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.

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.

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.”

Charli Marie with ten tips on how you can get the most out of FigJam.

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

After adding screen readers support to Figma prototypes last year, now it’s introduced to FigJam. With this update, screen reader or keyboard users can move focus around the canvas, as well as between different menus and screens, to create, edit, and read out content. I love how these improvements make FigJam better for everyone: ​“Users can now navigate FigJam files using the Tab key to jump between objects on the canvas, as well as between text nodes for efficient editing. Hold Shift-Tab to tab in reverse.”

The accessibility team also shared a few tips on making FigJam files more accessible: provide ​“alt” text to images, use Sections to group content, numbered lists to describe order, and underscores to communicate fill-in-the-blanks.

In addition to a bigger release, there are a bunch of good quality-of-life improvements: toggling between thin and thick markers with Command–B (lovely animation!), an addition of Paste to replace (Command–Shift–V) command to FigJam, and connecting two objects by simply clicking on one object followed by clicking on another.

A big update to FigJam — custom templates for your team, stamp your teammates’ faces to files and tag them with @mentions, emoji picker opens by typing a colon (“:”), custom color palettes (coming soon), UserTesting and Great Question integrations, Productboard widget, and new tunes! Also, explore new world-class teams’ templates and see a thread by Cai on the Figma design team’s rituals and templates they use in daily work.

“Get an inside look into how the design team at Mixpanel builds internal morale, a culture of coaching, and team trust. In this livestream, you’ll hear directly from two design managers about how they’ve made the relationship between managers and designers more human-centered. They’ll share insights on how to foster a culture of collaboration and feedback, templates for both managers and ICs, and provide practical strategies and tactics to use in your next 1:1!”

“FigJam is the perfect card sorting tool for research teams. In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to create a card sorting template and how to use FigJam to run a card sorting activity with your participants.”

“Navigate FigJam files without taking your hands off your keyboard by using the Tab key to jump between objects on the FigJam canvas, like sections, shapes, and stickies. You can also tab between text nodes while editing text to rapidly make edits across your file. Hold Shift + Tab to tab back in the reverse direction.”

Jenny Wen, Product Design Manager at Figma, had a virtual AMA with the Designer Fund community, where she answered questions about leadership, the value of a ​“riffing” culture, designing for moments of delight, and where she goes for product design inspiration, news, and updates.

A simple FigJam widget to easily visualize upcoming events and deadlines from the Figma team.

Now in FigJam, you can access face stamps from anyone in your organization and add them to your FigJam file. Browse available face stamps in the More menu and easily change an existing face stamp to another teammate’s face. (Available on teams on the Organization and Enterprise plans.)

So many great ways to warm up the room in replies to Femke. I’d love to try This or That, play two truths and a lie, draw blind contour portraits, or look for common ground with my team.

Some folks were upset when Figma added tables to FigJam because pasting data from Google Sheets was used to create a set of sticky notes. This plugin brings back this behavior by letting you convert tables to sticky notes.

For this April Fun Day, Figma added a snake game to a Section tool inside FigJam. I don’t expect it to be around for too long, so give it a try if you can! See also a thread from Mihika Kapoor on how the team came up with the idea and built it.