- Figma launches new design and dev instruments
- AI powers the suite
- Centered on giving groups capability to go from concept to product quicker
Final week in San Francisco, design and growth platform Figma unveiled 4 new instruments geared toward giving customers the total end-to-end bundle.
Figma Make, Figma Websites, Figma Draw, and Figma Buzz affords groups the power to ideate and create every thing from vector photos to full-blown web sites. And, as you’d anticipate, it’s all AI-powered for quicker iteration.
At Config London, I obtained a extra in-depth peek into precisely what these instruments are able to – and the way they match into Figma’s plans to create a platform that lets customers go from concept to product launch with out pause.
Create and launch at pace
One of many greatest points going through companies at the moment is group siloing – the place one hand doesn’t know what the opposite is doing (or, at the least, has a distinct means of doing the identical factor).
With that in thoughts, Figma has launched 4 new instruments alongside its beloved Figma Design and FigJam that nearly fully take away that drawback.
Yuhki Yamashita, Figma’s Chief Product Officer, defined the considering behind the brand new line-up, saying, “How will we assist you to do every thing, going from an concept to a ultimate product? And all of the issues that you will note sooner or later, too, might be anchored on this, on this framework of serving to individuals undergo this journey quicker, discover extra concepts, and make that course of as environment friendly as doable.”
Figma Make is an overarching instrument for content material ideation. Right here, you can begin from scratch or copy and paste present designs from Figma Design, and collaborate on these with the remainder of the group (Figma calls this a “multiplayer” instrument). You’ll be able to then port over into different apps like Figma Websites to tailor the design to swimsuit the product.
What’s attention-grabbing right here is the idea of throwing away designs. Successfully, what Figma needs is to make it straightforward to quickly ideate, that if one thing doesn’t work, you may throw it out and begin afresh.
Throughout the press briefing, Yamashita mentioned: “Our thought experiment was, how can we make it really easy so that you can go from the thought into your head to one thing that’s truly you may put in entrance of customers and validate actually shortly. And if it does not work, that is nice. You’ll be able to then transfer on to the subsequent concept, or you may hold iterating from there.”
Figma Websites is an AI-powered web site builder for all-in-one design, prototyping, and publishing. One of many chief functions behind that is saving time – an area the place builders can work on templates, responsive design, customized interactions, and transitions and movement results. Utilizing grids, and with a bit of assist from AI, designing responsive websites seems and feels straightforward (assuming you already know what you are doing, that’s).
Throughout Config London, I used to be handled to a quick, playful instance – taking static phrases and prompting the AI to provide you with three other ways so as to add some design sparkle, for instance, repelling every phrase because the cursor hovers over it. Nonetheless, as Yamashita later famous, there are extra sensible makes use of right here equivalent to connecting an API to the back-end.
There’s additionally the promise of future updates, with Yamashita saying, “we needed to be sure that we may assist scaled use circumstances, too. For instance, a advertising and marketing web site with tons of content material, or possibly a weblog. And with these sorts of content material, it is a lot simpler if we’ve a CMS, so {that a} non-designer can are available in and comfortably edit that content material in a means that is acquainted to them. And that is one thing that is coming quickly.”
Figma Draw is, in a way, Figma’s AI-powered reply to Adobe Illustrator. Nevertheless it goes a bit of deeper than that, with the corporate eager to assist designers make content material that does not have a generic appear and feel, whereas letting them freely specific themselves and elevate their craft.
I noticed a number of examples of what the Figma group has already created in the course of the occasion, some in hand-drawn stylings, others photorealistic photos – and it’s honest to say, they’re actually spectacular. Yamashita defined, “We add issues like texture and noise to make it really feel rather more natural, whereas nonetheless being a vector.”
Figma Buzz tackles the social media advertising and marketing facet – as soon as a product is launched, Buzz is a instrument for selling it on-line. However extra importantly, it is a means to assist these on the group who can’t or don’t use Figma Design to create content material that matches model pointers. Constructed for designers and advertising and marketing groups, Yamashita known as this “the purpose-built instrument for on-brand asset creation” for dynamic and customized property at scale.
He and his group requested themselves “how may it really feel so simple as filling out a kind, in an effort to truly create some dynamic content material?” Figma Buzz is the reply to that. Helpfully, the instrument additionally connects to Figma Design, serving up all of the options designers use, with out “complicating the expertise” for non-designers.
I noticed this one in motion on stage and got here away impressed. In a matter of seconds (okay, possibly ten or so seconds), a single submit was robotically localized 80 other ways, switching language, picture, and nationwide flag for the proper territories – all with out eradicating that on-brand ingredient.
You’ll be able to try Figma’s newest instruments proper now by clicking right here and navigating to the Merchandise part. To look at the total Config London keynote speech with Yamashita and Figma CEO Dylan Area, it is on YouTube right here.
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