A few tricks for successfully exporting Figma mockups to Framer. In the end, it all comes down to using flexible and consistent structures in Figma that translate to code in Framer really well.

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.

Just in time for Hanukkah!

If you’ve been hearing the hype about Framer on #designtwitter and are curious to give it a try, check out this quick tutorial on bringing your design from Figma to Framer and building a website without writing code.

I write about this survey every year, and it’s always full of interesting insights into our industry. Figma is still the most used UI tool, but interestingly Adobe XD took second place from Sketch. Besides Figma, ProtoPie and Framer are the tools people are the most excited to try in 2023.

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.

Clara Ujiie with a nifty FigJam trick.

A beautiful deep dive into the making of a new background music feature in FigJam.

Copy-pasting objects from FigJam to Figma never disappoints.

Give words more meaning on the fly with Markdown support.

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.

Vijay Verma is a prolific member of the Figma community (see his projects featured in the past), and in this Twitter thread, he explains why he picked Figma over Sketch or Penpot. Don’t miss his time-lapse comparison of all three tools on YouTube, where he created the same icon and analyzed some key points.

I love his conclusion: ​“At the end, I learned that a tool is just a tool. It doesn’t matter what tool you choose depending on your needs, just start creating. You will find a way to achieve what you want to create with what you have on hand.”

Sorry to hear the bad news and wish the best to the Sketch team: ​“In response to challenging market conditions and with a desire to keep our product-first strategy, we’ve taken the difficult decision to reduce our team by just over 80 people. This will mostly impact Operations and Marketing, who have done great work in the recent weeks and months. Our Product team remains well-equipped, with a core team continuing to drive things forward.”

Graeme Fulton looks into the difference between ​“open design” and ​“open-source design tools”, the new opportunity for an era of open-source design amidst Adobe ⨉ Figma, and how designers can be a driving force behind open-source itself. Sketch’s open file format is something we’ve always taken for granted.

Convertify plugin just added the import of the Adobe XD files. I believe the writing about XD’s future is on the wall, so it’s a good time to start the migration.

Updates to a new file screen in FigJam: ​“Instantly populate your file with the building blocks needed to host a brainstorm, create a flowchart, or craft a meeting agenda with the new quick start guide in FigJam files.”

Congrats to the FigJam team! It’s definitely the most fun and delightful product I’ve used in a while.

Auto-convert pasted text links to Jira and Asana tasks into FigJam widgets.

Adobe representative to Protocol: ​“While we have been reducing our investment in XD, we will continue to support it. We are excited about Figma’s vision for the future of product design and the potential of our teams coming together to benefit our customers. After the transaction closes (expected in 2023), we will share more information.” RIP XD.