Figma Time Travel is a playful April 2019 feature that lets users revisit historical design styles through version history. With one click, users can choose from four themed “palette years,” transforming their designs into retro-inspired visual eras. The feature is presented as an Easter egg rather than a major productivity tool, giving designers a lighthearted way to explore Figma’s capabilities.
## Accessing Historical Design Styles
- Time Travel is available through Figma’s version history.
- Users can select from four new options representing distinct historical palette years.
- Each option applies a different retro visual treatment to the design.
- The feature is designed for one-click experimentation.
## A Playful Easter Egg
- Figma describes the feature through humorous references to older workplace environments and technology.
- The “1973 vintage” option evokes grey cubicles and mechanical keyboards.
- The launch was intended to celebrate April with fun rather than an April Fool’s prank.
- It reflects Figma’s interest in incorporating unexpected, entertaining details into its design tools.
Designers can find Time Travel in version history and use it as a creative experiment or nostalgic Easter egg rather than as a serious archival workflow.
Figma’s March 2019 desktop app update focused on making the native experience more convenient and design-friendly. Users could make Figma links open directly in the desktop app, choose an sRGB color profile on macOS, and benefit from a more streamlined Windows interface. Together, these changes reduced workflow friction and created more usable canvas space.
## Opening Figma Links in the Desktop App
- Figma URLs previously opened automatically in browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
- Users can now update the desktop app, click a Figma link, and select **“always open in the app.”**
- This setting can be changed under a file’s preferences by disabling **“open links in desktop app.”**
- Individual links can still be opened manually through the file menu when the browser remains the default.
## Color-Space Management on macOS
- The Mac desktop app now allows users to choose between:
- An unmanaged color profile based on the computer’s display settings
- The sRGB color space
- The sRGB option helps designers accurately evaluate web designs against the color appearance expected in browsers.
- Windows support for color-space management was planned for a future release.
## Streamlined Windows Interface
- Figma consolidated menu options and removed unnecessary interface elements.
- The redesigned UI provides more room on the canvas for actual design work.
- The update was intended to improve usability without changing the core desktop workflow.
Figma recommended updating or downloading the latest desktop app to take advantage of these improvements, particularly for users who rely on desktop-based workflows or need more reliable color accuracy.
Dribbble adopted Figma to make collaboration feel more like working together in the same room despite its fully remote, globally distributed team. Figma replaced a fragmented collection of tools with a shared, real-time workspace and a single source of truth for designs. The result was faster iteration, clearer feedback, and less time spent managing files and communication.
## Remote Collaboration Challenges
- Dribbble’s design team included seven product designers and developers working across multiple time zones.
- Remote work helped attract talent and offered flexibility, but made spontaneous collaboration more difficult.
- The team relied on video conferencing and several disconnected tools, without a seamless way to work together.
- Designers lacked visibility into one another’s work, while file management and multiple feedback channels reduced time available for design.
## Figma as a Shared Design Workspace
- Figma allowed multiple people to work in the same file simultaneously, recreating the experience of brainstorming in a room or on a whiteboard.
- Online files were easier to find and access, eliminating the need to ask colleagues for the latest version.
- Designers could stay within one tool instead of repeatedly switching between applications.
- Figma’s handling of vectors, images, and copy-paste attributes also appealed to Dribbble’s designers.
- The team eased adoption by importing existing design files and recreating familiar interface components in Figma.
## Faster Pairing and Feedback
- Figma supported Dribbble’s practice of using design pairs to solve problems and deliver products quickly.
- A single, current file reduced communication friction and kept designers aligned on the latest changes.
- Multiplayer editing made it easier to hold frequent critiques, duplicate frames, explore alternatives, and comment in real time.
- The team could solve design problems in minutes rather than days; in one example, five people collaboratively produced an approved profile design in about 20 minutes.
## Integration with Dribbble
- Dribbble used Figma’s API to build an integration for publishing work directly to Dribbble.
- Users can select a layer in Figma and choose **Integrations → Dribbble** to begin the Dribbble desktop upload flow.
For fully remote design teams, a shared real-time workspace can replace fragmented collaboration processes. Dribbble’s experience suggests that adopting a single source of truth helps teams communicate more clearly, iterate faster, and spend more time designing.
Figma Drafts provide a private space for experimentation before designs are ready for team-wide visibility. Josh Dunsterville argues that separating rough exploration from polished project files reduces fear of judgment and encourages faster, more creative iteration. The central principle is simple: create first, organize and share later.
## Why Drafts Matter
- Traditional design workflows often encourage sharing only polished, “presentable” work.
- This can lead designers to prioritize tidy files, perfect pixels, grids, and layer names over exploring solutions.
- Drafts act as a private personal folder, independent of broader team or project permissions.
- Individual draft files can be shared when appropriate, but drafts cannot be opened globally to an entire team.
- The concept resembles a physical notebook: informal, incomplete, and free from pressure to look finished.
- This environment can also help overcome designer’s block by removing the need to plan every detail before starting.
## Using Drafts for Exploration
- Drafts can hold anything from quick app concepts to experiments with Figma features.
- Untitled files, rough shapes, default colors, and messy layouts are acceptable.
- The key workflow is: **create first, organize second**.
- Designers should use drafts to quickly capture and test ideas without worrying about presentation quality.
## Moving Ideas into Projects
- When a draft is ready for further development or team collaboration, it can be moved into a project.
- Files can be transferred by:
- Dragging them into the desired project.
- Selecting the “Drafts” location inside the file and choosing a project.
- If an idea may be useful later, duplicate the draft before moving it so the original remains as a snapshot.
- Drafts can remain the messy source of truth, while project files are cleaned up for broader use.
- File-browser filters such as file name, creation date, and last-modified date help manage drafts as they accumulate.
Drafts are most valuable when treated as a low-pressure digital notebook rather than a staging area for finished work. Keep early thinking private and messy, then promote only the ideas that merit organization and collaboration.
Notion nearly failed in 2015 because its original product and technology stack did not match what users wanted. Founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last moved to Kyoto, rebuilt the product from scratch, and used an intensive, collaborative design process to create Notion 1.0. The relaunch succeeded because it combined powerful customization with a simple, approachable user experience.
## Rebuilding Notion from the Brink
- Notion’s first version was a programming-oriented tool intended to help nontechnical users build software.
- The founders realized they had focused on their own vision rather than customer needs.
- With funding running low, they dismissed their team, sublet their office, and relocated to Kyoto to reduce expenses and concentrate on rebuilding.
- Zhao spent as many as 18 hours a day designing and iterating on the new product.
- The mission remained the same: enable people to create tools tailored to their own problems without writing code.
## Collaborative Design Under Pressure
- Zhao and Last worked closely across design and engineering, switching roles as needed.
- Figma’s multiplayer capabilities allowed them to work in the same files simultaneously, brainstorm quickly, and explore product problems together.
- This collaboration helped them move faster during their year-long rebuild.
- Notion 1.0 launched in March 2018 and quickly reached the top of Product Hunt.
- The product later reached one million users with only seed funding and earned praise for its user experience.
## Simplicity Despite Powerful Features
- Notion’s new-user home screen was intentionally minimal, using a small set of simple icons.
- Its visual style drew inspiration from classic interfaces, including Susan Kare’s iconography and the look of Windows 95.
- Zhao argues that design is central because users value how a daily tool feels, just as they care about the physical qualities of a hammer or knife.
- The product’s challenge was to make extensive functionality feel approachable rather than overwhelming.
## Create Many Variations, Then Choose One
- Zhao repeatedly duplicated user flows and changed small details such as icons, wording, and layout.
- Notion’s broader philosophy is to explore many permutations before selecting the strongest solution.
- Team members are encouraged to produce rough drafts, including unconventional or bad ideas, instead of committing too early.
- Designers, copywriters, engineers, and illustrators all use this iterative approach.
- Teammates then critique and stress-test the alternatives, narrowing them down to the best option.
- Zhao credits this process with helping create Notion’s distinctive brand.
## Design as a Thinking Tool
- Notion treats design as part of the thinking process, not merely as a final production stage.
- The team develops ideas visually in Figma from the beginning, using it as a flexible scratchpad.
- This design-centered approach extends across the small company, involving more than just dedicated designers.
Notion’s recovery demonstrates how a failing product can be transformed by listening more closely to users, rebuilding around their needs, and creating space for rapid, collaborative experimentation. Teams facing similar pressure can benefit from exploring many options early, testing them together, and protecting simplicity even when the underlying product is powerful.
Bulb adopted Figma to create and maintain Solar, a shared design system for its rapidly expanding range of products. The system addressed inconsistencies caused by different agencies, codebases, and design patterns while preserving Bulb’s collaborative culture. By centralizing components and standards in Figma, Bulb enabled designers, developers, researchers, writers, and stakeholders to contribute throughout the design process.
## Building a Consistent Design Function
- Bulb’s 13-person design team supports multiple product groups and disciplines.
- Its five or six products had originally been designed and built by different agencies.
- Although Bulb’s visual brand was cohesive, products contained inconsistent interfaces, codebases, and design patterns.
- Establishing a design team from scratch gave Bulb the opportunity to define a unified design system and workflow.
## Collaboration Across Disciplines
- Bulb selected Figma because it supported the company’s culture of transparency and collaboration.
- Project pods typically include a designer, researcher, content writer, and developer.
- Non-designers can access files, suggest changes, and stay informed without requiring permission from a designer.
- Engineers and designers use Figma together to discuss designs and verify that work follows shared standards.
- Researchers also use Figma for brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping with designers because its interface is accessible to non-designers.
## Creating the Solar Design System
- Bulb wanted a single source of truth for design consistency across its products.
- Figma team libraries allowed changes to master components and styles to propagate across designs.
- The team began by documenting every product page in Figma, creating a visual site map that exposed inconsistencies.
- Designers and other collaborators established design principles to evaluate and normalize components such as buttons, checkboxes, and dropdowns.
- Standardized patterns were gradually rolled out across eight products.
## Keeping the System Simple
- Bulb deliberately limited Solar to a small color palette and a modest set of design patterns.
- The team’s guiding principle was to start small and keep the system manageable.
- A more complex design system requires more effort to maintain and can undermine consistency.
Bulb’s experience suggests that a successful design system depends on both the right collaboration tool and disciplined scope. Organizations should begin with a small, shared set of principles and reusable patterns, then expand only when necessary.
Figma announced a $40 million Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from new and existing investors. The funding supports Figma’s mission to make visual design accessible, collaborative, and web-based. The company plans to expand its enterprise offering, improve performance and design-system tools, develop extensibility, and strengthen its global community.
## Funding and Strategic Investors
- Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by Coatue, Founders Fund, Jeff Weiner, Mike Krieger, Andrew Wilson, Dan Rose, and existing investors Index, Greylock, and KPCB.
- Figma selected investors with experience building enduring companies and communities.
- The company highlighted Sequoia’s investments in GitHub and PlanGrid as evidence of relevant expertise.
## Expanding Collaborative Design
- Figma argues that productivity software is increasingly becoming collaborative and shared.
- Major design teams at Square, Uber, Twitter, and GitHub had adopted Figma.
- The new funding will support:
- Expansion of Figma Organization, its enterprise offering
- Improvements for individual designers and small teams
- Continued development of collaborative workflows
## Performance and Design Systems
- Despite being viewed as faster than native competitors, Figma sees significant opportunities to improve loading and rendering performance.
- With more than one million signups, the company emphasizes delivering a high-quality experience at scale.
- A major focus is making Figma the best platform for building and managing design systems.
## Platform Extensibility
- Figma is developing platform and extension capabilities to support varied design workflows.
- The company is deliberately avoiding a fixed release timeline because extensions must be stable and secure.
- Extensibility is presented as essential to making the design process genuinely open.
## Building a Global Community
- Around 80% of Figma’s weekly active users were located outside the United States.
- The company had 26 user groups in cities ranging from Lagos to Toronto.
- Figma planned to improve connections among users worldwide through meetups, local groups, and other community initiatives.
- Community is described as a foundation for Figma’s future and a key reason Sequoia was an appealing partner.
Figma intended to use the Series C investment not simply to grow the business, but to deepen its collaborative product, improve its technical foundations, and build a global community around accessible design.
Figma Organization was introduced as Figma’s first enterprise-grade offering, designed to help large companies manage design collaboratively on the web. It combines administrative controls such as unified billing and audit reports with designer-focused features including unlimited teams, Shared Fonts, and organization-wide design systems. The central argument is that web-based, centralized design enables companies to scale collaboration without losing team autonomy.
## From Startup Tool to Enterprise Platform
- Figma describes a shift from serving primarily innovative startups to supporting organizations across industries and sizes.
- Companies increasingly wanted to replace isolated design teams, local files, and fragmented workflows with an open, web-based process.
- Figma Organization was developed with feedback from companies including Rakuten, Square, Volvo, and Uber.
- The offering added:
- Unified billing
- Audit reports
- Enhanced security and privacy controls
- Unlimited teams
- Shared Fonts
- Organization-wide design systems
## Unlimited, Browsable Teams
- Organizations can create or join unlimited teams, giving employees a central place to discover:
- Prototypes
- Design files
- Exportable assets
- Code handoff materials
- Because Figma operates on the web, files remain current and accessible across teams.
- Administrators can control team visibility with three privacy levels:
- **Open:** Anyone can join.
- **Closed:** Anyone can view the team, but joining or editing requires approval.
- **Secret:** The team is visible only to invited members.
- This structure allows organizations to preserve independent team workflows while maintaining a broader view of company-wide work.
- Uber used the model to consolidate previously scattered files across products such as Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and its ridesharing service. After testing the beta, Uber moved most of its product design work to Figma.
## Organization-Wide Design Systems
- Figma Organization allows teams to share Component and Style libraries across products and services.
- Square used the platform to support more than 100 designers across over 25 products and maintain six design systems for iOS, Android, and the web.
- Designers can browse another product’s design system, reuse established patterns, and adapt them to their own branding.
- Shared libraries provide a single source of truth: teams work with the same component versions in the same tool.
- Designers can update master components or styles centrally, and users of those assets are automatically notified when changes occur.
Figma Organization’s practical value lies in combining centralized governance with decentralized team work. For large companies, adopting shared teams, controlled visibility, and reusable design systems can reduce fragmentation while keeping designs consistent and up to date.
Figma’s Smart Selection 2D extends the original Smart Selection feature from simple lists to both horizontal and vertical layouts. It lets designers quickly tidy, reorder, and adjust spacing in grids and lists, reducing tedious manual repositioning. The feature is especially useful for photo galleries, presentation slides, and other repeated layouts.
## Extending Smart Selection
- The original Smart Selection launched three months earlier and helped users rearrange lists with the **Tidy Up** button.
- Designers reported saving significant time by avoiding manual alignment and spacing adjustments.
- Based on the positive response, Figma expanded the feature into Smart Selection 2D.
## Organizing Lists and Grids
- Smart Selection 2D works in two dimensions:
- Horizontally for rows and lists
- Vertically for columns and grids
- Users can adjust spacing and reorganize multiple elements more efficiently.
- The feature supports layouts such as:
- Photo galleries
- Presentation slides
- Other collections of repeated design elements
## Example Use Cases
- Photo galleries can be quickly reordered into a preferred arrangement.
- Presentation slides can be rearranged without manually repositioning every slide.
- Designers can spend more time on content and less time maintaining layout consistency.
- Figma shared demonstrations on Twitter to show how the feature could streamline common design tasks.
Smart Selection 2D is recommended for any Figma workflow involving repeated elements or structured layouts, as it automates much of the spacing, alignment, and reordering work.
Coinbase’s mission to make cryptocurrency accessible depends on design that simplifies complex technology. The company found that Figma’s browser-based, collaborative workspace replaced fragmented tools with an open process involving designers, engineers, product managers, and leadership. This improved communication, alignment, and speed while supporting a more inclusive design culture.
## Designing for an Open Financial System
- Coinbase aims to create an open financial system for the world.
- Its design principles are to:
- Guide users through complex crypto concepts
- Empower people to participate
- Humanize technical experiences
- Simplify blockchain and digital-currency interactions
- The company views design as essential to making cryptocurrency accessible beyond technical experts.
## Moving from Siloed Design to Open Collaboration
- Coinbase’s previous workflow relied on separate tools for:
- Designing
- Prototyping
- Developer handoff
- Switching between platforms created context loss, version-control problems, and communication overhead.
- Figma provided a shared, browser-based workspace where multiple people could work together and access the latest files through a link.
- This made design more transparent and encouraged feedback and participation from people outside the design team.
## Faster Communication Across Teams
- Centralized files allowed designers, product managers, engineers, and executives to stay aligned on current work.
- Stakeholders could give feedback directly in Figma, reducing bureaucracy and shortening communication loops.
- Teams could speak “the same language” in the same location instead of relying on disconnected tools and handoffs.
- The result was faster iteration and clearer, more coordinated product development.
## Collaborative Design Sessions
- Coinbase also used Figma for informal, ad hoc projects such as posters and company swag.
- Designers could gather in the Design Lounge, open a shared file, and create together in real time.
- These sessions demonstrated that collaborative tools could support creativity and team connection, not just formal product work.
## Building a More Inclusive Design Culture
- Coinbase’s design team became faster, more nimble, and better aligned.
- Figma helped establish a collaborative process in which design was no longer created behind a “black box.”
- The team recognized that tools should empower designers and support an inclusive, diverse culture rather than add complexity.
- Coinbase presents Figma as an important foundation for continuing to scale its open design practice.
Deliveroo adopted Figma to replace a fragmented design workflow that had become difficult to manage as the company and its design team grew. Shared files allowed product designers, content designers, researchers, engineers, and product managers to collaborate directly instead of exchanging screenshots, emails, and Slack messages. The result was a more open design culture, faster feedback, easier onboarding, and better alignment across teams.
## Collaboration Problems as Deliveroo Expanded
- Deliveroo’s design organization grew to more than 40 people supporting consumers, riders, and restaurants.
- Product groups became siloed as the company expanded rapidly.
- Tools such as Sketch, Dropbox, Zeplin, and Abstract created disconnected workflows.
- Teams struggled with:
- File synchronization and version-control issues
- Sending files back and forth by email
- Maintaining consistency across app designs
- Coordinating product and content design
- Product and content designers effectively took turns working on the same file, leading to repeated screenshots, Slack messages, and manual checks.
## Moving to a Shared Figma Workflow
- Deliveroo initially had concerns about changing tools but became interested in Figma’s collaborative editing.
- A pilot demonstrated that multiple people could work in one document simultaneously.
- Product and content designers could develop ideas together rather than maintaining separate files.
- After adopting Figma, the team no longer needed to continually manage and synchronize disconnected design documents.
## Building a More Open Design Culture
- Figma made the design process visible to a wider group of employees.
- Product designers, researchers, engineers, and product managers could inspect work and understand the reasoning behind design decisions.
- Engineers could identify edge cases earlier and discuss how to represent them in the product.
- Non-design stakeholders felt more comfortable contributing because Figma was accessible beyond specialist design teams.
- New designers could learn the organization’s work by exploring existing files instead of being trained across many separate tools.
## Faster Feedback and More Efficient Reviews
- Comments and discussions remained attached to the relevant work in a single document.
- Stakeholders could review projects without requiring a separate walkthrough.
- Designers could ask and answer questions more quickly.
- Centralized feedback reduced unnecessary back-and-forth and made team members feel more connected to the work.
Deliveroo’s experience suggests that a shared, browser-based design workspace can reduce operational friction while encouraging broader participation. For rapidly growing design teams, consolidating files, feedback, and collaboration in one accessible tool can improve both speed and consistency.
Figma grew its design team from one full-time product designer to eight designers in about a year. The company argues that thoughtful hiring requires clearly defining team needs, aligning on evaluation criteria, and continually evolving those criteria as circumstances change. By making the process collaborative and structured, Figma established a stronger design culture built around critiques, ownership, and transparency.
## Building the Team
- Figma initially struggled to keep pace with its engineering team because design responsibilities were spread across one full-time designer and several part-time contributors.
- Because each hire significantly affects a small team’s culture and working style, the company prioritized deliberate growth rather than hiring quickly without a plan.
- Within a year, the team had grown to eight designers and developed:
- Collaborative design critiques
- Clearer objectives
- Defined areas of ownership
- A more established team culture
## A Structured Hiring Process
Figma adopted a three-phase framework for building its hiring criteria:
- **Learn:** Study job descriptions and consult experienced design leaders to understand valuable skills and traits.
- **Analyze:** Create a broad skills list, then narrow it to capabilities the company needs, the Design team should own, and every designer must possess.
- **Evolve:** Revisit the criteria as team or company needs change, while developing existing employees when possible.
The designers independently outlined their expectations for a new teammate, then merged their ideas in Figma to reach consensus. This helped distinguish essential requirements from desirable but negotiable skills.
## Reducing Interviewer Bias
- Figma created explicit criteria for both product-design capabilities and cultural alignment with its values: **Be Bold, Be Inclusive, and Have Fun**.
- The team used these criteria directly in Lever, its recruiting tool, to guide interview feedback.
- Structured prompts reduced vague assessments and made it harder for interviewers to unconsciously change standards to match personal biases.
- Existing team members evaluated themselves against the same criteria, revealing few surprises but ensuring they did not judge candidates on abilities they could not assess in themselves.
## Recruiting as a Team Effort
- Defining the role did not eliminate the need for sourcing, networking, and extensive conversations with candidates.
- Figma embedded its recruiter, Korin, into the design team by having her attend critiques and team meetings.
- This gave her firsthand knowledge of the team’s work and helped her represent the role and identify suitable candidates more accurately.
## The Designers’ Backgrounds
- The team included designers with varied experiences and strengths rather than identical profiles.
- Lucy brought motion and visual-design expertise, along with experience spanning agencies, websites, and hardware interfaces.
- Marcin contributed extensive UI experience from organizations including Google, Medium, and Code for America, as well as a strong attention to interaction and visual details.
Figma’s experience suggests that small design teams should define their needs collectively, use consistent interview criteria, actively guard against bias, and involve recruiters closely in the team’s daily work.
Figma introduced PDF export to meet demand for a format still essential for printing, development, and precise asset delivery. Because existing PDF libraries required compromises—especially around rasterization and complex effects—Figma built its own library after studying extensive PDF documentation. The result prioritizes high-fidelity, scalable output across different viewers and use cases.
## Exporting Designs to PDF
- Users can export selected layers or an entire page from the Properties Panel.
- The “Export Frames to PDF” option creates a multi-page PDF, with frames ordered from top-left to bottom-right based on their canvas positions.
- PDF preserves vector descriptions, allowing text and drawings to remain sharp at any zoom level.
## Building a Custom PDF Foundation
- Figma reviewed more than 1,300 pages of PDF documentation and evaluated existing libraries.
- Existing tools often handled difficult effects by rasterizing them into images.
- Figma built its own PDF library to control when and how rasterization occurs.
- Avoiding unnecessary rasterization is especially important for:
- Large-format printing
- Generating the same asset at multiple sizes
- Preserving crisp edges and gradients
## Reproducing Shadows and Blurs
- PDF lacks the shader-level controls available in graphics pipelines, so Figma synthesized shadows in code.
- Blurred regions are finely rasterized and converted into soft masks.
- Sharp elements behind the shadow remain vector-based and clear.
- Vector clipping ensures shadows and blurs stop correctly at their parent boundaries, preventing visible cracks.
## Handling Complex Gradients
- Linear and elliptical gradients map relatively easily to PDF’s built-in shading features.
- Angular and diamond gradients require more advanced techniques:
- Complex gradients are approximated by stitching together many simpler colored regions.
- Mathematical care is needed to limit approximation and numerical errors.
- PDF viewers implement sophisticated shading features inconsistently.
- Figma selected a specific implementation for angular gradients that works reliably across major viewers, including macOS Preview.
Figma’s PDF exporter provides a practical way to share and print designs while preserving vector precision. The company notes that reducing rasterization and adding advanced export controls remain ongoing priorities.
Figma’s Overlays feature makes prototypes more realistic by allowing content to appear flexibly above existing screens. Designers can position modals, sidebars, tooltips, and dropdowns, stack multiple overlays, and add interactions without rebuilding entire frames. The release aims to reduce repetitive prototype setup and better support interactive user flows.
## Simple Overlays
- A destination frame can be designated as an overlay after creating a prototype link.
- Overlays can be positioned relative to the device for modals and action sheets.
- Designers can manually position overlays relative to triggering objects, such as for tooltips and dropdowns.
## Multiple Overlays
- Multiple overlays can be layered simultaneously.
- This supports complex flows such as multi-step purchases and confirmation dialogs.
- Creating stacked overlays follows the same process as creating a single overlay.
## Interactions on Overlays
- Designers can use “swap” interactions within overlays.
- Swapping changes the overlay’s content without dismissing it or replacing the entire underlying frame.
- This enables interactive states such as button hover effects inside an overlay.
## Additional Controls and Shortcuts
- Back and Close actions can be selected directly on the canvas while dragging connections.
- Holding Option while hovering over a destination frame quickly selects a swap connection.
- Swap links can create more flexible Back behavior by returning to the last navigated frame rather than simply showing the preceding frame.
Overall, Overlays extend Figma’s existing prototyping tools and make layered, interactive interface patterns easier to build and test.
Zoom adopted Figma to replace a fragmented design workflow built around Sketch, InVision or Framer, and Zeplin. Figma’s speed, real-time collaboration, contextual commenting, and shared libraries reduced manual file management while improving communication between designers, engineers, product managers, and other stakeholders. The case study concludes that Figma became a shared source of truth that made Zoom’s distributed design process faster and more collaborative.
## Speed Bumps in the Design Workflow
- Zoom’s lean design team—about one designer for every ten engineers—needed efficient ways to communicate design decisions.
- Designers worked across multiple countries and time zones, making collaboration especially important.
- Their workflow relied on separate tools:
- Sketch for design
- InVision or Framer for prototypes
- Zeplin for engineering handoff
- Each iteration required files to be synchronized across tools.
- Teams pushed revisions 10–20 times per project and had to manage multiple versions, reviews, and stakeholders.
- Static screenshots often removed designs from their broader context, limiting the quality of feedback.
## Figma’s Collaborative Workflow
- Designer Steven Crosby was initially attracted by Figma’s performance, particularly its smooth frame rate when moving objects.
- Figma’s integrated commenting and real-time collaboration addressed Zoom’s workflow problems in one place.
- Multiple designers could brainstorm and work on the same file simultaneously.
- Anyone with access could comment directly on the design without downloading files or managing synchronization.
- Feedback became more contextual because reviewers could see the full design flow rather than an isolated screenshot.
- Figma brought designers together with engineers, project managers, product managers, and other teams, substantially improving the amount and quality of feedback.
## A Shared Design System
- Figma became Zoom’s single source of truth for design work.
- Team Libraries allowed designers in different locations and time zones to share components across projects.
- Zoom created a master file containing an icon set and reusable components, with live updates available to the team.
- Constraints helped designers create responsive components while keeping elements pinned to specific sides of a layout.
- Using reusable components improved consistency and helped designers better understand scalable design-system construction.
## Brainstorming Across Teams
- Zoom used Figma to include data scientists and an external design partner in product-message brainstorming.
- Participants needed no prior Figma experience to contribute.
- By sharing a link and inviting collaborators into the file, everyone could work simultaneously in separate areas of the canvas.
- Participants quickly moved elements, modified messages, and reused ideas from one another.
- The low learning curve enabled non-designers to participate directly rather than providing feedback indirectly.
Zoom’s experience suggests that consolidating design, prototyping, feedback, and reusable components in a collaborative tool can eliminate workflow friction and make design a genuinely cross-functional activity.
