Designer Advocate Mallory Dean on how learning the three Cs can help you build up the basics and pick up steam: ​“One of the core responsibilities of my role as a designer advocate is to onboard teams to Figma and help them see the magic of ​“multiplayer,” as we call it. In doing so, I myself have learned from the experience and collected invaluable resources. Most importantly, I see how I would have changed my approach when I first started out. Instead of focusing on learning specific features, I would prioritize understanding different focus areas, which I call the three Cs of Figma: creation, customization, and collaboration.”

Designer Advocate Mal reminds us that it’s crucial to consider the discoverability of components when building a set and points to a new feature of the Assets library that shows a number of component variants and a playground for exploring them.

“Effective product development hinges on a well-defined process and seamless team communication. However, implementing these concepts can be more challenging in practice.” AMA discussion hosted by the team of advocates — Lauren Andres, Akbar Mizra, Mallory Dean, and Anthony DiSpezio.

A few less-known and undervalued tips from Mal on working with comments in Figma. Personally, I had no idea that comments can be added to a selection or can contain images! I’d also suggest enabling the ​“Only current page” filter to keep a list focused.

Miggi, Mal, and Lauren’s first reactions to using the new mind maps feature in FigJam.

…and one more list, but for advanced prototyping!

Designer Advocate Mallory mapped out a helpful list of resources like YouTube videos, playgrounds, community files, plugins, and articles to get started with Variables.

Designer Advocate Mal shares a few handy shortcuts that are worth memorizing — quick actions search, hide the layers panel, insert components, and zoom to selection.

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.

Designer Advocate Mal shows how to use the new memory control features: ​“To keep you informed of your memory usage, and any potential issues that may arise, we’ve adjusted our memory banners and alerts to live in the sidebar along with your pages and layers. We’ve also introduced a Memory use tool to surface memory consumed in your files by Page Content and Imported Components as well as the ability to show memory usage in the layers panel for all layers.”

Mal with a quick demo of Shaper, Magic Marker, and A Selector plugins.

Regardless of going to the in-person Config this summer, this is a great intro of the international designer advocate team. Here is the full list for you to follow — Lauren Andres, Hugo Raymond, Hiroki Tani, Julia Kestner, Mallory Dean, Corey Lee, Alexia Danton, and Sebastian Metel.

This week, Designer Advocate Mal talks about Taylor Swift Midnights Cover Template, Halloween Retrospective Template, Hidden Kittens, and Calendar.

Designer Advocate Mal shares one hot community file, plugin, and widget.