Tom Johnson: ​“It’s literally faster for me to build a concept inside of the actual codebase than it is to work in Figma. But the amount of versions and breadth of the final result is not up to the quality bar that I usually hold. I’m loving the speed, but the output is sloppy at times. So I’ve got this weird flow of Code → Code → Figma → Code → Figma. Repeat, reorder, etc. The issue is that the transition from Figma → code with their MCP is solid. […] But code → Figma… is a terrible flow.”

I often spend more time recreating a particular screen in Figma than actually designing the change. I’ve been beating on the Code Connect drum for a while as it has huge potential for connecting design and code components. Even though it was built to translate components from Figma to code, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in reverse. Code Connect was announced almost two years ago (way before LLMs and MCPs got powerful), but because it’s locked behind Organization and Enterprise plans, it’s rarely discussed in the community or considered by plugin and tool makers.

In this talk from Hatch Conference, Jenny Wen, Design Lead at Anthropic and former Director of Design at Figma, explains why the traditional design process is outdated and no longer works for today’s tools and tech: ​“With AI accelerating prototyping, smaller teams doing more, and craft becoming a key differentiator, rigid processes are failing designers. Jenny shares real examples from Figma and Anthropic that show how great work actually gets made today. Starting from solutions, caring deeply about details, building intuition, skipping steps, and designing for delight.”

Jenny’s talk really resonated with me. Quickly trying and discarding solutions, iterating on details, and relying on intuition is how I prefer to work. Still, without formal collateral such as personas or problem statements, it can feel like taking a shortcut. I went through a phase of producing these artifacts, but often found them more useful for justifying decisions than making them. It finally clicked when I read Alan Cooper’s interaction design bible, ​“About Face,” a decade ago: a lot of these processes came from design consultancies. They have to learn a client’s business, do product discovery, solve a problem, and sell it to stakeholders in a short time before moving to the next client. The longer you work on a product, explore the problem space, and listen to users, the stronger your intuition gets, which lets you fast-forward and compress discovery and design process.

“In this episode of In Good Company, Nicolai Tangen speaks with Dylan Field, founder and CEO of Figma, about the ideas behind one of the most influential design platforms in the world. Field shares lessons from founding Figma at 19, navigating years of iteration before launch, and scaling with a strong product culture. They discuss taste, craft, and community, how AI is changing the creative process, and what it means to lead with optimism in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.”

MDS recorded a Figma tutorial video dissecting why Anthropic’s Claude app icons feel so satisfying and explaining how to recreate these animated icon components in Figma using Smart Animate.

Another cool Figma Draw technique from Miggi that I wasn’t aware of. Until now, I was achieving this effect in an old-school way by flattening a copy of the object and then adding an outside stroke.

Luis took on a noble goal of making a reliable UI kit for React Aria. I enjoy following his process even while I don’t use the actual UI library.

Miggi shows how to use the Cut tool like a pro.

Dylan Field argues that AI will generate more of the short‑lived, simple artifacts in software and design, while humans will remain central for long‑lasting, high‑impact work where craft and intention matter most.

Ed Elson from First Time Founders discusses with Dylan Field the future of design in the age of AI, how his management style has changed over time, and what it was like to go public.

MDS pitches in: ​“There is something fundamentally different about freeform exploration versus direct end product manipulation. The same way there’s a big difference between drawing with a pencil on paper, moving objects around on a screen, or writing words in a journal versus typing words on a screen. And now we can have AI do some or all of that for us.”

“So I say let cookie cutter primitives happen. Every font uses the exact same alphabet. Every song uses the same 12 notes. Some people will always want to build something unique regardless of those primitives. […] The idea that everything may become cookie cutter is not an actual problem. It’s a theoretical problem. Meanwhile, there are real problems with real impact waiting to be solved.”

Tommy Geoco perfectly summarized the debate between Karri Saarinen from Linear and Ryo Lu from Cursor.

Designer Advocate Anthony DiSpezio is joined by Christine Vallaure for a walkthrough of best practices for designing responsive websites in Figma Sites. They cover how to design across breakpoints, tips for layout and structure, and other best practices.

Ridd highlights a few examples from his workflow of delivering production-ready code to his product. Love this part: ​“I explored this concept in Make and really liked where it landed. A couple years ago, I would’ve dropped a Cleanshot .gif on the canvas and asked my developer to recreate it as closely as possible. But I’m no longer making concept cars. This component is the design. Every detail is rooted in code and behaves exactly how I want it to in production.”

Luis made an incredibly useful widget to help check off requirements before the component gets to production — states, accessibility, documentation, tokens, etc. Checklists are an underrated tool for optimizing routine tasks, and I’m looking forward to trying this one. (Design Systems Checklist is another great resource worth checking out.)

Ana Boyer designs a web homepage, showcasing recently launched Figma Design and Draw features. ​“Learn how to create a text-inlay parallax hero using Remove background and Isolate object, apply Glass effects, expand an image within a grid, generate illustrations via AI prompts, and add Draw texture effects.”

In his talk at Converge 2025, Luis Ouriach makes a compelling argument that we create too many design tokens — particularly for colors.

Dylan Field shows several demos prepared with Gemini 3 Pro and highlights how this model stood out in one-shot generation and a wide range of visual aesthetics.

Molly suggests using separate color palettes for marketing and product design, as they have different goals and speed of iteration.

Noah Levin, VP of Design at Figma, shows how creative image prompting with the new Nano Banana Pro model can add serious value to your work across all of Figma’s products. I really liked the practicality of examples in this article, from updating a headshot to match the rest of the team to preparing a dark version of the illustration.

In the latest episode of Boz to the Future, Meta CTO Andrew ​“Boz” Bosworth sits down with Dylan Field: ​“Boz and Dylan dive deep into the intersection of technology and creativity, from the early days when designers were scarce to today’s collaborative, cloud-based workflows. They talk about the imminent paradigm shift in interfaces and what comes after text prompting. They discuss what stays evergreen despite rapid technological change, and why the pursuit of craft remains fundamentally human.”