This playground is an interactive guide to the Dev Mode, made with two audiences in mind. Designers will get to know how to set up files for handoff, connect design and code, and explain Dev Mode to developers, while developers will learn how to track design status and changes, inspect designs, get relevant code snippets, and use plugins to extend and connect workflows.

A new feature page for the Dev Mode, a space in Figma for developers offering features that help translate designs into code faster. This is a great overview to learn about inspecting designs, exporting variables as design tokens, generating production-ready code snippets, integrating Figma into your development workflow, bringing design files into the VS Code, adding structure to the handoff process, and comparing changes. Dev Mode is currently in beta and free to use through 2023.

Kris Rasmussen, CTO of Figma, answers a question of how a design tool can work better for developers by introducing Dev Mode, ​“a new workspace in Figma that’s designed to get developers what they need, when they need it, harnessing the tools they use every day.” Something I didn’t expect: ​“Today, we know that on our paid plans more developers visit Figma than designers.” With this in mind, it’s great to see new plans for developers: ​“Starting in 2024, you’ll have an option to purchase Dev Mode access only for $25 per seat per month on Organization, and $35 per seat per month on Enterprise.”

(If you’re curious about what developers think about Dev Mode, check out comments on Hacker News. While that community tends to be overly negative, it’s interesting to see what kind of problems Figma is addressing with this launch.)

Dylan’s recap of all the updates from the keynote, in a brand-new blog. ​“Our vision is to build a new kind of design tool — one that is designed for the entire product development team. Today’s launches reimagine how design and development come together in Figma. I’m excited to introduce three ways we’re doing this: making developers feel at home in Figma with Dev Mode, connecting design to the language of code with variables, and putting a step in between a 2D design and a shipped product with advanced prototyping.”

If you have time for only one thing this week, this should be it. First, Figma CEO Dylan Field introduces new features — variables, auto layout updates, and advanced prototyping. Then, CTO Kris Rasmussen talks about rethinking product building from the ground up and how the new Dev Mode is bringing design and engineering closer together. In the end, Dylan talks about file browser refresh, font previews, and what AI could look like in Figma — wrapping things up by announcing the acquisition of Diagram.

I watched every Config keynote over the years, and this year’s announcements were the most anticipated and ambitious ever. It’s incredible to see how Figma is growing in depth and breadth at the same time, now providing incredibly advanced tools while covering an entire product-building process from brainstorming to design to development. Exciting time to be a maker.

Evan Wallace, a co-founder of Figma, made this niche plugin 4 years ago, and I just discovered it?! ​“This plugin lets you edit the fill rules of a vector object. Fill rules determine which parts of a vector outline are filled. The fill rules have different behavior when a vector outline overlaps. Why is this useful? Certain export formats (e.g. TrueType fonts, Android VectorDrawable) only support the non-zero fill rule. You can use this plugin to manually convert even-odd to non-zero to make the exporters for these formats work.”

Cool way to present work on the Figma canvas without entering the presentation mode.

Double Glitch pushes Figma’s prototyping limits with this cool mouse tracking effect.

Molly Hellmuth points to five places where her students often get stuck when building component sets in Figma. Matching names of the layers across variants, ordering and grouping properties, rearranging a component set for the most common variant, and breaking down large component sets are all great tips for getting unstuck.

Not sure when this was shipped, but this is a fast way to add emojis without opening a picker!

Mal shows hot updates to the new FigJam app for the iPad! It got the new native toolbar with a fresh look and feel. The app was optimized for Apple Pencil, and now it supports a responsive experience for multitasking.

A new plugin from Bravo Studio for setting up your design files to be converted into a native app.

Christine Vallaure recorded a comprehensive guide to setting up, connecting, and updating libraries.

Latest diagramming improvements in FigJam:

• Choose from over 10 new drag-and-drop shapes including star, plus, and hexagon
• Straight line connectors now anchor to the center of objects for more visually streamlined flows
• Swap between shapes quickly as you build diagrams

“Grab teammates’ attention in stickies or any text in your FigJam files by typing @ followed by their name.”

Jan Mraz with a short video showing a few Auto Layout tips. I keep forgetting that the canvas stacking option exists! No more weird hacks with rotating a container 180°.

Jan Toman gathered the best practices for creating solid button components.

A solid list of new recommendations from the ADPList.

Great tip on using Figma object alignment shortcuts with MX Master mouse. I tried this mouse a few years ago and went back to Magic Mouse because of its amazing scrolling, but might give it another try just because of shortcuts!

Oğuz Yağız Kara shows how setting the color of the transparent gradient stop helps make it softer.