presents the gap-year decision as more than an academic or financial calculation. It is also a question of identity, family history, opportunity, and whether traditional educational paths remain the best route during a period of extraordinary disruption.

Figma Zoom Startups Remote Learning+2

figmaAug 10, 20203 min readCurated summary

How work is changing at Figma | Figma Blog

Figma decided to move from a mostly in-person workplace to a hybrid model offering both office-based and remote work. The decision was driven by COVID-19, changing employee needs, and the recognition that both flexibility and in-person connection matter. Rather than wait for other companies, Figma used employee survey data and conversations with hybrid organizations to shape its policy. ## Making a Decision During Uncertainty - Figma separated its long-term workplace strategy from the immediate question of reopening offices. - Leadership chose to make a decision quickly because uncertainty was increasing employee anxiety. - Company values, especially “Be Bold,” encouraged Figma to act rather than wait for other companies to set a precedent. - The team created a custom workforce-planning survey after finding that existing templates did not fit its needs. - The survey combined quantitative questions with personal stories about: - Commutes - Productivity during COVID-19 - Remote-work preferences - Desired work schedules and locations ## What Employees Wanted - More than 90% of employees completed the survey within one week. - Employees had highly varied opinions about what “flexibility” meant, particularly regarding which days should be available for working from home. - Nearly half of San Francisco-based employees would consider moving to another nearby city if they could work from home several days per week. - Almost two-thirds would consider moving to a non-hub location by the end of 2022 if all roles could be remote. - Common motivations included: - Lower cost of living - Home ownership - Being closer to family - Employees also expressed strong affection for the office and the connection and serendipitous interactions it enabled. - Although employees generally considered themselves productive, many felt they were not building relationships outside their immediate teams and were missing opportunities to meet new hires. ## Lessons from Other Hybrid Companies Figma spoke with organizations already operating with hybrid models and identified several challenges: - Employees need a predictable understanding of where colleagues can be found. - Completely flexible office attendance can produce a largely empty “ghost town” office. - Shared office days are important for preserving connection and serendipitous collaboration. - Hybrid work is difficult, particularly when ensuring remote employees are included equally. ## Figma’s Hybrid Policy - Employees must choose whether they are associated with a physical hub or work as remote employees. - The San Francisco hub would use a flexible model requiring employees to come into the office on at least two specific days each week. - Those office days would be shared across the hub to ensure people were present at the same time. Figma’s approach emphasizes making a clear, employee-informed decision while preserving both remote flexibility and the social benefits of office work.

Figma Remote Work Hybrid Work Workplace Strategy+1

figmaAug 9, 20202 min readCurated summary

Explore the Figma Community | Figma Blog

The Figma Community is rolling out to all users as a public library of files that can be searched, inspected, duplicated, liked, and remixed. The post highlights how designers and organizations are using the platform to share design systems, illustrations, workflows, and creative experiments. Figma presents the launch as an early foundation for a broader community built around generosity, collaboration, and reusable resources. ## A New Space for Shared Design Resources - The Community gives users access to thousands of published Figma files, including: - Design systems - Icon packs - Wireframes - Illustrations - Prototypes and games - Users can browse by tags, search files, claim profile handles, follow creators, like files, and duplicate resources. - Publishing initially remains limited to beta participants while Figma continues refining the product. - Contributors include organizations such as Microsoft, Google, and Mixpanel, as well as independent designers and illustrators. ## Material Design Baseline Kit - Jessie Z of Google’s Material Design team created a downloadable foundation for people building their own design systems. - The kit has two parts: - **Material Theme:** Lets users customize typography and color palettes while seeing the effects on components, states, and layouts. - **Sticker sheet:** Provides a more traditional collection of reusable components. - The resource is intended both as a practical starting point and as a way to learn Material Design guidelines and develop a product’s visual identity. ## Open Figures Illustration Library - Illustrator Bonnie Kate Wolf created Open Figures as a flexible library of reusable illustrations for Blush. - Unlike her previous work within company-specific guidelines, the project allowed her to develop an independent visual style. - The illustrations can support product storytelling, presentations, or personal creative projects. - Building the library also exposed accessibility considerations: interchangeable clothing and character parts had to work for users, including wheelchair users. ## Spotify Ways of Working - Barton Smith, Cliona O’Sullivan, and Spotify’s Figma working group published their approach to organizing and collaborating in Figma. - They shared the file because many companies lack a standard model for structuring Figma workspaces. - The resource offers the community a view into Spotify’s internal practices. - Spotify planned to keep revising the system as the team learned what worked and what needed improvement. Figma’s recommendation is to explore the Community, follow useful creators, and reuse or adapt the resources that fit your work. The launch emphasizes that its value will grow as more people publish practical tools, creative work, and proven ways of working.

Figma Design Systems Prototyping Accessibility+2

figmaAug 5, 20203 min readCurated summary

Inside Figma: reflections on a remote internship | Figma Blog

Jenning Chen reflects on her remote internship at Figma and the process of taking improvements to the style picker from concept to launch. Despite concerns about isolation and communication, Figma’s intentional remote culture helped her build relationships, learn the product, and receive support. Her project added search, a color-style list view, and visible text-style metrics while giving her experience across Figma’s technology stack. ## A Warm Welcome - Slack messages, virtual coffee chats, and a collaborative welcome card helped Chen feel connected from the start. - Although the internship was fully remote, Figma maintained the open and welcoming culture that had first attracted her years earlier. ## Building Relationships Remotely - Chen initially worried that remote work would make it harder to form relationships or ask for help. - Company-wide events created regular opportunities to meet colleagues: - Show-and-tell meetings for sharing work and learnings - Thursday tech talks about coworkers’ interests and projects - One-on-ones about Figma’s product and growth - Virtual cooking classes, escape rooms, and scavenger hunts - These activities helped replace informal office interactions and encouraged connections beyond her immediate team. ## Developing Product Fluency - Before beginning her project, Chen needed to understand Figma’s features and design terminology. - She relied on her mentor, teammates, and Slack channels for answers. - Colleagues were willing to schedule calls and work through obstacles with her, making remote collaboration more effective than she expected. ## Improving the Style Picker - The style picker lets users browse and apply paint, text, effect, and layout-grid styles. - As users accumulated more styles, the original grid-based interface became difficult to navigate: - Important style information was obscured. - Users had to scroll through long lists. - Finding a specific style was inefficient. - Working with product designer Shana Hu, Chen implemented: - **Search:** Lets users find styles with a few keystrokes. - **Color styles list view:** Displays style names clearly beside thumbnails. - **Text style metrics:** Shows font size and line height directly in the picker. ## Technical and Launch Challenges - The project exposed Chen to multiple parts of Figma’s stack: - TypeScript and C++ in the editor - Ruby in the backend - She presented the work at an internal show-and-tell and received supportive feedback from coworkers. - Launch preparation required migrating millions of existing text styles to add font-size and line-height metadata. - The migration took an entire day, alongside the work of incorporating critique feedback and fixing last-minute bugs. The internship demonstrated that a thoughtfully structured remote environment can support mentorship, relationship-building, and meaningful ownership. Chen’s experience also shows how an intern can contribute to a high-impact product feature while gaining broad technical and product knowledge.

Figma Design Systems TypeScript C+++2

figmaJul 23, 20202 min readCurated summary

Announcing Config Europe: a call for speakers | Figma Blog

Figma announced Config Europe, a free virtual conference taking place on September 17, 2020. After its San Francisco event showed both the value of community connection and the limitations of an in-person format, Figma chose an online conference to make participation more accessible. The company invited community members—especially first-time speakers—to submit talks, panels, lightning rounds, and workshops. ## From In-Person Conference to Virtual Event - Figma’s first Config conference brought together 1,200 attendees in San Francisco, with additional viewers online. - Sessions covered topics including design systems and open source’s influence on urban planning and infrastructure. - Plans to take Config to cities worldwide were paused as the global situation changed. - Figma ultimately decided that a virtual format could still fulfill Config’s mission of amplifying community voices and enabling people to learn and share. ## Call for Speakers - Speakers could submit proposals by **July 31, 2020**. - First-time speakers were explicitly welcomed and encouraged. - Accepted speakers would receive: - IT support and equipment - Help from product specialists and editors - Opportunities to develop talks, panels, lightning rounds, or workshops - Proposals not selected for Config Europe might be considered for other Figma opportunities, such as livestreams or blog posts. ## Conference Content Tracks The agenda was organized around four main themes: - **Building and maintaining design systems** - Starting and scaling systems - Creating components and style guides - Getting teams to adopt shared systems - **Figma deep-dives** - Improving workflows with plugins, Auto Layout, components, and other features - **Process, culture, and team-building** - Recruiting, hiring, team culture, and remote-work practices - **Opening up design** - Making design more inclusive, accessible, and participatory for non-designers ## Attending Config Europe - The event was free and open to anyone, anywhere. - Figma planned to publish the agenda and open registration on **August 20, 2020**. - Prospective attendees could sign up to receive updates when registration became available. Figma’s recommendation was to submit ideas through the Config Europe speaker portal or register for event updates. The announcement emphasized that the virtual conference was intended to preserve the collaborative spirit of Config while making it accessible to a broader global community.

Figma Design Systems Open Source Auto Layout+1

figmaJul 6, 20202 min readCurated summary

How BT continues to push the telecommunication industry forward | Figma Blog

BT, a telecommunications company founded in 1846, modernized its product development by reorganizing teams into cross-functional product squads. These squads adopted Figma to replace fragmented design tools and improve collaboration among designers, engineers, product owners, content designers, and stakeholders. The shift reduced costs, increased design visibility and consistency, accelerated delivery, and helped BT maintain collaboration during the move to remote work. ## The Evolution to Product Squads - BT created smaller teams responsible for end-to-end product delivery. - Designers began working directly with product owners, engineers, content designers, and other specialists. - The new structure encouraged collaboration but exposed workflow problems: - Too many disconnected tools, including Docs, Sketch, InVision, and Jira. - Time-consuming file transfers and handoffs. - Multiple feedback channels and communication barriers. - Difficulty maintaining cohesive design across product lines. ## Migrating to Figma - BT’s design operations team piloted Figma with one product squad for two months. - The pilot produced quick benefits: - Real-time collaboration became easier. - Design handoffs were simplified. - Teams could design, prototype, and present in one place. - Engineers and product owners gained earlier visibility into design work and could contribute before decisions were finalized. - Following the pilot, BT rolled Figma out across all product squads. - Stakeholders could review and comment on work through a link from any device. ## Business and Organizational Benefits - **50% lower design-tool costs:** Figma replaced Sketch and InVision. - **Greater influence for design:** Better visibility brought design into more business decisions and investment discussions. - **Improved consistency:** Figma created a foundation for a future centralized design system spanning BT’s brand, products, and business units. - **Business continuity:** During COVID-19, Figma provided a shared online workspace for remote teams to communicate and solve problems. - **Faster decision-making:** Teams began conducting live experience walkthroughs with executives instead of preparing polished presentation decks. - **Higher transparency and efficiency:** Cross-functional teams developed a shared understanding of work and goals. BT’s experience shows that adopting a collaborative design platform can support more than design efficiency. Combined with cross-functional product squads, it can reshape organizational workflows, reduce costs, strengthen stakeholder involvement, and help a large company continue innovating.

Figma Design Systems Prototyping Design Collaboration+3

figmaJun 30, 20202 min readCurated summary

How Clearstep simplifies the experience of finding care online | Figma Blog

Clearstep built a symptom-checking and care-routing platform to make finding healthcare less stressful and more actionable. The platform helps users determine whether they need care, identify suitable providers based on location and insurance, estimate costs, and schedule appointments. The team relied on iterative design, shared styles, and real-time collaboration in Figma to manage complex patient flows and customized health-system branding. ## Designing a Complex Healthcare Experience - Clearstep launched its platform in 2018 to guide patients from symptom evaluation to appropriate care. - Its features include: - Symptom checking and care recommendations - Provider matching based on location and insurance network - Insurance eligibility checks - Cost estimates - Direct appointment scheduling - Because the product influences thousands of patients’ healthcare decisions, the team prioritized both speed and accuracy in design. ## Testing Information-Dense User Flows - The team iterated extensively on how users move through symptom checking and compare care options. - Figma’s Smart Selection made repetitive tasks, such as reordering care options, faster through drag-and-drop editing. - Typography and button copy were refined through user testing because small changes affected navigation and decision-making. - Automatically resizing button text allowed the team to test different wording efficiently. ## Managing Custom Branding - Clearstep licenses its platform to health systems, requiring white-labeled versions with different customer branding. - Designers created new Figma files for each client and quickly added custom color palettes. - Color Styles enabled multiple designs to be updated at once. - Approved styles could be published to a shared Library so every editor worked from the same branding system. ## Collaborating Remotely - Figma’s multiplayer features allowed Peter Garber and Annie Kramer to edit, review, and improve designs simultaneously. - Shared text and color styles kept design and engineering work synchronized. - Prototypes could be shared through browser links, allowing the broader team to review changes in real time. - Named, color-coded cursors, observation mode, and comments reduced reliance on screen sharing and made feedback easier to track. ## Moving from Design to Implementation - Engineers used Figma’s Color Styles, Code panel, spacing labels, and export tools to translate designs into working interfaces. - Developers could access assets directly rather than relying on manual downloads or lengthy handoff conversations. - Centralized styles helped preserve consistency between the final designs and implementation. Clearstep’s approach shows how collaborative design tools can help healthcare teams simplify complicated workflows, support customer-specific branding, and move efficiently from tested interface concepts to implementation.

Figma Design Systems User Experience Prototyping+2

figmaJun 23, 20202 min readCurated summary

How to evaluate design tools | Figma Blog

Choosing a design tool should be treated as a structured team project, not a simple feature comparison. The right choice depends on factors such as team size, remote distribution, workflow, collaboration needs, and existing pain points. Figma recommends a phased process that typically takes about a month and combines stakeholder input, defined criteria, hands-on testing, and documented feedback. ## Phase 0: Lay the Groundwork - Treat the evaluation like a product launch or design sprint and include it in the team’s quarterly planning. - Create a workback schedule, allowing roughly: - Two weeks for preparation - Two weeks to test tools on short-term projects - Set a firm decision deadline so the process can end early if one tool clearly stands out. - Identify stakeholders across design, product, development, marketing, and project approval teams. - Consider forming a cross-functional working group with regular check-ins and a shared communication channel. - Document milestones, formal feedback, and informal observations in a shared workspace. - Set expectations that adopting a new tool may require several weeks of ramp-up before productivity returns to normal. ## Phase 1: Define the Problem - Clarify what the team actually needs before comparing specific products. - Consider team characteristics such as: - Size and expected growth - Whether members work in one office or remotely - Onboarding and scalability requirements - Identify concrete pain points in the current workflow, including moments where collaboration breaks down. - Gather feedback from people outside the immediate design team, especially developers, product managers, and marketers. - Focus on specific scenarios such as developer handoff rather than vague dissatisfaction. ## Phase 2: Establish Evaluation Criteria - Convert the team’s needs and pain points into a small number of priority themes. - Productivity is one important theme, covering activities such as: - Individual design work - Sprint planning - Design critiques - Developer handoff - Match criteria to the team’s circumstances: - Large teams may prioritize consistency, shared libraries, and design-system support. - Fast-growing teams may emphasize onboarding and scalability. - Distributed teams may place greater weight on collaboration and communication. The practical recommendation is to invest in preparation before testing tools. A documented, stakeholder-informed evaluation helps teams choose software that fits their real workflows and reduces the disruption and cost of a poorly planned migration.

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