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Component icon explorations

Luis shows some of the original designs for the component icon by Rasmus Andersson. At this point, it’s hard to imagine anything other than ❖, but I also like #7 and #14.

Figma shortcuts to design faster

Dmitriy Bunin shares a great collection of must-know shortcuts.

3 ways to use the component properties beta

Ridd shows how to use the new beta to expose the subcomponent state, avoid breaking down components, and set preferred values for ​“slots”.

Hanging quotes

Miggi shows how to do hanging opening quotes with Auto Layout.

Removing vector points

I wasn’t aware of the Shift+Delete shortcut for removing points on vector paths, but Option-clicking on them with the Pen tool is an even faster way to clean up a vector path.

Using Figma’s new video feature

Alex Oyebade shows how to use videos in prototypes.

Why Vijay loves Figma

Vijay Verma is a prolific member of the Figma community (see his projects featured in the past), and in this Twitter thread, he explains why he picked Figma over Sketch or Penpot. Don’t miss his time-lapse comparison of all three tools on YouTube, where he created the same icon and analyzed some key points.

I love his conclusion: ​“At the end, I learned that a tool is just a tool. It doesn’t matter what tool you choose depending on your needs, just start creating. You will find a way to achieve what you want to create with what you have on hand.”

Base components for exploratory work

With the recent improvements to variants and components, Ridd makes a point that the benefits of using base components are no longer worth the cost for the design systems work. That said, they’re still great for exploratory work.

Scratchpad file

Many of us have our own scratchpad files, but I love this naming suggestion!

That’s So Hot! Figma Fridays

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

Where is the new age of super cool web apps?

Francisco Tolmasky asks an important question — after Figma did the unimagined and released design tool in the browser, where are all other cool web apps built with this technology? A few examples I can think of are Framer and Spline.

On working in the open

An interesting comment from Rasmus Andersson on how the design team at Figma works. Many people get anxious when collaborators or viewers appear in their files in the middle of work. There must be a better way than moving files between private Drafts and public files. (Personally, I’d love to see something similar to the git push command developers use — privately work on changes, then when you’re ready send them to the public file. This would obviously affect multi-player collaboration, but sounds like an interesting challenge to think about.)

Using component props for contextual spacing

An interesting technique from Luis on using component props for adding spacing around icons only in some instances, for example when used inside a button.

Helpful Figma Shortcuts

15 shortcuts worth remembering.

How Figma does product work

Sho Kuwamoto describes how the editor team works. Building the process around ​“What do our users want us to make better?” instead of self-centered questions is probably what makes Figma so magical.

Dynamic Island animation

Really fun animation and interaction made by Figmatelier.

Halftone effects

Vijay Verma shares a few techniques for adding simple halftone effects in Figma. See also his experiments with Rogie’s upcoming NT plugin and how he achieved a frosted glass effect.

Starting a fresh design system

Luis shares jumping-off points for starting a new design system in Figma.

A single set of height variables

Ridd with a pro tip on using Variants. Good prep work for the design tokens in the future!

How the best companies compound unexpectedly

During a VC job interview in 2018, Kyle Harrison built a model with Figma becoming a $19B company in 2025. His analysis was called ​“unrealistic”. Good thread on compounding growth, and there is a deeper dive in his newsletter.

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