open-platform

2 posts

figma

Introducing new FigJam prices and a more open platform | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

FigJam is expanding from a beta whiteboard into a more accessible, customizable collaboration platform. Figma announced free and paid pricing, lower-friction participation through Open sessions, and a broader ecosystem of widgets, plugins, embeds, templates, shapes, and code blocks. The goal is to help entire organizations use FigJam for meetings, workshops, visual thinking, and everyday productivity. ## More accessible pricing and participation - Starting February 1, 2022, FigJam’s Starter plan will remain free. - The free plan includes: - Unlimited personal whiteboards - Three shared whiteboards - Unlimited collaborators - Paid plans provide unlimited shared whiteboards: - FigJam Professional: $3 per editor per month - FigJam Organization: $5 per editor per month - **Open sessions** let anyone join a FigJam session for 24 hours without logging in, making one-off workshops and planning meetings easier to host. ## Widgets for collaboration and meetings Widgets allow teams to customize FigJam and support social, facilitation, and productivity workflows. - **Team connection:** Donut offers water-cooler prompts and drawing games; other widgets include Rock Paper Scissors and Connect Four. - **Meeting facilitation:** - Simple Vote collects feedback after brainstorming. - Alignment Scale checks whether participants agree. - **Productivity support:** - Table imports Google Sheets data into FigJam. - Stark for FigJam provides accessibility checklists and guidance. - Org Chart helps map departments and plan headcount. - Figma planned to expand widgets with kanban boards, timelines, inline text editing, and improved media embedding. ## Plugins for faster creation - Plugins focus on helping users express and create ideas more quickly, while widgets emphasize collaborative interaction. - More than 40 plugins were already available. - Vimeo was developing a Vimeo Record plugin for recording screen captures and voice-over explanations directly in a FigJam file. - Other examples include: - Tour Guide for animated presentations - Create Sticky from Text for converting text into sticky notes - Stamp Counter for quickly counting votes ## A broader, community-built platform - Figma opened FigJam’s widgets and plugins platform to developers after an initial community beta. - The company positioned this open ecosystem as a way to let users shape how FigJam works for different teams and use cases. - Additional platform improvements announced included embedded content such as videos and documents, new shapes and code blocks, and templates accessible from the FigJam toolbar. FigJam’s strategy is to combine broad access with extensibility: keep basic collaboration free, remove barriers for guests, and let teams adapt the workspace through community-built tools.

figma

Building on our open platform: Design in Figma, prototype with Framer | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma argues that design tools should remain open, allowing users to move their data across products rather than becoming locked into one platform. Its new Framer Web integration lets teams design collaboratively in Figma and import files into Framer for more advanced, expressive prototypes. The announcement reinforces Figma’s broader strategy of building an ecosystem around APIs, plugins, and integrations. ## An Open Platform for Flexible Workflows - Figma has prioritized data portability since its founding. - Its web-based platform and APIs allow developers to access and use Figma data in external tools. - Customers have used the API to build internal tooling, create plugins, and even use Figma as a content management system. - Figma also launched an API challenge to encourage a Sketch exporter, but withdrew it after community feedback that it resembled unpaid “spec work.” ## Supporting Specialized Design Tools - Figma recognizes that although some teams use it for the entire design process, others prefer specialized tools. - Partners such as Zeplin provide alternative approaches to developer handoff. - Figma’s position is that no single product should try to serve every workflow; an ecosystem of complementary tools can fill specialized needs. ## Importing Figma Designs into Framer - The new Framer Web integration allows users to import Figma files directly into Framer Web. - Teams can collaborate on design in Figma, then use Framer to build richer and more expressive prototypes. - Framer Web was in beta at the time, with access available through a waitlist and setup instructions provided in Figma’s documentation. ## Broader Integrations - Figma planned to launch additional integrations throughout the year. - Prototyping and user testing: Flinto, Principle, ProtoPie, and Maze. - Developer handoff: Avocode, Storybook, ZeroHeight, and Zeplin. - Collaboration and project workflows: Coda, Dribbble, Dropbox, Jira, Notion, Slack, and Trello. Figma’s recommendation is implicit: use Figma as a collaborative design foundation while choosing the best external tools for prototyping, testing, handoff, and project management.