Atiqur Rahaman
Figma Config 2024, held on June 26-27 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The Figma event has brought exciting updates for product creators. The conference featured over 75 speakers from 8 different thematic tracks.
The major highlights of this event were:
- New AI features in Figma
- A redesigned Figma user interface
- Figma Slides, a new presentation tool
- Enhanced Dev Mode
- Improved Auto Layout
Here, the other improvements included responsive prototyping and the addition of default UI kits. Well, we can say that this config must be the 24’s most revolutionary update for Figma. If you still don’t check what’s new here, keep reading till the end for the quickest overview of the entire Figma Config 2024.
Figma AI: A Potential Revolution in the Design World
The new Figma Config introduced varieties of AI-powered tools for the very first time. It is probably the most hyped announcement at the event. However, the AI feature is designed to streamline and enhance the design process.
“In a world where more software is being created and reimagined because of AI, designing and building products is everyone’s business,”
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma.
Here are the core features of Figma AI:
- Design Generation: Designers can now create useful web and smartphone UI mockups with different styles and layouts using simple text prompts. It is very useful for rapid ideation and prototyping.
- AI-based Prototypes: You can now transform static mockups into interactive prototypes effortlessly. It’ll reduce many manual steps and accelerate the prototyping phase.
- Search Visually Option: This feature lets users search through team projects using images, screenshots, or frames. So, it becomes easier to locate specific designs or draw inspiration from colleagues’ work.
- Layer Renaming Feature: With a single click, Figma AI can contextually rename and organize all the layers in a file. This feature simply improves file management and reduces manual effort.
- Automation of Tedious Tasks: Figma AI automates repetitive tasks like adding realistic text, translating content, adjusting tone, creating images, and removing image backgrounds. These actions help designers focus more on creative work and less on routine tasks.
These AI enhancements are part of Figma’s broader vision to integrate more deeply into the design and development workflow. Both designers and developers will benefit from these advanced tools.
“From AI tools that elevate professional designers to developer tools that create stronger connections between design and code, Figma wants to make it possible for teams to go from idea to product—all in one place,”
Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma.
UI3: The New Redesigned Figma UI
The Figma Config 2024 has introduced UI3, which stands for the 3rd redesign of its interface. This one was built by researching tons of feedback from its community aiming for a more immersive and efficient design environment.
The new UI has features like:
- Immersive canvas with more space for creativity, enhancing focus on the canvas.
- Component-centric UI with a more intuitive arrangement for a better user experience.
- A set of new, fresh, and modern icons to improve visual clarity and usability.
- Patterns and Systems consistency to support current workflows.
UI3 is built in a way so that it can identify user pain points while respecting established workflows and muscle memory. The redesign aims to streamline the user experience while balancing new features with familiarity.
Although the changes need users to work more for adjustment, users can toggle UI3 on or off during the gradual rollout. Figma’s ultimate goal is to transition all users to this updated interface for both functionality and ease of use.
Figma Slides: A New Presentation Tool
Figma Slides are another major highlight of the event. It’s a powerful new presentation tool that extends Figma’s design capabilities to making presentations. This tool was designed for both designers and non-designers.
Here are the major features of Figma Slides:
- Options for toggling on “design mode” to access Figma’s full suite of design features.
- Features for detailed customization of text, tables, images, shapes, and interactive prototypes.
- Provides features like grid view and easy slide rearrangement for perfect organization.
- Integrates with Figma’s libraries and assets for accessing brand elements and design resources.
- AI features for adjusting tone, rewriting or shortening text, generating images, and removing backgrounds, enhancing productivity.
This slide tool was developed during an internal hackathon. It exemplifies Figma’s culture of innovation and team-driven development. These slides aim to revolutionize presentation creation for users within the Figma ecosystem.
Figma’s Dev Mode Got Lots of Enhancements
The recent Figma Config 2024 also added several key enhancements to Dev Mode. The new mode was designed to streamline collaboration between designers and developers. These updates aim to improve the design-to-development workflow and ensure smoother handoffs.
Ready for Dev View
This new feature lets developers easily locate and focus on designs that are ready for development. It provides filter options, search, and detailed update history for full context.
Focus View
Developers can now see only the completed designs marked as “ready to build.” They’ll also see snapshots of designs before the latest revisions. This approach will ensure clarity and reduce distractions.
Enhanced Status Tracking
Designers can leave notes on “Ready for Dev” designs, and developers receive notifications about these changes. It’ll help keep everyone aligned on the latest updates.
Improved Navigation and Integrations
There are enhancements for better navigation to run plugins directly in Figma for VS Code. It’s a new model for comparing design versions, code changes, and auto-running plugins. It’ll be very handy for entire organizations on the Enterprise plan.
These enhancements are designed to improve collaboration, provide better visibility, and ensure efficient communication throughout the design-to-development process.
Improved Auto Layout
Last but not least, the event announced significant enhancements to the Auto Layout feature. They are designed to improve the design process and create more responsive layouts.
Figma Auto-layout additions include:
Nested Frames
Figma now suggests and automatically creates multiple Auto Layout frames for comprehensive design elements. This approach will save time and reduce manual work.
Precise Positioning
Holding the ‘Ctrl’ key while dragging a design element allows for absolute positioning within an Auto Layout frame. This is truly a useful feature. It’ll enable precise control over element placement.
Flexible Wrapping
Auto Layout can now wrap content horizontally or vertically. It will significantly adapt to the size of the frame automatically. As a result, it will help create more flexible and responsive designs.
This additional also brings some resizing options, like:
- Fixed Resizing: Maintains the frame’s width and height, potentially causing overflow.
- Hug Resizing: Fits the frame to its contents, including padding.
- Fill Resizing: Expands or shrinks children’s elements to fill the frame.
These updates make Auto Layout more intuitive and powerful. It will facilitate the creation of complex and adaptive layouts with greater ease.
End Note
For sure, Figma Config 2024 showcased a wealth of innovations to enhance the design and development process. The major highlights are not everything here. The new update improves the prototyping features, advances the Figma variables system, and enhances the exporting system.
Among all the updates, we’re seeing a mixed counter-reaction for the most hyped announcement, Figma AI. Unfortunately, many experts think that this AI feature will increase the unemployment rate among novice designers.
However, let us know what you think about it. Do you like the new update or not? We’ll wait for your response.
