Figma created an entire hands-on course on designing a portfolio website from scratch. ​“We’ll cover the basics like shapes, text, and frames, and tap into more advanced features like auto layout, components, and prototyping. By the end, you’ll be ready to start bringing your own ideas to life.”

I don’t see myself using Draw much, but I’m so happy it’s here for talented artists like Mehak Samaiya.

Ridd is spot on: ​“2024: Figma uses AI to help designers design 😡 👎 2025: Figma uses AI to help designers code 🎉 🙌”

Noah Levin, VP of Design at Figma, gives a shout-out to designers behind the new product releases. First, I love seeing the individuals getting recognized for their hard work. Second, this is a great list of people to follow right away.

A grown-up version of zines from previous years. Didn’t read it yet, but flipped through, and it’s a beautiful historic artifact.

Whoa, that was fast! All talks from this year’s Config are already available on this YouTube playlist.

If an hour-and-a-half keynote is too long for now, this blog post provides a good recap: ​“Dylan Field runs down everything we launched at Config 2025 and explains why pushing design further matters more now than ever.”

If you have time for only one thing, watch this Config 2025 opening keynote led by Dylan Field.

After wrapping up his time as a PM at Figma, Robert Bye reflects on what he learned there and shares a few patterns that he thinks made the difference. This post focuses on craft: ​“There was this unspoken agreement that craft mattered. Everyone, from PMs to engineers to designers, took serious pride in their work. But no one took themselves too seriously. It was confident without ego. People wanted to do great work and genuinely cared.”

Claire Butler demystifies the role of marketing and sales in Figma’s bottoms-up go-to-market (GTM) strategy. It starts with a framework you can apply to your business, and this post will help you decide whether this approach is right for you.

“Create a personalized virtual badge for Config 2025! Make it your own by adding stickers and don’t forget to share your badge on social to connect with virtual and IRL attendees!”

A preview of an interesting new ​“design system tool for the AI era”. Imports design from Figma, creates a new component, and makes it instantly installable with the shadcn CLI tool.

The new version of the most advanced color picker for Figma, supporting OkLCH color space and APCA & WCAG contrast measurement algorithms. This update includes new square rendering for OkLCH, arrow keys and wheel support in the color picker, automatic detection of the document color mode, Figma UI3 update, and math support in the inputs — see the full release notes.

New color plugin from Evil Martians! Lots of smart ideas and nice touches, as if Accessible Palette got a younger and cooler sibling. Happy to see this team keeps making color tools better. ​“Harmonizer generates accessible, consistent color palettes for user interfaces. Using the OKLCH color model and APCA contrast formula, Harmonizer helps you create color palettes with consistent chroma and contrast across all levels and hues.”

Meng To shows how to generate designs in Aura and bring them to Figma. He includes a Figma file with 57 examples and they look pretty good!

John Maeda: ​“Even with these shifts, I don’t believe AI is replacing designers. If anything, it’s forcing us to focus on what only humans can provide: judgment, empathy, ethics, and the ability to ask the right questions. AI lets us scale and experiment in ways that weren’t possible before, but meaning, care, and resonance still come from human insight and intent.”

“In UX design, a single misplaced verb can lead users astray, frustrating their expectations and creating confusion. That’s why UX Writer Henry Freedland chose his words very carefully when he was brought in to help polish a new prototyping feature.”

“What seemed like a straightforward request — add a horizontal scroll bar to the Layers panel in Figma — presented unexpected challenges. Here’s how the design and engineering teams iterated and prototyped to find the right solution.”

“Preline UI Figma is the largest free design system for Figma, crafted with Tailwind CSS styles and Preline UI components with extra top-notch additions.”

In another article, Luis Ouriach shares tools that save him hours when starting a new design system and introduces 9 recent design systems features (covered in Issue #206) that address some common frustrations.