The new video series from Luis Ouriach on variables. The first part introduces the basic concepts and terminology — variable types, collections, modes, and aliases. The second part is ​“The 3 levels of variable” where Luis explains the definitions of primitive, semantic, and component-level variables. The third part focuses on creating your first variables and using modes to manage theming and densities.

“Using variables in your Figma libraries? Learn how to set a default mode for a library that applies to all of your teams and files within a workspace.”

Molly suggests it’s time to support multiple icon sizes with number variables.

Chad shows how to use variables to change a variant on a component instance in your designs.

Erez Reznikov shows some examples of the divergence between how code and visual design tools treat interactive elements and components in general, then suggests an alternative to the handoff process. ​“Construct tools and processes for designers and developers that will make it much harder to not be on the same page. Suppose a design tool would be made out of real elements, with an already existing, verified structure, that is backed by code beneath it all. You mainly see web builders do it today, like Webflow and Framer. When you use an element like a checkbox in these apps, it’s a real, working checkbox.”

I keep seeing complaints about the removal of code generation from the free view-only mode, and want to point out this section of the ​“Dev Mode is out of beta: what admins need to know” article. CSS, iOS, and Android codegen is still available but now is in the copy/​paste menu when you right-click a layer and choose ​“Copy as code”. For an overview of the other collaboration features available on the free plan, see Use the right sidebar with view-only access help article.

Christine Vallaure explains the basics of CSS Flexbox and how it translates to Figma’s Auto Layout. ​“Discover how to set up individual flex properties for items and explore the nesting capabilities of Flexbox. While Flexbox is great for component layout, CSS Grid offers more control for overall page layout. Find out how to use both in harmony for optimal design.”

“Some Figma features require users to upload or retrieve content from our servers (e.g. publishing a library, adding media to comments), but customers might have strict firewall settings that block these actions. Searching for ​“Check network settings” in quick actions will open a network settings modal, which indicates whether any of these services are blocked. IT admins can update their firewall’s allowlist to restore access. This modal is also accessible via a visual bell if users run into errors trying to use features blocked by their firewall settings.”

The new Figma for Jira app is now generally available, with a couple of new features — searching for linked Figma designs in Jira issues using Jira Query Language, and creating design automations in Jira to notify you of changes to designs, transition issue statuses, and easily add labels to issues with designs.

Fons Mans shows how to create a simple glow effect inspired by Vision Pro promo at the Apple 5th Avenue store in New York.

Molly praises the Cmd+\ shortcut for showing/​hiding UI, and I want to expand her tip by adding that the Cmd+Shift+\ shortcut toggles only the left sidebar (Layers/​Assets). Keep in mind that Cmd+\ also works in the Present mode — Figma toolbar has been popping up and blocking the navigation in one of my prototypes, so discovering that it could be turned off was a big relief.

In case you said goodbye to Dev Mode last week, Molly Hellmuth recommends a few plugins to help fill in the gap — Annotate It, Print Variables, Frame History, EightShapes Specs, and Handoff Notes.

I’ve seen a lot of confusion over the removal of the Inspect panel and the introduction of Dev Mode, so happy to see a detailed walkthrough of the free viewer experience recorded by Tom Lowry. Pretty much everything from the old Inspect panel is still available for free, and Dev Mode builds on top of that foundation. While some will inevitably label Dev Mode as a ​“money grab”, I won’t be surprised if many teams will save money by converting full Design seats to standalone Dev Mode seats.

Always love deep dives from people behind the features! Product Designer Oscar Nilsson explains how Annotations came to be — for both design and development. On why annotations are in the Dev Mode: ​“We wanted one dedicated space to curate a spec for developers and call out necessary details or areas of confusion, so we ultimately decided that designers should go to Dev Mode to annotate. In doing so, designers would see exactly what their developer counterpart sees while annotating, and they could share a link to Dev Mode when they’re done. Our goal is not for Dev Mode to silo developers once a designer’s work is done — but to engage the broader team in the product development process, with annotations being a first, crucial step.”

On positioning in context: ​“Testing and iterating on our positioning logic became an adventure on its own. We explored a direction in which annotations hide until you click on a corresponding frame. That felt right in theory, but once we actually tried it, we realized that it was still easy to miss out on important annotations if you were just looking at a frame without actively selecting it. We then iterated on different versions of automatically expanding annotations based on zoom level and position, and it immediately felt more intuitive.”

Dev Mode moved out of beta last week, and in this article, the Figma team talks about their product philosophy, how they’re improving the experience for developers and designers, and what’s coming next. There are new features that bring design and code closer together, including annotations in Dev Mode, along with improvements to compare changes, plugins, and the Figma for VS Code extension.

How it started: ​“We needed a team that lived and breathed development like we did design, so in 2021, we acquired Visly — a team of eight designers and engineers who built a tool for developing UI components in React. […] The Visly team brought with them years of hands-on experience and months of research on developer tooling — in other words, they had the developer ​“intuition” we were looking for.”

How it’s going: ​“Dev Mode aims to make you more productive by connecting the tools you use and your code components to the design file. There’s no one way to work, which is why we built Dev Mode to adapt to a variety of tools, processes, and workflows. Whether you’re looking to link design and code with Storybook, ensure accessibility with Stark, or streamline project management with Jira, Linear, and GitHub, plugins allow you to extend Figma’s functionality to flex however your team works.”

A nifty plugin for quickly snapping your selected objects to the pixel grid by rounding values. Works with X and Y values, width and height, corner radius, font size, and position of all anchor points.

I mentioned that technique in the last issue, and now the plugin is available in the Community. Great tool by Anvesh Dunna for creating interesting embossed line patterns from vector layers.

A comprehensive font management plugin with previews, controls for variable fonts, recommended pairings, filtering by style, collections, and more. Very well done.

Cool prototyping technique built on variables.

Molly spotted a nice improvement to opening a plugin from the Community — now they can be opened in a recent file instead of creating a new empty file in Drafts.