Issue #8 • February 17th, 2020

Config 2020 Recap. Noah Levin AMA. Deprecating components.

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

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.

#Config

Thigmotaxis on the Infinite Canvas

A thoughtful post-Config essay on the role of Figma multiplayer, designing in an open space, and community.

#Config

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!

#Config

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.

#Components & Variants

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.

#Switching to Figma

Figma Plugin Tutorial

Daniel Hollick wrote a 6‑part step-by-step tutorial for writing a color contrast checker plugin for Figma.

#Plugin Development

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.

#Prototyping

Copying SVG from the browser

Nice tip! That’s something I use quite often.

#Import & Export

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.