“Beginning February 2023, Figma will add support for paid files, plugins, and widgets on the Figma Community. Eligible creators will be able to publish paid resources and users will be able purchase resources directly from the Figma Community.” As a community creator, I’m genuinely excited about this — I’ve had a few commercial plugin ideas in the past, but was put off by handling payments.

That said, the announcement raised some questions. All community files must switch to Figma’s payment platform, but existing plugins and widgets may continue to be sold through 3rd-party payment sites. Rogie provided additional details in his Twitter thread.

Now it’s easier to track changes to components and styles. A new icon shows when styles or instances have changed, lets you accept changes for individual instances or layers, and even shows a before vs. after preview! See a quick demo by Jacob Miller.

Ever wanted to collaborate in FigJam using virtual reality? A note from the developer: ​“We wouldn’t build a better tool than Figma, so we used their super SDK to write a plugin that integrates with our XR application. We develop our applications for Snapdragon Spaces technology, available for Lenovo A3 glasses, as well as for Quest 2 and Quest Pro. We use Unity technology, so in the future the app can be open on any device like Android/​iOS/​MagicLeap/​Quest etc. The app is still a prototype, but we consider of going forward and release it in some day.”

Framer published a selection of the best Framer websites made last year. Lots of great designs to get inspired from, but I didn’t expect to see such a heavy dose of personal websites of designers and agencies.

“Tune in to hear from Dominique Ward, Head of DesignOps at Atlassian, and Adam Fry-Pierce, Chief of Staff at Google, who will dive in to how to scale your DesignOps team. They will dive into questions such as ​‘What frameworks can you use to build out L&D on the design team?’ or ​‘How do you build rapport with your cross functional teams?’”

Miggi with two great tips on managing gradients. I wish we didn’t need to resolve to a 100 pixels square hack, but often it gets the job done!

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.

“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.