Fascinating thread showing how countless experiments with Figma plugins and API finally led to the development of Automator. This thread was published in March, and two months later today, Jordan announced a $3M seed round for his company — can’t wait to see what he will build next!
Using Figma as a playground to build design tools on top of an infinitely scaleable, realtime multiplayer canvas has changed everything for me.
— Jordan Singer (@jsngr) March 5, 2022
Here's a thread of my experiments to show you what's possible, to learn from, and plugins to install 👇 pic.twitter.com/ujT6he6Gz4
Nice trick on using “after delay” animation in combination with a Lottie file to avoid an infinite animation loop and play it only once.
Ready for a @figma prototyping pro tip?
— Ridd 🏛 (@Ridderingand) February 21, 2022
Use interactive components w/ @LottieFiles
It's the best way to add animations to your design system
Here's how it works 👇 pic.twitter.com/A4oxSfefJW
Ridd discusses a few key principles for using base components: How often are you iterating on the component? How complex is it? Avoiding problems with Interactive Components. Pairing primitives with slots. Bringing in base components early on to speed up the process.
I'm starting to believe we're thinking about .base components the wrong way...
— Ridd 🏛 (@Ridderingand) March 6, 2022
They're extremely powerful but only when used correctly.
So here are 5 principles for using .base components the right way👇 pic.twitter.com/HjYKEy7nOX
Joey Banks shares how he typically names Variants in Figma and the approach he tries to take whenever he is feeling stuck.
What a great idea to let community members nominate their favorite resources. Looking forward to see the winners on May 11th at Config!
Dylan Field shared three steps that Figma takes to become a more global company. First, Figma incorporated in Japan, set up an office in Tokyo, and started working on localizing Figma into Japanese. Second, they’re expanding in EMEA by opening offices in Paris and Berlin. And last but not least, Figma finally added support for RTL languages! Great news for designers working with Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu who relied on 3rd-party plugins in the past. See thread by Lauren Budorick on why implementing RTL support was a huge undertaking.
Another drawing challenge from Miguel. Love the simplicity of his approach and how well the icon has turned out.
Another attempt at building a fire icon in @figma for today's prompt by @disco_lu non-destructive Boolean operations FTW! pic.twitter.com/eIauhyayFt
— miggi from figgi (@miggi) February 14, 2022
How would you create a spiral in Figma without any external tools? Miggi’s answer is in the thread, but some of the solutions from others are really smart and creative too!
Quick challenge.... without plugins, external apps, or @jsngr's magical tools, how would you make this in @figma? Show me your solution in the thread... Ill show you how I did it tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/iTUg2Te0OK
— miggi from figgi (@miggi) February 15, 2022
Joey Banks talks about his approach to organizing and naming in Figma.
Bruno Figueiredo talks to Miguel Cardona about his journey to the world of design, work at Figma, and design education.
An official Community resource for the popular Automator plugin. Explore automations made by the community and remix them to work best for you.
Fons Mans recreated the latest designs from Apple, Instagram, and Shopify in Figma. Great educational resource.
Super useful tip from Miguel — use Option‑W/A/S/D shortcuts (which you may know from gaming) to align elements or points in vector networks. The latter is going to be a massive time-saver for me!
Option (alt) + W,A,S,D (⬆️,⬅️,⬇️,➡️) align shortcuts in @figma can be used when editing vector paths / points. https://t.co/YvRDIZNMlB pic.twitter.com/giLDWMj30x
— miggi from figgi (@miggi) February 11, 2022
Miggi shows his process of writing in small chunks using FigJam. Love how flexible and multi-faceted this product is!
Made a little FigJam template / video to help people get started with their writing process. This is how I use @figma's FigJam to collect my thoughts for blog posts.
— miggi from figgi (@miggi) February 10, 2022
Duplicate template here: https://t.co/9XtAJgcqCg pic.twitter.com/or5skevXqH
A curated list of automations for Jordan Singer’s popular Automator plugin.
Yet another great tutorial breaking down the process of creating an artwork by Fons Mans.
📣 Tutorial Thread!
— Fons Mans (@FonsMans) February 5, 2022
As promised, here’s the breakdown of my poster ‘Access Code’ —Learn how to create this visual in @figma
Let’s dive in 👇 pic.twitter.com/a9SWOYlrlP
A really detailed guide by Molly Hellmuth on spacing and layout grid best practices based on Material Design, Bootstrap, and Figma.
Fons Mans started publishing step-by-step tutorials for creating some of his artworks. See also a couple of other — one and two.
Tutorial Thread! 🧵
— Fons Mans (@FonsMans) January 25, 2022
Learn how to make this poster in @figmadesign. Let’s dive in 👇 pic.twitter.com/V3tgRphxFA
Joey Banks shared a change in his approach to base components earlier this month on Twitter, and now goes into more details in his newsletter. I often end up with too much complexity because of over-reliance on base components, so this is a piece of welcome advice.