What 1,000 conference proposals say about design in 2023

Figma’s annual user conference, Config, returned for its fourth year in June 2023 in San Francisco. The event itself draws a crowd, but the lead-up offers a quieter signal about the state of the profession. Figma researchers analyzed more than 1,000 talk proposals submitted for the 2023 event—the highest number ever, up from 420 in 2021 and 520 in 2022—and compared the language and themes against previous years. The results paint a picture of an industry that is more optimistic, more specific about AI, and still wrestling with the same collaboration problems it had years ago.

Optimism grows as pandemic language fades

The tone of submissions has shifted noticeably. In 2021, 63% of proposals carried a positive sentiment; by 2023, that figure rose to 72%. Proposals are more likely to include phrases like "there has never been a better time" for a given technology or approach. Mentions of the pandemic dropped to roughly one-sixth of 2021 levels, and references to remote work fell about 20%.

The shift is not just about what people are saying, but how they frame the work itself. Submissions increasingly frame digital product design as a way to address large-scale problems. Talks about the energy industry grew from a small handful to 3% of all submissions, and healthcare topics tripled from 1% to 3% since 2021. Accessibility and inclusion are roughly three times as prominent as they were in previous years, signaling a move from awareness toward actionable guidance—even though progress remains slow. WebAIM’s million-homepage study found 96% of homepages still had WCAG 2 errors, down just 1.5% from 2019.

Design systems meet creative expression

The old tension between structured design systems and free-form creativity may be dissolving. Submission language shows the shift. Two years ago, talks about design systems centered on basic setup needs—words like scale, reality, and auditing were common. In 2023, proposals more often pair design systems with creativity, using language like art, transition, color, and creating.

Teams working at higher velocity and scale appear to be treating design tokens and system components as creative capital rather than constraints.

AI gets concrete

AI has consistently been a popular topic at Config, but the nature of the conversation has changed. Mentions of AI saw a 3x increase in 2023 submissions compared to previous years. More significantly, the references have become less theoretical and far more grounded in workflow details.

A 2021 signature talk, "When Design Meets Machine Learning," focused on vague ideas about user experience and making sure users see the best content. This year’s submissions include titles like "Designing With AI: Building the Flagship GPT-4 Language Product" and "Emerging Thoughts on AI-Assisted Design," along with automation-focused talks like "Lazy or Smart: How I Automated IKEA Product Data in Design." Many submissions also describe AI as a creativity enhancer, reflecting a more sophisticated understanding of the technology’s real-world applications. A full day of AI keynotes at Config featured speakers from Adobe, Google, Diagram, and investor Reid Hoffman.

Metaverse interest dips, but doesn’t disappear

Despite the prevailing narrative that the metaverse craze has passed, interest among Config submitters has not evaporated. Metaverse topics represent a small but slightly larger share of 2023 talks compared to last year. Related areas like extended reality (XR) and augmented reality (AR) continue to appear. The pattern resembles earlier cycles in AI interest—hype fades, but the underlying concepts tend to resurface in a different form as the technology matures.

Collaboration remains the perennial challenge

If AI is where designers feel most forward-looking, collaboration is where they remain stuck. Proposals in 2021 described collaborative work as a road trip, suggesting fixes like low-fidelity design, journey maps, and team-wide goal setting. The 2023 proposals advocate for uniting product and engineering around the customer—but offer many of the same foundational methods, some of which are decades old.

There is some new energy around designer-developer collaboration. Figma created a dedicated track for this topic in 2023 after seeing a 2x growth in related submissions. Talks planned for the year include "Pass the Ball: Designer-Developer Collaboration as a Team Sport," "(Co-de)pendent," and "How to Build Pixel-Perfect UIs with Storybook and Figma." The submissions show more detail and texture than in earlier years, but the central question remains unchanged: How do people with different skills and worldviews create something better together than any of them could alone?