I decided not to send a newsletter last week, as the focus was on more important topics and conversations. While that’s still the case, let’s try to get back to our regular broadcasting.

In this issue, we’ll learn how to use Constraints with Layout Grids, how to control spacing with spacer components and Auto Layout, and see how a component-based approach can be applied to an illustration system. We’ll also look at how Microsoft builds Fluent UI design system, and how Dylan Field pitched Figma to the investors in the early days. Enjoy!

In this issue, we’ll look at public projects from Figma Maker Week, talk about remote design as a new reality for many teams, learn how other designers and developers use Figma, and how design systems are organized in large teams. There is also an unusually large number of products built for Figma — iPadOS and Linux clients, a collaborative workspace for planning work, and plugin for creating and customizing illustrations. Enjoy!

P.S. Thank you to everyone who showed interest in my upcoming book ​“Designing in Figma”! After writing this newsletter for six months, I thought I know the app pretty well, but I keep discovering new features and tricks as I work on the book. Makes me appreciate a fantastic tool we have in our hands even more!

Folks, it’s a big day around here! For the last few months, I’ve been working on a book about Figma and finally ready to talk about it publicly. ​“Designing in Figma” is a complete guide to using the app and designing with reusable components and styles. It dives deep into every topic and filled with tricks that I collected while writing this newsletter. The book is coming later this summer, and it would mean a lot to me if you help spread the word and subscribe to updates.

P.S. I’m trying a new format in this issue. Instead of grouping links by source, I organized them by topic. Let me know what you think on Twitter or by replying to this email.

Six months ago, when starting this newsletter, I was worried that there might not be enough content for a fortnightly digest. Now I regularly have to pass on links to keep the newsletter’s length under control. It’s great to see how fast the community is growing and how many cool things it builds.

Since the last time, Figma released Links, Spotify wrote about their ways of working and organizing files, VMware ran a remote design sprint, the community built Stay at Home Valley, Marcin Wichary shared the process of building Selection Colors, and Blokdots came up with a way to connect Figma prototype with Arduino. If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with your circle.

It seems like our industry is slowly adjusting to the new reality — projects are getting shipped, articles published, and plugins released. The team at Figma made a couple of small but impactful improvements to the app, including Styles support in Selection Colors. They even had a delightful April 1st update! Framer X introduced Figma importer, so now it’s easy to start designing in Figma and finish prototyping interactions in Framer X. This issue also includes remote design resources from the community, a collection of resume templates, and guide for note-taking in remote usability testing. Enjoy!

I hope most of you are settling into a new routine of working from home. If you miss human interaction, Figma just opened their Slack workspace from the Config conference to the public. Since the last issue Apple released iPadOS 13.4 with mouse and trackpad support that makes Figma almost fully-functional on the iPad, Dylan Field appeared at Jason Calacanis’ show ​“This Week In Startups,” and a few cool plugins were released. Enjoy the links, and stay safe out there!

What a couple of weeks, right? The pandemic of COVID-19 makes everything else insignificant at the moment, but maybe this newsletter will give you a short break from the bad news. I hope you can stay home and work remotely to keep yourself and those around you healthy — tools like Figma make this more comfortable than ever.

This issue continues Config recap as more participants shared their thoughts about the conference, and Figma itself published recordings of all talks. One of the most discussed topics in the community is designing with real data, and thanks to plugins there are plenty of ways to fill mockups with content from the APIs. Speaking of plugins, a few collections were published in the last weeks where everyone can find something useful. And don’t miss the discussions on Twitter and a fun chart showing the popularity of product design tools over time. Enjoy the issue!

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!

Figma’s first user conference Config is happening this Thursday, and even while after some pondering I decided not to attend, FOMO is high now. Lineup of speakers looks great, so make sure to register for a livestream of morning keynotes. In the meantime, this issue will fill you in on a collaboration model, syncing colors from Figma to GitHub files, what a native macOS app may (or even currently does!) look like, an interview with the CEO of Figma, an introduction of community remixes, and follow-up on recent outages. Enjoy the links and the conference, if you’re going!