Ridd explains how to make your components easier to use by exposing nested instances.

I had no idea that a Spread value in drop shadows can be negative! This effect could shrink the shadow and simulate the object’s elevation. The article explains the box-shadow property in CSS, but luckily, Figma’s drop shadow is based on it and works similarly. 

James shows how to achieve a very cool mesh gradient effect with simple tools: ​“It’s kinda silly how much you can achieve with a single blurred vector line, a gradient and a blending mode.” 

Jacob Miller shares two variables tips to avoid the most common problems: 1) ​“Never create a mode that shouldn’t be set at the page level” (read more about inheriting a context), and 2) ​“Never publish a variable that users shouldn’t consume” (see why component-scoped variables can 10x the number of variables you ship). Don’t miss discussions in replies. 

Essential Figma shortcuts as A4 and A3 posters, via Nick Babich.

Whoa, finally! Can’t believe this is getting fixed a few days before Config. Add bold, italic, underline, or strikethrough font style to a portion of text with an applied style without detaching it first.

Lots of small improvements and a few bigger changes, like an unread filter and inline comment replies. 

Christine Vallaure made a responsive and modular type scale using a scaling ratio approach.

The other day, I was looking for a tutorial on a specific animation technique and found this course by Tim Gabe. It’s free and has high-quality content — worth checking out!

Designer Advocate Ana Boyer with a reminder to plan your tokens and variables implementation before creating them in Figma. ​“In general, building then refactoring your variables is much more work than taking more time to plan before implementing. As they say: measure twice, cut once.” (That said, making refactoring easier in Figma won’t hurt.)

A nice little update to the Figma mobile app. I like how the app is focused on real-world ​“jobs to be done“ instead of shoehorning the whole Figma experience into the phone.

The move of drafts to teams caused a big enough uproar in the Figma community to warrant an explanation from Dylan Field, the CEO of Figma. Dann Petty made one of the strongest arguments against this change.

The strong feelings made me wonder about the differences in how we use Figma, and it probably comes down to handling multiple accounts and teams. I usually have two Figma accounts — one for personal projects and another tied to my work email address. Each account has its own drafts, so my personal drafts are never mixed with work. If you’re a freelancer and a part of multiple teams with a single email address, all your drafts are mixed, and separating them can feel like an invasion into your personal space. I don’t share the strong feelings on this change, but can see where Dann and others are coming from. (Pro tip: I use a separate Figma Beta app for the personal account, so I never have to switch accounts in the app.)

Typography variables can now be scoped to limit which properties they can be applied to. For example, if you scope a number variable to font size, you can only apply the variable to font size.

Also, copying and pasting an object bound to local variables will no longer populate a file with local variables unless you choose to in a tooltip.

A collection of attractive geometric backgrounds, ​“generated by Human with AI”. Available for free for personal, studio, and commercial use.

Not a new article, but a good one by Josh Comeau. ​“Scope cuts are generally decided by product managers, but they don’t make that decision alone. It often starts with a conversation between the designer and the developer. If these two people trust each other, the process is collaborative, cordial, and productive. They figure out the best solution under the current constraints, taking development time and user experience into account, and then pitch it to the PM. If the PM trusts the designer and developer, and their proposed solution works from a product perspective, it’s typically approved without any fuss.”

Minor but helpful change to the color picker — limit the options only to the current page.

“We are starting to roll out an easier way to mark frames ready for dev. Select a frame to see the </> icon appear at the top right, then click. You’ll see the ready for dev status also reflected in your selection actions.”

Changes to sharing and access settings ​“to create a more consistent sharing experience and give you clearer visibility into and control over content permissions,” being released through mid-June. New team access terminology, clarified UI for inheriting project access by the team members and child file access by the project members, a dedicated prototype share dialog, a branch’s audience and role, and a central place for sharing other forms, views, and artifacts of the file. (Pre-Config cleanup for something new?)

33% faster file loading and 33% fewer memory issues! ​“To ensure even the largest Figma design files can be used as efficiently as possible, Figma dynamically loads pages. When a file is opened, only the page that you land on is loaded (usually the first page in a file). This means a file with hundreds of pages can open as quickly as a file with just a few! Figma loads additional pages as you navigate to them. If an unloaded page is particularly complex, you may experience a brief pause when you navigate to the page.” Certain actions like searching across all pages, reviewing updates, or running a plugin or widget that needs the whole file may cause the file to load all pages.

Huge performance boost. See this Twitter thread from Bersabel Tadesse, Director of Product at Figma, on the journey to shipping this release: ​“Our architecture was built around files being the atomic unit of work, but users were treating pages as their atomic unit of work. So it didn’t make sense to keep optimizing within the current architecture—or worse, try and change how our users work.”

Throughout May, drafts are being moved into teams on the Starter and Professional plans. This change was poorly communicated and caused a public outcry, but I don’t actually think it’s unfair or a big deal. Historically, drafts haven’t been associated with a team. This made work ownership unclear, and teams couldn’t use advanced paid features like Dev Mode while working on drafts. Moving forward, drafts will be associated with a team, and existing files will need to be moved. Drafts stay private and can be shared view-only for free, but users will need paid seats to share drafts with others and to edit other teammates’ drafts. The free plan still includes 3 collaborative design files. This change puts a limit on teams collaborating in drafts but feels more like closing a loophole than a dark pattern.