Made in Figma, 2019: Design by the numbers | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s 2019 usage data shows design becoming more collaborative, measurable, and broadly practiced. Anonymized data reveals strong preferences for cool colors, widely available sans-serif fonts, bold typography, and desktop and mobile frame presets. It also shows that design files increasingly serve as shared spaces for cross-functional teams rather than isolated work by individual designers.

Color and Typography Trends

• The most popular non-gray color was teal #009688, followed by dark blue-gray #455A64 and #263238.
• These cool tones contrasted with Pantone’s 2019 Color of the Year, Living Coral (#FF6F61).
• Montserrat, Open Sans, and Lato were the three most-used fonts.
• Google Fonts accounted for six of the top ten fonts, largely because they are readily available in Figma.
• SF Pro Text, SF Pro Display, Proxima Nova, and Arial also ranked highly; notably, Arial surpassed Helvetica among system fonts.
• Roboto, Figma’s default font, was excluded from the rankings.
• Font usage was highly concentrated: 90% of usage came from the top 11 fonts, including Roboto.
• Font Awesome ranked 31st, while Times New Roman ranked 55th. The first serif font, Playfair Display, appeared at number 22.
• Designers were 13 times more likely to adjust font weight than italicize text, and one-third of files used bold or heavy styles.

Frame and Device Preferences

• Figma offered 36 preset frame options, and 33% of files began with one of them.
• The 1440 × 1024 desktop frame was the most popular preset.
• iPhone X and iPhone 8 frames followed closely, showing strong interest in both desktop and mobile design.
• The ordering was notable given that Windows has much greater global usage than macOS.

Collaboration Across Teams

• Figma’s data reflects its goal of making design an open, collaborative process.
• In larger organizations, files averaged six collaborators.
• Collaborators could include designers, developers, product managers, writers, and other stakeholders.
• A file typically began with one person working independently.
• After an average of 19 days, the first collaborator was invited to review, comment, or contribute.

Overall Direction

The data suggests that 2019 design work was shaped by accessible tools, reusable conventions, and increasing teamwork. While designers favored familiar fonts, cool color palettes, and strong type weights, Figma files were also becoming shared product-development spaces involving people beyond design.