Tokenbase is a free tool for creating, managing, and distributing design tokens. Easily create your design systems and export tokens to code in a few clicks. It’s currently in beta, and I wonder if importing from Figma is on the roadmap?
Lee Munroe and the design team at OneSignal learned how to create Figma plugins from scratch and shared the first steps for building something simple. Between an excellent Create Figma Plugin toolkit and ChatGPT, I recommend giving it a shot.
Jason Lengstorf from Learn with Jason talks to Figma Developer Advocate Jake Albaugh about how Dev Mode improves the design handoff and how the Figma plugins API enables more powerful customization.
“The Washington Post’s inclusive process for creating new design system components bridges the gap between design and development to make features that help navigate the news online.”
Sam shares math equations she used in Token Studio to build all sorts of dimension tokens and even a proportional scale that snaps to a 4 or 8 pixel grid. This guide uses typography as an example, but the same ideas apply to sizing and spacing. There is even a free playground in the Community.
Ana Boyer wonders, what if we also marketed design systems like products? “In my time at Figma, I’ve talked to dozens of design systems teams looking to drive adoption and prove the value of their work. Now, more than ever, it’s important to think, strategize, and execute like a marketer. Here are some of the tactics and strategies for helping you position your design system as an integral asset — whether launching anew or revitalizing existing efforts.”
A reminder that Framework is happening on Tuesday, April 16th. Figma published the schedule for this 3‑hour-long event, which will be a great fit for anyone interested in variables, design systems, and design-to-code handoff.
Michael Mignano talks to Jordan Singer, AI lead at Figma and former Founder & CEO of Diagram. They covered the role of human designers in AI, what it’s like building AI features for the world’s leading product design platform, Jordan’s path from coder to designer to product builder to founder, and much more.
A free beta of the design system generator. Figr Identity helps set up styles and variables for color, typography, spacing, grids, radius, and shadows. Automate tedious work by generating a scalable component library and easily managing your design system.
Juno Jo kicked off the first Friends of Figma Atlanta event of the year with a guide through the process of constructing a consistent icon library for your projects. In his presentation, Juno explores how to harness the power of Variables to begin tokenizing your system, elevating your design workflow to new heights.
In another conversation with Andrew Hogan, Ritesh Gupta, CEO and Founder of Useful School, shares how he sees work changing, the value of different identities and ways of thinking, and AI’s impact on UX and design.
A slide deck with 100 Figma tips to make your design workflow smart, fast, and super productive.
This April Fun Day, Figma had some fun with cursors. “What better way to celebrate this icon of interaction than with a look back at digital eras through the decades? For one week starting this April Fun Day, you’ll be able to choose throwback cursors inspired by four aesthetics from internet history: We’re calling them 8‑bit, Y2K, Skeuomorphic, and Aero. Here, we reminisce about bygone trends and reveal how we brought these vintages back to life.”
Andrew Hogan, Head of Insights at Figma, talks to Bob Baxley, SVP of Design at ThoughtSpot, about his view on AI’s impact, why it’s so important to design tools well, and what we can learn from history and huge projects like the Apollo Mission.
Figma is bringing together the design systems community on April 16 to share new features, best practices, and a peek into what’s coming next in the half-day event. “We’ll share more about new capabilities to make design systems more powerful and easier to adopt, as well as features to connect your system closer to code. Our product sessions will dive deep into strategies for structuring and maintaining your system.”
Considering it’s only a couple of months until Config 2024, it’s pretty clear they will put a bow on some of the features announced last year. Typographic variables, anyone?
Weavely is the AI form builder for Figma. You can design a form in Figma, and Weavely will generate a working web form from it. It supports answer piping, conditional logic, AI form generation, and more.
Free 40-minute DesignCode course on designing a realistic smart home mobile app. The video explains using the Arc tool, dashed lines and stroke settings, boolean tools, Auto Layout, and more.
Tom MacWright writes about his experience building the Placemark plugin for creating vector street-level maps and Placemark Globe for rendering a globe. He covers several interconnected topics, including tracking usage, sandboxing, plugin architecture, and authoring flow.
Mark Bennett with an in-depth walkthrough of his process for creating CyberBlade illustration.
A guide to creating icons in Figma with a solid introduction to basic tools, grids, and approaches to designing a cohesive set.