Design tools that embrace change and cutting-edge technologies are most likely to keep up in the competitive landscape.
Figma has been shown to be able to do so by expanding its features and revamping its interface to be more productivity-focused.
In this article, we'll delve into the recent changes and why the design tool created by Dylan Field is becoming even more powerful for User Experience and Interface Design. Without further ado, let's dive in!
Top 3 Figma Updates in 2024
1. Figma New UI
Figma's new User Interface (UI) tagged us out with the new update, providing a decluttered and more approachable interface.
Now, its canvas lets us design with minimal design elements on the screen. The design process is smoother since we can hide, expand, and resize panels, reducing interference to the minimum.
Users who are fond of the previous design mode can still use it by clicking the "?" button in the right corner of the screen and selecting the "Go back to the previous UI" option.
This update included floating panels, but a recent update brought back fixed panels. Although floating panels were aesthetically pleasing, Figma heard users’ feedback and decided to stick to the old panel version.
2. Figma AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, and now, it has come to boost our design process as well!
The platform's new capabilities range from making simple designs out of written prompts, renaming layers, and background removal to content writing and translation.
Normally, to do all this, we’d need different tools, but including all these features not only shortens the tool list (and reduces costs) but also allows smoother creative processes.
Figma's AI prototyping is another exciting feature of this major update, as it eases connecting mocks to show clients interactive prototypes of their products.
On top of that, Figma now lets us search assets and content to start working faster and keeping up with the flow just by describing or drawing what we're looking for.
Figma’s AI-powered features are still in the free beta period, and if you want to use them, you should join a waiting list accessed via your Figma account.
3. Figma Slides
Figma Slides allows us to create and collaborate on presentations, similarly to how it lets us work on Figma design projects.
The best part is that it enables us to use a wide range of reusable components, like text styles and color palettes, that we have been using to design user-friendly interfaces.
This feature also lets us import designs from other projects while harnessing its new library of templates.
Plus, it adds new collaborative features like polls, face stamps, and scales, which help contextualize the team members' feedback.
4. Figma Dev Mode
Dev Mode was designed to bridge the gap between design and development.
Recent upgrades enable developers to search and filter, analyze updates, check how the design looked like before, and even mark when developers finished working on a given design.
It also has a new Focus View, which lets developers focus on ready-to-be-built designs.
Why Do We Use Figma?
Before Figma, sharing design files was a tedious task. If we wanted to work in a design at the same time, we couldn't! We needed to save it before passing the baton.
That's why Figma and its real-time collaboration capabilities became crucial, helping our remote teams to streamline workflows and ease cross-collaboration between design and development teams.
Moreover, Figma has facilitated showcasing digital products to our clients to get feedback from them.
Recent upgrades in Dev Mode have had a positive impact on the design handoff for development, ensuring devs have all the information they need to build high-quality digital solutions.
We can see automatic updates with the design changes and the possibility of running and executing plugins directly in Figma or other integrations such as VS Code.
FigJam is another one of our Product team's favorite features!
We use the presentation tool to create mind maps in the first Product Design stages to visualize and build ideas efficiently and clearly.
These are just some of the reasons why Figma is one of the best options for our team, helping us keep a fluid development process.
Conclusion
With over 14 years as a Full-Cycle Product Development Agency, we are confident that with its commitment to innovation and the inclusion of AI-powered features, this platform will continue to be a valuable asset, allowing us to bring to life creative visions for our clients.
