It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a new beta of the desktop app for Apple Silicon was the main recent Figma event for me. While the regular app works fine on M1, it’s not as smooth and fast as the native version. For me, this was the last major app still working through Rosetta. Good riddance!

Figma already released videos from the first day of Config 2021, and recordings from the second day should be released today. I missed many of them during the conference and now looking forward to catching up on the Memorial Day weekend!

Have you tried FigJam yet? I adore all the UI interactions and details in Figma’s newest product. Make sure to go through behind-the-scenes reports on building it in a dedicated section below. Subscribers of this newsletter heard the rumors about FigJam and voice chat months ago, but newly announced Branches caught me by surprise. That was the only part of the design workflow I thought Abstract was handling better, and after years of work, Figma finally shipped the beta to Org accounts. Can’t wait to try it!

Dylan Field’s opening keynote with all announcements is already on YouTube, while recordings of other talks will be available in a month. If you missed the conference, check out a few talk recaps and slide decks below.

Figma is setting the stage for the next week’s Config with multiple smaller long-awaited releases. I bet bulleted and numbered lists, switching between accounts, and publishing individual components were their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th most popular feature requests. (Dark mode has to be number one!)

Don’t miss a great article on creating the official Figma kit for Tailwind UI, Yuan Qing Lim’s thoughts on monetizing Figma plugins, and an insider’s look at ordering of Auto Layout elements. See you (virtually) at the Config!

Have you tried the new quick action search yet? Pressing Cmd-/ (or Ctrl-/ on Windows) now provides instant access to hidden features and plugins, similar to Spotlight or Alfred on Mac. Love this update!

Registration for Config 2021 is open until April 15th — don’t miss your spot at this free 2‑day conference! The speakers’ lineup is great, and I’m always looking forward to new product announcements in the opening keynote.

New use cases for Interactive Components keep rolling in. The creativity of the design community is truly mind-blowing! As you’ll see in this issue, Interactive Components have been used not only to add interactivity to standard UI elements like input fields and switches but also to create full-blown games like Sudoku, Go, or Minesweeper. (At this point, I began suggesting Figma to kids wanting to build video games. It’s a great intro to visual programming without actual programming.)

Exciting updates from Figma this week! First, they added comments to Figma Community, so now you can ask questions or provide feedback on plugins and files. Second, Interactive Components announced on the previous Config reached public beta! I collected a few demos and experiments made by early beta testers. Last but not least, news leaked about FigJam, a new whiteboard space Figma is working on — can’t wait to learn more!

Don’t miss an article on how Dropbox uses Smart Animate to illustrate product design concepts, a guide on switching between light and dark modes, a video stream of building an official Tailwind UI Figma kit, and an open-source Figma alternative. Enjoy!

Hello! 👋 Are you staying warm? We’ve been hit with a few snowstorms in the last weeks, so it’s a good time to get cozy and go through a reading backlog. This is one of the most densely packed and interesting issues I’ve sent in a while – hope you’ll enjoy it!

Figma announced the first Config of this year on April 21st, 2021. I can’t wait to hear their announcements! Netflix unveiled Hawkins, their design system used across 80+ applications. REI built a text input component with whopping 3,360 variants, while Uber programmatically created 256 components for map markers. In contrast to these two articles, Johan Ronsse makes an argument against overusing complex Figma features. Shopify shows how to set up your Figma projects to meet the needs of the whole team. And there are so many tips and tricks that I had to create a new section for them!

Time to ship new features after a winter break! During the last couple of weeks, Figma released multiple updates and improvements. File templates may be the most noticeable one, but personally, I’m more excited about improvements to Styles. A way to review library updates before accepting them is a nice touch too! Also in this issue, check out how non-designers use Figma at Dropbox, how teams use Zeplin for developer handoff, and even how to organize your design system with Notion. Enjoy!