“The long run received’t be designed by chance.” That was the optimistic message Figma CEO Dylan Subject delivered through the opening keynote at Config 2025, emphasizing the pivotal position designers will play in an period the place AI is making it simpler to create software program than ever earlier than. Dylan reassured the viewers {of professional} designers that as AI accelerates every thing, design would be the differentiator. Why? As Figma’s VP of Product Sho Kuwamoto aptly put it throughout our dialog, “Design helps you determine what you need to make, and with AI accelerating every thing you higher be the one making the correct factor.” As for Figma’s product bulletins, I left the occasion feeling a mixture of pleasure and trepidation. Right here’s my take after attending the occasion and talking with a number of Figma leaders.
New Merchandise Speed up The Path From Thought To Shipped Expertise
Figma unveiled 4 new merchandise this 12 months: Figma Websites, Figma Make, Figma Buzz, and Figma Draw. Every is designed to assist groups go from thought to launch as rapidly as attainable. These releases additionally sign Figma’s push to convey much more person varieties into its ecosystem. Listed here are my key takeaways:
- Prototyping will get supercharged. Figma Make (at the moment in beta) allows designers to show Figma design information or written prompts into working prototypes, utilizing pure language prompts to refine the output. Creating high-fidelity working prototypes is a good use case for genAI as a result of prototypes assist groups validate concepts with customers, iterate quicker, and talk design concepts to stakeholders.
- Figma brings entrepreneurs into its ecosystem. Figma Buzz (at the moment in beta) targets model and advertising and marketing groups, bringing new customers into Figma’s collaboration-focused ecosystem. With Figma Buzz groups can collaborate on social media, occasion, and different model content material utilizing customizable templates and enhancing instruments. Figma’s transfer to bridge the hole between product design and advertising and marketing groups is paying homage to its efforts to do the identical with the designer/developer workflow when it launched Dev Mode in 2023. The product is clearly a transfer to compete with Canva, and for firms with a design system who need to drive consistency throughout advertising and marketing, design, and improvement Buzz is a product to look at.
- Enhanced instruments assist on a regular basis design duties. New auto format function “Grid” (at the moment in beta) helps designers simply create versatile and responsive layouts, eliminating the workarounds Figma noticed designers making use of as we speak. It additionally launched Figma Draw (now GA), a set of instruments centered on visible design with enhanced vector enhancing and illustration options. Whereas much less flashy, designers I spoke with on the occasion worth these upgrades for streamlining on a regular basis duties.
The Figma Websites Debacle Exhibits That Accessibility Can’t Be An Afterthought
Inclusive design is extra essential now than ever – however it clearly wasn’t a requirement for Figma Websites. Figma Websites (at the moment in beta), which turns designs into reside web sites, was swiftly criticized (right here’s an instance) by designers, builders, and accessibility consultants for producing inaccessible code. The suggestions echoes what I observe in my work with shoppers who more and more suppose that if a product doesn’t meet accessibility requirements it’s not able to launch to prospects.
Ought to Figma have achieved higher? Completely. It’s troubling for a corporation whose mission is to “make design accessible to everybody” to launch a product that creates inaccessible outputs. Because the go-to software for product design, Figma has a accountability to set the usual for high quality. On the intense facet, Figma has all the time had a powerful reference to its neighborhood, and I’ve confidence it’ll handle this suggestions rapidly. Till it does, I counsel organizations maintain off on utilizing Figma Websites.
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