Config 2023 in Review: The Complete Recap | Figma Blog

Figma’s Config 2023 announcements reposition the platform as a workspace for the entire product development team, not just designers. The major launches—Dev Mode, variables, and advanced prototyping—aim to connect design more directly with code, development workflows, and real product behavior. Supporting updates to auto layout, fonts, and file discovery further improve everyday work, while Figma also signals a major investment in AI through its acquisition of Diagram.

Dev Mode Connects Design and Development

• Dev Mode is a dedicated Figma workspace designed around developers’ needs.
• It helps developers:
  • Translate designs into code more quickly.
  • Connect Figma to Jira, GitHub, Storybook, and other tools through plugins.
  • Track designs and changes that need to reach production.
  • Inspect Figma files alongside code in VS Code.
• Dev Mode launched in beta and was available free through 2023.

Variables Bring Design Systems Closer to Code

• Figma introduced variables to make design systems more flexible and scalable.
• Variables can store reusable:
  • Colors
  • Numbers
  • Text values
  • Boolean values
• They support aliasing and scoping, allowing teams to organize and contextualize values.
• Variable modes enable themes such as light and dark designs.
• Plugin and REST API support allows teams to manage variables programmatically.
• The goal is to connect design tokens and systems more directly with the code that implements them.

Advanced Prototyping Makes Designs More Dynamic

• Variables can now be used in prototypes to represent changing application state.
• Designers can use mathematical expressions and conditional logic, such as:
  • Increasing a number variable after each click.
  • Navigating to different screens depending on a variable’s value.
• These capabilities let teams test realistic interactions before development begins.
• In-context editing and inline preview allow designers to edit and play back prototypes in the same view.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

• Auto layout gained wrapping and minimum/maximum width and height controls.
• The font picker now supports search, filtering, and previews displayed in each font.
• The file browser makes it easier to locate files and projects shared by external teams.

Figma’s Investment in AI

• Figma expects AI to help people express ideas visually, speed up workflows, and create strong first drafts.
• The company argues that turning a good draft into a world-class product will still require human judgment and expertise.
• Figma acquired Diagram, founded by Jordan Singer, to accelerate AI development across the platform.
• Diagram had previously built AI-assisted design tools on Figma’s platform.

Overall, Config 2023 presents Figma as a shared environment spanning design, prototyping, development, and increasingly AI-assisted creation. Teams should consider Dev Mode and variables as the most significant changes for improving handoff, design-system management, and collaboration with engineering.