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figma3 min readCurated summary

Postmortem: Service disruptions on June 6 & 7 2022 | Figma Blog

Figma experienced four service disruptions between June 6–7, 2022, lasting from seven minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes. Existing files remained usable, but users could not open new files or collaborate; no data was lost. The root cause was a rare AWS ElastiCache/Redis bug that saturated the Engine CPU of a Cluster-Mode Enabled node under heavy Publish/Subscribe load. ## Impact and Timeline - Incidents occurred between 11:34 PM PDT on June 6 and 10:43 AM PDT on June 7. - The web application became fully functional at approximately 10:41 AM; some API features were restored later. - Users could continue working in already-open files. - Opening files and real-time collaboration were unavailable during disruptions. - Local changes were preserved and synchronized when service connectivity returned. ## Redis and ElastiCache Architecture - Figma uses AWS ElastiCache, a managed Redis service, for: - Caching frequently accessed data - Routing messages between services - Its setup included: - A Cluster-Mode Disabled instance - A Cluster-Mode Enabled instance, which supports horizontal scaling by adding Redis nodes - Several weeks before the outage, Figma moved its Redis Publish/Subscribe traffic from the CMD instance to the CME instance. - The workload had operated normally for weeks, with no obvious traffic or usage changes immediately before the incidents. ## Root Cause: Engine CPU Saturation - Monitoring alerted Figma within seconds that one CME ElastiCache node had reached 100% Engine CPU. - AWS later identified a rare Redis bug triggered by high Publish/Subscribe traffic on CME clusters. - Figma could not obtain CPU profiles from the underlying ElastiCache machines, making it difficult to identify the exact operation consuming CPU. - Increasing cluster capacity did not solve the problem and ultimately made the behavior worse. ## Mitigation and Investigation - Figma initially suspected insufficient capacity or faulty hardware. - Engineers: - Initiated a failover of the affected node - Created a larger ElastiCache cluster with more nodes - Redirected traffic to the replacement clusters when failover took too long - The first traffic redirection restored service, but the new cluster later experienced the same CPU saturation. - A subsequent failover completed successfully and restored service more quickly. - Engineers investigated and ruled out: - Routine backups or unexpected snapshots - Sudden increases in Redis command volume - Slow commands, large keys, or other obvious misuse - Scheduled background jobs - Blocking requests that appeared to be waiting longest for Redis commands did not resolve the issue. Figma’s outage was ultimately caused by an AWS Redis/ElastiCache defect rather than a data-loss event or an observable change in application traffic. The incident underscores the need to validate Redis Publish/Subscribe workloads on Cluster-Mode Enabled deployments and maintain mitigation strategies that do not rely solely on adding capacity.

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RedisIncident ResponseAws ElasticachePublish Subscribe+1
figma3 min readCurated summary

Figma and Chromebook: Empowering the next generation of designers | Figma Blog

Figma’s partnership with Google for Education brings Figma and FigJam to Chromebooks, making professional design and collaboration tools available to millions of students at no cost to participating schools. The initiative aims to remove financial, hardware, and geographic barriers to design education while preparing students for a digital-first workforce. Figma argues that design skills—especially visual communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity—should be accessible to everyone, not only students with specialized degrees or expensive equipment. ## Bringing Design Tools to Chromebooks - School districts can deploy and manage free Figma Organization licenses through the Google Admin Console. - Figma and FigJam will be available on Chromebooks, the most common personal computing devices for students. - Students can design, brainstorm, and collaborate from their own school devices rather than relying on limited computer-lab sessions. - Schools can apply for the beta program beginning in summer 2022. ## Removing Barriers to Design Education - Specialized degrees, costly hardware, and expensive creative software can prevent students from gaining design experience. - Cloud-based Chromebooks make design tools more affordable and accessible. - Figma’s founders designed the product to be free because they had seen how expensive creative tools could be for college students. - The broader goal is to give students access to opportunities in design and software regardless of their financial background. ## Why Design Skills Matter - The shift from physical to digital work, accelerated by the pandemic, has increased the importance of digital design and visual communication. - Design education develops: - Complex problem-solving - Collaboration - Creative expression - Communication and critical thinking - These skills are valuable across disciplines, not only in traditional design careers. - Figma cites research suggesting that design-focused companies outperform their peers by a factor of two. ## Teachers’ and Students’ Experiences - Teachers report higher student engagement and enthusiasm in class. - Students with no previous exposure to design have become interested in pursuing it after graduation. - Some students use Figma at home for personal projects simply because they enjoy creating. - Teachers use FigJam for icebreakers, collaborative exercises, and classroom activities. ## Learning Through Play and Projects - Dylan Field emphasizes play, hands-on work, and project-based learning as important ways to develop design skills. - He describes his own project-based high school, where science concepts were reinforced through engineering projects. - That curriculum reflected a design process: - Explore broadly and generate possibilities - Narrow the options and choose a direction - Execute the selected idea - This approach helps students learn by making, experimenting, and solving concrete problems rather than relying solely on instruction. Figma’s Chromebook initiative is intended to make design education a normal part of students’ everyday learning. Providing free, accessible tools—combined with hands-on, collaborative projects—can help more students build the creative and technical skills needed for the future.

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FigmaFigjamCloud ComputingDigital Design+3
figma2 min readCurated summary

Full-scale expression with Grilli Type | Figma Blog

Variable fonts let designers adjust weight, optical size, slant, and other typographic properties from a single file, making type more adaptable across screens and contexts. Thierry Blancpain of Grilli Type argues that they improve efficiency, designer–developer collaboration, accessibility, and expressive web design. Their adoption in tools such as Figma helps turn precise typographic intentions into practical code. ## Scaling Typography Across Contexts - Fonts can become less readable when scaled from mobile or business-card sizes to desktop or billboard sizes. - Designers often need careful kerning and tracking adjustments to preserve legibility and visual balance. - Supporting multiple weights and styles traditionally requires separate font files, increasing assets, code complexity, download size, and opportunities for error. ## The Efficiency of Variable Fonts - A variable font contains an entire type family in one file. - Designers can adjust several axes—such as weight, optical size, and slant—rather than selecting from fixed styles. - Variable fonts are increasingly a standard format, so support across tools is important for avoiding workarounds and inconsistent workflows. - Figma’s support allows designers to use the same capabilities during design that developers can later implement in code. ## Improving Designer–Developer Collaboration - Developers benefit from managing one font file instead of many individual assets. - A single file simplifies updates, keeps code cleaner, and reduces implementation friction. - Designers gain finer control over typography, including custom weights and optical sizing. - Blancpain notes that variable fonts are especially valuable when designers and developers work in separate roles, since the format creates a shared, more transferable design language. ## More Expressive and Dynamic Web Design - Variable fonts support animated and interactive typography, such as changing from regular to bold on hover. - Grilli Type’s GT Maru Mega demonstrates how expressive type can remain usable at small sizes through variable adjustments. - Blancpain expects the web to become increasingly dynamic, with motion and responsive typography replacing purely static experiences. - Typography can communicate mood and interaction—not merely deliver information. Variable fonts are recommended as both a practical production format and a creative medium. Their combination of smaller asset overhead, precise control, and animation potential makes them useful for modern responsive interfaces and richer web experiences.

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FigmaUser ExperienceAccessibilityTypography+3
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A look back at Config 2022 | Figma Blog

Config 2022 brought together more than 100 speakers for 24 hours of talks on ambitious, urgent design work. The event covered topics ranging from Web3 and research strategy to design systems and emerging technologies. A central message was that designers can create meaningful local or global change by designing more inclusively and acting with urgency. ## Designing for Different Digital Experiences - Yuan Qing Lim discussed designing for Chinese users who moved directly from limited PC use to widespread mobile internet. - Three themes shaped the discussion: - **“More is More”**: Chinese digital products often embrace rich, maximalist experiences. - **Super apps**: Users expect broad functionality within unified platforms. - **Community**: Digital experiences should reflect strong social and communal behaviors. - The goal is to better serve China’s roughly 1 billion internet users by accounting for local expectations rather than applying Western design assumptions. ## Designing for New Internet Users - Rahul Goradia focused on people who are new to the internet, a group often overlooked by mainstream UX practices. - This population is especially significant in India, where internet access is expected to grow rapidly. - Designers should use usability testing to make e-commerce approachable for newcomers. - Products must account for changing behaviors, particularly as users adapt to a post-pandemic digital environment. ## A Broad Program of Design Topics - Other Config 2022 sessions explored: - Decentralizing design through Web3 - Turning research findings into strategy and product development - Design systems and their limitations - UX writing and product copy - Design tokens and collaboration - Dark-mode implementation - Multi-platform design systems - Designing super apps for Southeast Asia’s cultural diversity The event’s practical takeaway is to design for a wider range of users, challenge assumptions about “standard” digital behavior, and use research and collaboration to make products more accessible and effective.

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FigmaDesign SystemsUser ExperienceDesign Tokens+4
figma2 min readCurated summary

A step forward in our accessibility efforts | Figma Blog

Figma argues that making design accessible requires enabling people of all abilities to participate throughout the design process. Its new prototype screen reader beta addresses a major gap for blind and low-vision users by making prototype content readable and navigable with assistive technology. The company presents this as an important step, while acknowledging that substantial accessibility work remains. ## Prototype Screen Reader Beta - Previously, screen readers encountered Figma prototypes as an essentially empty canvas, making text, images, and interactive content inaccessible. - The beta supports: - Text notes - Image alt text - Navigation through prototypes - Buttons and keyboard actions such as tabbing - Because Figma designs are not built as HTML, the company created an HTML representation of prototypes specifically for screen readers. - The beta was launched to gather feedback and improve the experience; it later became an open beta for everyone. ## Accessibility Work Underway - Figma has also introduced: - Dark mode and improved color-contrast compliance - Live captions for audio chat - A platform-wide accessibility assessment by Deque - Greater support for accessibility plugins, widgets, and community files - The company is developing reusable UI components and internal tools that encourage keyboard and screen reader compatibility. - Accessibility is being incorporated into team expectations, product development, and early user testing through alpha and beta programs. ## Remaining Challenges - Figma recognizes that more screen reader and general accessibility support is needed. - Planned capabilities include allowing users to: - Add alt text - Assign ARIA roles to components - Define prototype tab order - The company emphasizes that accessibility improvements should be developed collaboratively with the community. Figma’s recommendation in practice is to continue testing accessibility features with users who rely on assistive technology and to treat accessibility as an ongoing part of product design and engineering rather than a one-time update.

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AccessibilityHTMLWcagKeyboard Navigation+3
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Config 2022: Thinking big and acting with urgency | Figma Blog

Figma’s Config 2022 centered on the idea that designers and builders can influence major global and local challenges by thinking bigger and acting urgently. The 24-hour event brought together 100 speakers for 68 talks, while Figma introduced a broad set of product updates aimed at improving responsive design, collaboration, prototyping, and workflow integration. ## Config’s Broader Mission - Config connected a global design community spanning nearly every country. - Dylan Field argued that creatives are not powerless in the face of issues such as economic inequality and climate change. - The event encouraged attendees to use design and technology to create meaningful change, locally and globally. ## Expanded Design and Prototyping Capabilities - **Dark mode** became available on Figma’s desktop and web applications. - **Redesigned auto layout** added more intuitive responsive-design controls, including absolute positioning and negative spacing. - **Variable font support** enabled more expressive and optimized typography. - **Spring animations** allowed designers to create more natural transitions in prototypes. - **Individual strokes** made it possible to customize borders on specific sides of four-sided shapes. - **Updated outlines** exposed hidden objects and bounding boxes across the canvas. ## More Flexible Design Systems - **Component properties** reduced the need for excessive variants. - The feature also improved alignment between design systems and implementation code, supporting smoother developer handoff. - **Review states** enabled teams to approve changes, request revisions, and provide contextual feedback through branching. ## Collaboration and Workflow Integrations - **Spotlight** allowed participants in multiplayer sessions to direct everyone’s attention to a specific collaborator. - New **FigJam widgets** connected collaborative ideas with execution tools: - Jira - Asana - GitHub - Additional FigJam widgets included greeting cards and voice memos for team celebrations. - **International keyboard shortcuts**, initially in beta, improved shortcut support for German, Japanese, and French keyboards. ## Sharing and File Management - **Password protection** gave file owners more control over who could access shared files. - **Favoriting files** made frequently used documents easier to find and access. Figma positioned these updates as tools for making design work more responsive, collaborative, inclusive, and connected to broader product-development workflows. Teams can benefit most by adopting the features that strengthen their design systems, review processes, and collaboration practices.

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FigmaDesign SystemsPrototypingFigjam+4
figma2 min readCurated summary

Figma Community Awards 2022 | Figma Blog

Figma introduced its first-ever Community Awards to recognize the plugins, widgets, templates, UI kits, and other resources that help designers collaborate and work more efficiently. With more than 1,600 resources published daily, the awards highlight how the community builds practical and creative tools for Figma and FigJam. Winners were selected through community nominations and voting, then announced at Config. ## Purpose of the Awards - The awards celebrate community members who “imagine, design, and build” together. - Recognized resources support workflows ranging from accessibility and UI design to workshops, ideation, and team bonding. - The program included ten award categories. ## 2022 Award Winners - **Plugin for extending Figma’s utility:** *Similayer* by Dave Williames, for selecting similar layers using multiple properties. - **Plugin for adding content:** *Content Reel* by Eugene Gavriloff and Microsoft, offering reusable text, images, and icons. - **Widget for teams:** *FigJenda* by PG Gonni, an interactive workshop and meeting agenda compatible with the FigJam timer. - **Widget for utility or fun:** *Rock Paper Scissors* by Alex Einarsson. - **Team bonding template:** *Remote Design Sprint* by Miranda Mazzara, Danila Gallardo, and Aerolab. - **Ideation template:** *Customer Journey Map* by Fuad Aslan. - **UI kit:** *Ant Design Open Source* by Mr Biscuit and Vinh Bui, an open-source design system. - **Icon set:** *css.gg* by Lona and Astrit, containing more than 700 CSS, SVG, and Figma icons. - **Educational resource:** *Micro interactions - Prototyping* by Rusmir Arnautovic. - **Graphic resource:** *Sketch Elements Brushes Set* by Streamline. ## How the Awards Worked - Community members could nominate resources through Figma Community profiles. - Nominations were open from April 14–22, followed by finalist announcements on May 2. - Voting took place from May 2–10. - Each resource could be nominated only once, but users could nominate as many different files, plugins, or widgets as they wished. - Nomination totals were kept private to preserve fairness. ## Recognition for Creators - Winners were honored during the awards ceremony at Config on May 11. - They received a physical Figma Community Award and Figma merchandise. - Creators were encouraged to promote their resources and use **#FigmaCommunityAwards**. The awards demonstrate how central community-created resources are to the Figma ecosystem. Designers were encouraged both to recognize tools that improve their work and to publish their own resources for others to discover and use.

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FigmaDesign SystemsPrototypingFigjam+4
figma2 min readCurated summary

The power of emoji | Figma Blog

Emoji have become an essential layer of digital communication, helping convey emotion, tone, body language, and intent that are otherwise difficult to express through text. Jennifer Daniel, chair of Unicode’s Emoji Subcommittee, argues that emoji do not create new ideas; they translate long-standing human concepts into a flexible visual form. Because Unicode characters are permanent and globally interoperable, new emoji must be selected carefully, with an emphasis on broad usefulness and future relevance. ## Emoji supplement face-to-face communication - Digital communication lacks cues such as: - Rhythm and cadence - Volume - Eye contact - Body language - Emoji help restore some of these signals by clarifying a message’s emotional intent and tone. - As people become more familiar with emoji, choosing and placing them becomes almost instinctive. ## Emoji are contextual rather than a universal language - Emoji represent concepts that have existed throughout written and visual communication, rather than inventing new ones. - Their meanings can shift depending on context and cultural use. - For example, ❤️‍🔥 might suggest religious devotion, heartburn, or desire. - The way people actually use emoji often differs from how they believe they use them. ## Unicode makes emoji permanent - The Emoji Subcommittee operates within the Unicode Consortium, which standardizes digital writing systems worldwide. - Adding an emoji creates a permanent Unicode code point: - It cannot be removed or deprecated. - There are no “do-overs” if an idea becomes outdated. - This permanence contrasts with the fast, experimental cycle common in technology. - Unicode therefore tends to formalize concepts that already exist instead of rapidly creating new ones. ## Selecting useful, future-proof emoji - With more than 3,500 emoji, storage and implementation complexity are becoming constraints. - The committee is shifting away from overly specific objects—such as buckets, saws, and shorts—and toward symbols that support human expression and connection. - Strong candidates are: - Broadly relevant across cultures - Open to multiple meanings - Useful metaphorically or symbolically - Combinable with existing emoji to express new ideas - Adding one narrowly defined character can create pressure for related additions, such as needing both golden retriever and poodle emoji. - As a result, many valid proposals are rejected when their meaning is too specific or already expressible through existing characters. Emoji work best as flexible building blocks for communication, not as an attempt to represent every object or concept. Designers and standards bodies should prioritize symbols that are widely understandable, culturally adaptable, and capable of expressing multiple layers of human emotion and intent.

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TypographyUnicodeEmojiDigital Communication+2
figma2 min readCurated summary

What’s new in Figma: April 2022 | Figma Blog

Figma’s April 2022 update focuses on making FigJam more structured, customizable, and playful for collaborative workshops, brainstorms, and retrospectives. The release adds organizational and formatting tools alongside expressive features such as Washi tape and artist-designed stickers. Together, these updates aim to help teams create clearer boards while preserving the informal energy of digital collaboration. ## Structure and Customize FigJam Files - Users can organize boards with dedicated sections. - Stickies and shapes now support more colors, including custom colors. - Sticky notes can be made proportional and visually consistent with other content. - Adjustable font sizes make it easier to establish hierarchy for titles and labels. - Improved snapping helps users arrange and align objects precisely. - Multiple objects can be locked or unlocked simultaneously. ## Add More Personality to Collaborative Work - Figma made cursor chat more expressive. - New sticker packs were added, created by Figma Community artists Jiro Bevis, Diana Marmol, Rooney, and Fanny Luor. - The stickers provide playful ways to react, encourage teammates, and personalize FigJam sessions. ## Washi Tape Returns Permanently - Washi tape, previously introduced as an April Fun Day feature, became a permanent FigJam tool. - The update includes dozens of newly designed tape patterns. - Users can upload their own patterns. - The feature is intended to recreate the creative, tactile feel of decorating physical workshop materials. These changes make FigJam more adaptable for organized facilitation without sacrificing creativity. Teams can use sections, consistent formatting, and alignment tools to improve clarity, then add custom colors, stickers, and Washi tape to make collaborative sessions more engaging.

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FigmaFigjamUser InterfaceCollaboration+2
figma3 min readCurated summary

Good ideas stick | Figma Blog

Figma’s digital washi tape began as a playful April Fun Day experiment inspired by a community tweet. The feature translated washi tape’s blend of visual delight, flexibility, and “just-right adhesion” into Figma and FigJam, attracting 224,000 rolls in a single day. Strong user enthusiasm convinced Figma that the feature should become more than a one-day joke. ## Why Washi Tape Works - Japanese washi tape is a decorative form of masking tape used for gift wrapping, scrapbooking, drawing, and planning. - Its appeal comes from being: - Colorful and expressive - Easy to tear, move, layer, and write on - Functional without damaging the surface underneath - These qualities make it especially appealing to designers, who enjoy patterns, lines, grids, and color. ## The Origins of Modern Washi Tape - In 2007, three Tokyo artists asked Japanese industrial tape manufacturer Kamoi Kakoshi to create more colorful versions of its masking tape. - The company invited them to its factory, saw how creatively they used the tape, and developed a new product line called **mt**. - The first collection launched with 20 colors. - Kamoi refined the tape’s “just-right adhesion,” allowing it to be repositioned, torn by hand, layered, and removed without damaging walls or other surfaces. - The company continued expanding the product with new colors, patterns, and collaborations until washi tape became a common household craft material. ## Translating Washi Tape into a Digital Product - Figma’s team prototyped a digital equivalent for Figma and FigJam. - The goal was to preserve the physical product’s: - Decorative, tactile feeling - Ease of manipulation - Practical usefulness - Ability to add personality to otherwise ordinary work - The April Fun Day release let users decorate files with bold, colorful strips of digital tape. ## From April Fools’ Feature to Lasting Utility - The feature quickly spread across user files, generating 224,000 digital “rolls” in one day. - Users experimented with ways to make sticky notes feel “stickier” and incorporated the tape into their work. - Many users asked Figma to bring the feature back permanently. - Their response showed that the tape was not merely a novelty: its combination of fun and utility made it genuinely useful in collaborative spaces. Figma’s experiment demonstrates that successful digital tools can emerge by identifying the emotional and functional qualities of familiar physical objects—not just copying their appearance. Washi tape’s lasting appeal comes from making everyday work more expressive, and digital versions can offer the same sense of creativity with even greater flexibility.

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FigmaPrototypingFigjamCollaborative Design+1
figma2 min readCurated summary

What’s new in Figma: March 2022 | Figma Blog

Figma’s March 2022 updates focus on making Figma and FigJam more accessible, flexible, and useful across devices and global teams. Major additions include FigJam for iPad, right-to-left text support, font-independent superscript and subscript characters, and improved Slack notifications. Together, these features help users ideate anywhere, design for more languages, and keep distributed teams informed. ## FigJam for iPad - FigJam is now available on the iPad through the App Store. - Users can sketch, brainstorm, and annotate away from desktop distractions. - Work can be resumed across iPad and desktop, supporting more fluid workflows. ## Right-to-left text support - Figma and FigJam now support right-to-left writing systems. - Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, and other languages can be designed and edited more naturally. - The update improves Figma’s suitability for global audiences and international products. ## Superscript and subscript in any font - Superscript and subscript characters can now be used even when the selected font lacks those glyphs. - Figma automatically creates a synthetic, or “faux,” glyph. - The glyph is resized and repositioned to match the surrounding font style. ## Slack notifications for teams - Figma’s updated Slack app helps teams track activity in shared files, teams, and projects. - Notifications can arrive in real time or as hourly and daily digests. - Teams can subscribe project files to dedicated Slack channels. - Comment and collaboration updates can be shared where teammates already coordinate work. Overall, the release recommends using Figma’s new cross-device, localization, typography, and collaboration features to make design work more accessible and connected.

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FigmaFigjamSlackTypography+3
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Localization, languages, and listening | Figma Blog

Figma is expanding internationally by adapting its product and organization to local users. The company’s strategy combines listening to designers worldwide, localizing languages, opening regional offices, and hiring local teams. It highlights Japan, EMEA expansion, and the difficult engineering work behind RTL language support as steps toward making design accessible to everyone. ## Learning from Designers Worldwide - Around 80% of Figma’s weekly active users were outside the United States from the company’s early days. - Customer visits around the world helped Figma understand that different regions have distinct needs and expectations. - These experiences shaped Figma’s vision: “Make design accessible to all.” - The company sees international growth as requiring humility, direct feedback, and a willingness to learn from local communities. ## Launching in Japan - Figma incorporated in Japan, opened its first Asian office in Tokyo, and appointed Hiro Kawanobe as its local leader. - Customer conversations revealed that Figma’s English-only product limited adoption. - Figma began localizing its product into Japanese, targeting a localized experience by the end of 2022. - It also planned to hire local staff across sales, marketing, community, and customer support. ## Expanding Across EMEA - Figma is increasing its European presence with offices in London, Paris, and Berlin. - Regional employees will help the company better understand and support customers across EMEA. - Figma intends to expand language support in ways that are useful and meaningful to local communities. ## Building RTL Language Support - Figma introduced support for right-to-left languages, a feature users had requested since the company’s early days. - Implementing RTL required substantial custom engineering because Figma uses: - A custom rendering stack optimized for performance - Its own text-rendering engine - Custom handling for bidirectional text and cursor behavior - Arabic and other RTL scripts create additional complexity through: - Characters whose forms change based on their position in a word - Ambiguous boundaries between writing directions - Complex diacritics and font behavior - Difficulties with text wrapping and navigation - Community plugin developers helped test the implementation, ensure compatibility with existing RTL content, and identify critical bugs during the beta. ## Growing Through Feedback - Figma acknowledges that international expansion may involve cultural mistakes or imperfect translations. - The company asks users to provide feedback so it can improve its products and approach. - Hiring continues in Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, and other locations to support its global growth. Figma’s international strategy is not limited to translating the interface. Its broader recommendation is to combine localization, local teams, technical investment, and continuous listening to build products that genuinely serve users in different regions.

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FigmaPluginsLocalizationRtl+2
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The art and influence of motion | Figma Blog

Motion helps digital interfaces communicate in ways that resemble the physical world. UX designer Katie Swindler argues that animation can clarify state, build mental models, improve perceived responsiveness, and add personality—but only when it serves a clear purpose. Effective motion balances practicality with restraint and must remain accessible to people who cannot or should not experience animation. ## Motion as a Human-Centered Language - People naturally interpret facial expressions, gestures, and movement alongside spoken information; interfaces can use motion similarly. - Animations communicate: - Progress, such as loading bars - Errors, such as a field shaking after an incorrect password - Change, such as charts recalibrating after a page refresh - Motion helps translate a digital environment into terms understood by a brain shaped by interaction with a physical, three-dimensional world. - It gives users information for building mental models without requiring explicit explanation. ## Designing Familiar Physical Metaphors - Digital animations can borrow from familiar physical behavior. - A sliding menu or “drawer” suggests that: - It can be opened and closed repeatedly - Its contents remain available when reopened - These familiar cues make interfaces feel intuitive. - Figma examples include animated cursor-chat bubbles and the celebratory shake of the FigJam Timer. ## Purpose-Driven Microanimations - Microanimations should solve a specific user or system problem rather than exist merely for decoration. - A short one- to two-second transition can disguise unavoidable backend processing delays and make a product feel more responsive. - Motion should be evaluated with the same discipline as icons: adding more visual elements is not automatically beneficial. - Designers should consider whether text, a static visual, or no additional communication would work better. ## Balancing Practicality and Personality - The strongest motion combines functional guidance with a distinct sense of character. - Animations should be fast, subtle, and respectful of the user’s time. - Swindler highlights Apple’s “sprout” or “Genie in the Bottle” animation: - Minimizing a window visually pulls it into its dock icon. - Restoring it reverses the motion, showing where the window came from and where it will return. - This type of animation provides orientation and delight without distracting from the task. ## Accessibility and Common Mistakes - Motion must never be essential to understanding or operating an interface. - Certain animations can trigger people with epilepsy or create barriers for users with motion-related sensitivities. - Excessive or frenetic movement can: - Interrupt users - Create confusion and visual busyness - Add unnecessary steps - Frustrate users and weaken brand affinity - Every animation should be selected carefully and used with restraint to solve a user problem elegantly. Motion is most effective when it communicates meaning, reinforces familiar behavior, and adds personality without demanding attention. Designers should prototype animations deliberately, test them for accessibility, and remove any movement that does not clearly improve the experience.

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FigmaUser ExperienceAccessibilityMotion Design+2
figma2 min readCurated summary

FigJam for iPad: space to explore and ideate | Figma Blog

FigJam for iPad was introduced to make brainstorming and collaboration more fluid across devices. The article argues that tablets’ focused, tactile nature complements FigJam’s infinite canvas, especially for sketching, exploring early ideas, and giving visual feedback. Although the standalone iPad app is being retired in 2026, FigJam remains available through the Figma app and the web. ## Why Tablets Suit FigJam - Desktop workflows often interrupt creative focus with notifications and constant context switching. - Tablets provide a more focused, single-app environment. - The iPad’s portability and touch or pen input make it feel similar to working in a notebook. - FigJam’s open canvas naturally supports freeform drawing, doodling, annotations, and low-fidelity exploration. - Users can move fluidly between desktop and tablet depending on the task. ## Embracing Early Ideas - Low-fidelity sketches make nonlinear exploration and iteration easier. - Rough ideas encourage collaboration rather than inviting narrow critique. - Users can sketch concepts on an iPad, then continue refining or sharing them from a laptop. - Team members can draw directly over one another’s ideas, making ideation more interactive. ## Making Feedback More Personal - Handwritten annotations can complement or replace traditional comments. - Users can circle, underline, and mark up text, diagrams, and sketches directly on the canvas. - Visual and handwritten feedback creates a warmer, more collaborative experience than written critique alone. ## Running Collaborative Sessions - The iPad can support group workshops as well as individual work. - Facilitators can display a FigJam file on a desktop screen while using the iPad for live annotations. - Quick actions—such as circling stickies or highlighting contributions—make meetings feel more natural and fluid. Figma positioned FigJam for iPad as an early step toward richer tablet-based design workflows. For current users, FigJam is available through the Figma mobile app or the web; the standalone iPad app is scheduled for retirement on January 8, 2026.

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FigmaFigjamAndroidCollaborative Design+3
figma1 min readCurated summary

Our response to Ukraine | Figma Blog

Figma condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an attack on democratic values central to its mission. The company is supporting affected communities through employee donation matching and continued access to paid features for Ukrainian customers needing assistance. It is also complying with U.S. and EU sanctions and has halted new sales efforts in Russia. ## Support for Ukraine and Ukrainian Customers - Figma employees are donating to organizations aiding Ukrainian refugees and providing humanitarian relief. - The company is matching those employee contributions through its donation-matching program. - Ukrainian customers who request help will retain access to Figma’s paid features in the coming months. ## Actions Regarding Russia - Figma is fully complying with applicable U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia. - It has stopped pursuing new sales in the Russian market. Figma’s response combines humanitarian support for Ukraine with sanctions compliance and a suspension of new Russian business, while expressing solidarity with its Ukrainian community.

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FigmaCollaborative DesignDesign ToolsWeb Design