The new mobile app. Link previews in FigJam. 2021 Design Tools Survey.
Every year I look forward to Design Tools Survey. The first time I wrote about it in 2019, Sketch was a leading tool in all categories, but Figma was catching up and was called “The most exciting tool of 2020”. In 2020, Figma destroyed the competition in all categories related to design and prototyping. This year with the launch of FigJam, they went after digital whiteboarding and got a solid 2nd place in this category after Miro. At this point, Figma and FigJam cover all stages of the design process except user research and testing. My favorite thing in the report is how excited the design community is about Figma — it’s the most popular tool by far.
Healthy competition keeps everyone on their toes, and as designers, we are lucky to have access to a variety of fantastic tools. Can’t wait to see how our tools will change in 2022!
— Eugene
Sponsor
Master UI Design
Discover practical tips with real examples, understand design, and what skills are essential to grow as a designer.
App Updates
Stay mobile with Figma
Major update to the Figma mobile app. Now you can view, browse, and share files and prototypes without being tethered to the desktop app, mirror designs on mobile for selected frames on desktop, and enjoy an intuitive and performant UX on iOS and Android.
Add link previews in FigJam
“Use link previews to add sources of inspiration and useful context to your FigJam file. Paste links of rich media from other websites — like videos, articles, or documents — and FigJam will turn them into a preview on your board. Figma will even make some link previews interactive, which allow you to pan around Figma design files and city maps, or stream music and videos while you work in FigJam.”
The paused rollout of the new comments
After discovering a bug affecting how comments appear on the canvas, Figma paused the rollout of the new comments until later in January.
What’s new in Figma: November 2021
“This month, we introduced capabilities that move you from task to task faster and make it easier to share and act on feedback, so you can take ideas from good to great.”
What’s New
2021 Design Tools Survey
Last year, Figma destroyed the competition in almost every category. They went after a few remaining areas with the launch of FigJam this year. Great to see that Figma is still the most exciting design tool out there by far!
Introducing AWS Amplify Studio
“AWS Amplify announces AWS Amplify Studio, a visual development environment that offers frontend developers new features to accelerate UI development with minimal coding, while integrating Amplify’s powerful backend configuration and management capabilities. Amplify Studio automatically translates designs made in Figma to human-readable React UI component code.”
Using Figma
How to organize your Figma files for your design system
“Organizing your Figma files can be a daunting task, especially as your design system team and wider org grows. We’ve gathered some of the tips that we’ve picked up along the way, including ways you can make Figma work better with zeroheight.”
Organising Design Systems
“One significant aspect that design systems solve is serving as a single source of truth across products so that we can save ourselves from this mess at handoff. But what is this single source of truth and how do the teams working on it build and manage it?”
10 Auto-Layout Tips in Figma
A few good tips on using Auto Layout by Danny Sapio.
How to leverage slot components in Figma
A practical walkthrough by Ridd of how you can use slot components to build a scalable system in Figma that is efficient and flexible.
Free Figma UX Design UI Essentials Course
A 3‑hour long free introductory video course by Dan Scott.
Made in Figma
Primate Microsite
Fantastic morphing animation made entirely in Figma by Daniel Tan.
Resources
Advanced Tips and Tricks for Figma Users
Slides from Marshall Bock’s internal presentation at Google with Figma tips and tricks. I also highly recommend podcast Design Details which Marshall co-hosts with Brian Lovin.
2022 Calendar, Autolayout Component with Variants
“You can use this calendar for UI elements, planning tables, print designs. It includes all the months as variants, so it’s easy to switch between months.”
Accessible Dark Mode UI Kit
“We created this UI Kit to help you design and build mobile screens in dark mode. Components and layers were created with versatility in mind and can be edited to fit your needs. All the colors meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) when used in the recommended way.”
Widgets
Grapic
Grapic is the iPhone app and a FigJam widget that lets you use a real pen, paper, and whiteboards with your remote colleagues, clients, and friends.
Whose turn is it?
A FigJam widget to help your group take turns. Keep track of whose turn it is, who’s already gone, and who’s left.
Backstage
How Dylan Field Won Over the Haters
One of the best profiles of the early days of Figma and Dylan Field’s transformation from intern to CEO.