Bringing the community together in Figma | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)
Figma’s 2020 priorities centered on strengthening its global community as the company and user base expanded. The company planned to connect users through in-person events, improved support, collaborative product features, and a richer platform for sharing design resources. Its broader goal was to make design more accessible and collaboration more effective for entire product teams. ## More Opportunities to Meet in Person - Figma launched Config, its first user conference, in San Francisco on February 6, 2020. - The event emphasized community-created programming, including talks on open-source design, developing future designers, design confidence, and redesigning Chicago.gov. - Figma also planned more local events and user groups in cities around the world. - Users were encouraged to participate either in person or online, and community leaders could help organize events in their cities. ## Expanded Global Customer Support - More than 80% of Figma’s active users were outside the United States, while its support team primarily covered North American and European business hours. - Figma moved its support technology to Zendesk to better serve customers globally. - Planned improvements included: - A new Help Center for self-service product information - Community forums for peer-to-peer support - Streamlined internal processes for faster responses ## Product Features for Entire Teams - After launching features such as Plugins, Auto Layout, Smart Animate, OpenType support, and Design System Analytics in 2019, Figma promised a larger 2020 product roadmap. - The company would continue reducing repetitive design work and improving creative productivity. - Figma also aimed to better support engineers, product managers, and other members of product teams—not just designers. - Files at larger organizations averaged six collaborators, highlighting the importance of team-based workflows. ## Building a More Open Design Community - Figma introduced the beta of Figma Community in October 2019 to let creators publish files for others to inspect, remix, and learn from. - More than 300 creators had already shared around 600 files, including templates, educational guides, and public libraries. - In 2020, Figma planned to expand the number of contributors and resources so both professional and aspiring designers could discover ideas and learn from shared work. Figma’s roadmap combined product development with community-building: expanding events, improving global support, enabling broader team collaboration, and making shared design resources easier to discover and reuse.