Config 2020 happened a little over a week ago, and it seems like Figma nailed it with their first user conference. This issue includes a large recap of all the announcements, keynotes, talks, and impressions that were posted after it. Also, don’t miss Ask-Me-Anything with Figma’s Design Director, robust workflow for deprecating old components, plugin development tutorial, and a ton of new community projects both from individual illustrators and large companies. Enjoy!
— Eugene
Config 2020 Recap
New Ways to Create, Collaborate, and Share More Openly
Official recap of new features announced at Config. More responsive Auto Layout, an updated font picker, improvements to color selection, hyperlinking, and new prototype permissions settings.
Config 2020 — Video of the Keynotes
Recording of all keynotes from Config 2020 — Dylan Field “Welcome to a new decade of design”, Craig Mod “Adding scaffolding to collaboration for deep work”, Devon Zuegel “The city guide to open source”, and May-li Khoe in conversation with Scott Hansen (Tycho/ISO50).
Config 2020: Some Impressions From Figma’s Conference
Fantastic overview of the conference and talks from Knut Melvær. If you have time to read only one piece from an attendee, this should be it.
Thigmotaxis on the Infinite Canvas
A thoughtful post-Config essay on the role of Figma multiplayer, designing in an open space, and community.
Naming (And Renaming) a Design System
Jules Forrest posted a summary of her Config talk as a Twitter thread.
Paper Dolls
Bonnie Kate Wolf shares an illustration from her workshop, where you can create different scenes by swapping components.
Config Quilt Template
Fun to see all the smart remixes made by the community!
What’s New
AMA With Noah Levin
Great Ask-Me-Anything at Designer News with Noah Levin, Design Director at Figma. He answers questions about sourcing new design hires, interview process at Figma, internal and external transparency, latest product announcements, and more.
How to Deprecate Old Components in Figma Design Systems
“A strategy that may help ease some of the pain and confusion when deprecating unwanted components.” That’s something we all have to do from time to time, so I’m glad Steve Dennis documented his approach.
Principles for Developing and Designing Figma Components
A list of 5 solid principles for building components — reusability, nesting, UI and UX patterns, reusing styles, and consistent naming structure.
How to Organise Design Workflow and Operation in Figma
Samuel shares a few tips on organizing Figma files.
Figma vs. Sketch
The team at Salsa Digital agency shared their experience of switching from Sketch to Figma. While they enjoy real-time collaboration, lack of “really-final-this-time-v5” files, and all the unique features of Figma, they also have some valid concerns about committing to it for a long time.
Figma Plugin Tutorial
Daniel Hollick wrote a 6-part step-by-step tutorial for writing a color contrast checker plugin for Figma.
Tweets
Thread on using Figma for complex user testing
Adam Noffsinger shares his experience with using Figma for testing a self-driving car interface on a tablet using Figma Mirror.
Copying SVG from the browser
Nice tip! That’s something I use quite often.
Podcasts
Design Details, Ep 332: Creating Layouts: Design vs. Implementation
Brian and Marshall discuss creating layouts with Sketch's Smart Layout and Figma's Auto Layout, and compare the experience with implementing layouts in CSS and SwiftUI.
Hustle by Funsize, Ep 77: From “This Is a Career?” to Product Designer in One Year
Thomas Ewart from Funsize talks about switching careers, starting Figma Austin meetup, and using Figma in a design sprint.
Plugins
Sorter
Quickly sort layers by name, position, reverse order, or randomly.
Marka Email Generator
Email generator creates responsive HTML email templates from Figma frames.
Resources
Twemoji
Twitter shared a library of 3,245 free emojis. (It’s also available as an unofficial plugin Figmoji.)
Octicons v2
GitHub is working on a new set of Octicons icons for Primer, their open-source design system.
Annotation Kit
Mixpanel’s kit for documenting work with sticker notes, lines, and annotations.
Figma Monthly Email Template
Joey Banks from Figma shows how he uses Auto Layout to generate previews of their newsletter template for both desktop and mobile.
macOS Icon Template
App Icon Template for macOS.
Houses by Paolo Ertreo
Paolo Ertreo draws beautiful illustrations of houses and shows them at his community profile.
illlustrations by realvjy
A large set of cute free and open-source illustrations.
Base Web by Uber
Uber published components from their React UI framework as an open-source resource on Figma.
💰 Layers Design System
Good looking and comprehensive design system built specifically for Figma.
💰 Platforma 2: Website Wireframe Kit
A large library of components for interface prototyping.
Follow @FigmaNewsletter on Twitter to see retweets that don’t make it to the newsletter.