There once was a tool called Figma
That made spelling errors a drama
But now with native spell check
Grammar mistakes are a speck
Prototyping’s swift, teams can transfer like llama!
Thanks ChatGPT for generating this limerick from last week’s news! Now on to the human edition.
Improvements to publishing, managing, and promoting plugins and widgets — now multiple people can publish updates and a playground file can be added to provide more context on when and how to use a resource. For more details, see the Twitter thread by Figma PM Bersabel Tadesse.
A few changes to team controls and permissions on Enterprise and Organization plans.
Framer and Fons Mans teamed up to create an advent calendar of design gifts, from heavily discounted apps to free icon & wallpaper packs. So far they’ve offered big discounts on Sketch and Campsite subscriptions, as well as a free typeface from The Pangram Pangram Foundry.
Recordings from all three Schema 2022 conferences are now available — London, Tokyo, and New York. (Virtual event streamed select talks from physical locations.) Some of the speaker decks are also available in the Community.
In Issue 89, I shared slides for Yuhki Yamashita’s talk “Confessions of modern design” on how design is changing, and how we need to change with it. This article summarizes his advice on navigating our new always-in-progress world and Figma’s approach to developing collaboration features designed with that in mind.
A portfolio of a talented designer and illustrator, with all artworks made in Figma.
The recordings from the last month’s Schema conference in New York City are already available. This is a short and quiet Thanksgiving week in the US, so enjoy the opportunity to catch up on great talks about design systems between traveling and eating turkey. The remaining talks from the Virtual Schema conference will be posted on the Design Systems website soon.
Hi there! Figmalion turned 3 years old on Friday. Last year I switched from a bi-weekly to a weekly schedule, as there are just too many things to write about. After 90 issues and 2,032 links, the Figma community is more vibrant than ever and quite often I can’t keep up with all the news. Reply to this email if you have any suggestions or birthday wishes!
Do not forget about the Virtual Schema by Figma event on Wednesday, November 16th. The in-person conferences dedicated to design systems took place earlier this month in New York, Tokyo, and London, and now it’s time for the virtual crowd to tune in. Attendance is free, so register today.
“Figma prototypes are now accessible for screen readers. Learn how to turn on accessibility mode and how Figma design elements are translated to HTML for screen readers to interpret and understand the content and interactive elements in a design file.”
Dan Hollick with another nerdy thread, this time explaining boolean operators.
A beautiful deep dive into the making of a new background music feature in FigJam.
Organize content with sections to help teammates navigate through busy Figma files. A section is a default top-level element on the canvas and its own layer type is used primarily for organizing files and grouping designs. Additionally, sections allow you to organize prototypes and preserve their state, as Miggi shows in one video and Anthony in another. See also Sho Kuwamoto’s notes on the controversy surrounding launching this feature.
Get on the same wavelength as your team by working to the beat together in FigJam. Don’t miss a fantastic easter egg shared by Anthony and Miggi — you can put the needle on the record to start the timer and music in FigJam.
Speed up decision-making and remove bias by empowering teammates to vote anonymously on ideas and prompts.
Announcement from Figma: “We’re launching new features to help teams move work forward. Join us for a livestream Tuesday, Oct 25 at 9AM PST to be the first to try them out for yourself!”
All models of iPhone 14, the new MacBook Air, and TV.
“Rolling out over the next few weeks, you have the option to purchase a new Professional plan in your local currency or USD if you are located in Japan, Europe, UK, and Canada.”
Now you can incorporate videos into Figma prototypes for richer, more realistic experiences. Videos can be viewed on any Figma plan, but only users on paid plans can upload new videos into files. See the playground file for more details.
Two more updates to prototypes: drag to select multiple interactions to edit or delete all at once, and create interactions from any edge of an object for easier-to-read prototypes.
Moving styles between files are now easier — now you can just cut and paste them.
Use ⌘-F or Ctrl‑F to trigger the search box. Fantastic update! This is a critical “must-have” feature, so I used to rely on Jackie Chui’s popular Find and Replace plugin. Fun fact: Jackie joined Figma and worked on the native feature as well. He’s even got a kind warning from Figma that his plugin is going to become obsolete soon. Love to see this kind of respect for the developers community from Figma.
Kavir Kaycee explains why Figma won over the competition from the perspective of the Product Manager. He explains Figma’s success by being collaborative, community-driven, and affordable. I also like his point that Figma might become the starting point for all software development in the future.
“This year we’re taking Schema by Figma, our annual design systems conference, on the road to host three in-person events in New York, London, and Tokyo, as well as a virtual event for the location agnostic. With so much to look forward to, we wanted to get our community prepped and primed with a sneak peek of the themes and talks our team is especially excited to see.”