The future of design is code and canvas
For the best ideas to move forward, we need the power of code and the canvas. Claude Code to Figma is just one way we’re giving builders more choice.
From Claude Code to Figma: Turning production code into editable Figma designs
Now you can take workflows that start in Claude Code even further in Figma.
Building Digital Trust: An Empathy-Centred UX Framework For Mental Health Apps — Smashing Magazine
Designing for mental health means designing for vulnerability. Empathy-Centred UX becomes not a “nice to have” but a fundamental design requirement. Here’s a practical framework for building trust-first mental health products.
Show don't tell: Embed Make prototypes everywhere you work in Figma
Today, we’re introducing the ability to embed Figma Make prototypes into Figma Design, FigJam, and Figma Slides, along with new editing tools.
Rethinking “Pixel Perfect” Web Design — Smashing Magazine
Amit Sheen takes a hard look at the “Pixel Perfect” legacy concept, explaining why it’s failing us and redefining what “perfection” actually looks like in a multi-device, fluid world.
The new business case for design systems
What you need to know about how to track and communicate the value of your design system
UX And Product Designer’s Career Paths In 2026 — Smashing Magazine
How to shape your career path for 2026, with decision trees for designers and a UX skills self-assessment matrix. The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. Brought to you by Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
Meet the maker: Kelsey Fairhurst’s irresistibly bold flatware
Brooklyn-based designer Kelsey Fairhurst launched Forks Plus, a “softline brutalist” flatware brand, with the help of Figma.
How To Design For (And With) Deaf People — Smashing Magazine
Practical UX guidelines to keep in mind for 466 million people who experience hearing loss. More design patterns in Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
Turn your prompts into visual assets and slide decks with the Figma app in ChatGPT
We’re expanding the capabilities of the Figma app in ChatGPT, so you can turn your ideas into creative assets and presentations that you can polish in Figma Buzz and Figma Slides.
Figma expands support for India with local data hosting and new governance tools
Figma introduces new governance features for enterprise customers, with local data residency expected next quarter.
Version control: One founder’s mission to save local farms with Figma Make
Aaron Veale, the founder of the mission-driven marketplace startup Planet Food, turned to Figma Make to build a product within weeks.
Run for your money: Engineering a treadmill that prints store credit (2025) - Shopify
We combined FTMS sensors, Socket.IO, and POS UI extensions to turn a manual treadmill into a discount-printing machine.
Design System Culture: What It Is And Why It Matters (Excerpt) — Smashing Magazine
We’re so happy to announce that “Maturing Design Systems”—a Smashing book by Ben Callahan — will soon be joining the Smashing Library! Ben’s insights and advice are so powerful, we thought you might like to read an excerpt from the book. Subscribe to our Smashing newsletter to be notified when orders are open.
Designing For Stress And Emergency — Smashing Magazine
Practical guidelines on designing time-critical products that prevent errors and improve accuracy. Part of the Measure UX & Design Impact (use the code 🎟 IMPACT to save 20% off today). With a live UX training starting next week.
Android VPAT journey
Background A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a document that outlines how well a product aligns with accessibility (a11y) standards. Its primary purpose is to inform customers about a product’s a11y features, enabling them to make informed decisions before purchasing software. At Slack, we conducted a VPAT by a third party a11y vendor in…
Gemini 3 Pro is now available in Figma Make
We ran Gemini 3 through a series of design exercises in Figma Make. Here’s what stood out.
Level up design-to-code collaboration with GitHub’s open source Annotation Toolkit
Prevent accessibility issues before they reach production. The Annotation Toolkit brings clarity, compliance, and collaboration directly into your Figma workflow.
Six Key Components of UX Strategy — Smashing Magazine
Let’s dive into the building blocks of UX strategy and see how it speaks the language of product and business strategy to create user value while achieving company goals. Part of the Measure UX & Design Impact (use the code 🎟 IMPACT to save 20% off today).
Getting Creative With Small Screens
On mobile, people can lose their sense of context and can’t easily tell where a section begins or ends. Good small-screen design can help orient them using a variety of techniques.
Three new features to help build brand momentum with Figma Buzz
With marketing templates that are now connected to your design system, plugins that pull in your favorite apps, and video trimming, we're giving designers and marketers new tools in Figma Buzz.
Ambient Animations In Web Design: Practical Applications (Part 2) — Smashing Magazine
Motion can be tricky: too much distracts, too little feels flat. Ambient animations sit in the middle. They’re subtle, slow-moving details that add atmosphere without stealing the show. In part two of his series, web design pioneer Andy Clarke shows how ambient animations can add personality to any website design.
Design systems: From the basics to big things ahead
To prepare for Schema 2025, we combed through Shortcut archives to pull together our design systems greatest hits.
How To Make Your UX Research Hard To Ignore — Smashing Magazine
Research isn’t everything. Facts alone don’t win arguments, but powerful stories do. Here’s how to turn your research into narratives that inspire trust and influence decisions.
15+ ways we’re improving accessibility in Figma
To make Figma easier to navigate for all, we’re launching dozens of keyboard-only controls and improving the screen reader experience.
4 ways for design teams to chart new territory with Figma Make
These ideas from Maven Clinic, Pendo, ServiceNow, and LinkedIn show how designers can prompt a path forward with Figma Make.
6 winning Figma Makes—and what you can learn from them
This year’s Make-a-thon winners offer insights on how to prototype smarter, structure products better, and push Figma Make further.
Turn your ChatGPT brainstorms into FigJam diagrams
With the new Figma app in ChatGPT, you can turn conversations into FigJam diagrams like flow charts, Gantt charts, and more.
Bringing Figma Make to the canvas
Now you can copy any design from a Figma Make preview to the design canvas, allowing you to edit, iterate, and take your ideas further.
Design context, everywhere you build
Our latest updates to the Figma MCP server and Code Connect bring Figma design context anywhere you work.
Ambient Animations In Web Design: Principles And Implementation (Part 1) — Smashing Magazine
Creating motion can be tricky. Too much and it’s distracting. Too little and a design feels flat. Ambient animations are the middle ground — subtle, slow-moving details that add atmosphere without stealing the show. In this article, web design pioneer Andy Clarke introduces the concept of ambient animations and explains how to implement them.
Creating Elastic And Bounce Effects With Expressive Animator — Smashing Magazine
Elastic and bounce effects have long been among the most desirable but time-consuming techniques in motion design. Expressive Animator streamlines the process, making it possible to produce lively animations in seconds, bypassing the tedious work of manual keyframe editing.
From Data To Decisions: UX Strategies For Real-Time Dashboards — Smashing Magazine
Real-time dashboards are decision assistants, not passive displays. In environments like fleet management, healthcare, and operations, the cost of a delay or misstep is high. Karan Rawal explores strategic UX patterns that shorten time-to-decision, reduce cognitive overload, and make live systems trustworthy.
Issue no.12: New roles, new rules
Figma’s editorial newsletter about how products take shape—and shape our world.
IDC study says the global workforce engaged in software design is expanding
IDC forecasts that the number of people involved in software design will increase from 2025 to 2029—signaling the rising importance of design as a competitive differentiator.
Designing For TV: The Evergreen Pattern That Shapes TV Experiences (Part 1) — Smashing Magazine
TV interface design is a unique, fascinating, and often overlooked field. It’s been guided by decades of evolution and innovation, yet still firmly constrained by its legacy. Follow Milan into the history, quirks, and unshakable rules that dictate how we control these devices.
Version control: How Figma Make helped us figure out video playback
To get videos working just right in Figma Buzz, Product Designer Natasha Tenggoro used Figma Make to prototype complex ideas when words fell short. We show three of them here, prompts and all.
The Psychology Of Color In UX And Digital Products — Smashing Magazine
Rodolpho Henrique guides you through the essential aspects of color in digital design and user experience, from the practical steps of creating effective and scalable color palettes to critical accessibility considerations.
The anatomy of an activation: How Figma Commons brought design to the public
As Figma stepped into its next chapter, we wanted to celebrate in a way that kept that idea front and center.
From Line To Layout: How Past Experiences Shape Your Design Career — Smashing Magazine
Your past shapes who you are as a designer, no matter where your career began or how unexpected your career path may have been. Stephanie Campbell shows how those lessons can sharpen your instincts, strengthen collaboration, and help you become a better designer today.
8 tips for designers building branded templates in Figma Buzz
To create self-serve templates that bend—but don’t break—brand designers need to consider work through a marketing lens.
Stuff & Nonsense Practical Layout Workshop
Web design veteran Andy Clarke is offering a two-hour workshop all about creating practical and creative page layouts this September 18. Register and save a few bucks with a coupon code.
Getting into the groove: How music shaped the scatter brushes in Figma Draw
Today, we’re adding 10 new scatter brushes to push the creative possibilities in Figma Draw. Here’s how the team drew inspiration from Doo-wop, Vaporwave, and other music genres to design them.
UX Job Interview Helpers — Smashing Magazine
Talking points. Smart questions. A compelling story. This guide helps you prepare for your UX job interview. And remember: no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
Thinking Deeply About Theming and Color Naming
Today, I want to discuss a couple of patterns for naming color palettes that the community is using, and how I propose we can improve, so we achieve both flexibility and beauty.
Who says design needs a mouse?
Figma's new accessibility features bring better keyboard and screen reader support to all creators.
Figma Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
Tomorrow, July 31, 2025, Figma plans to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIG.”
Figma Announces Increase in Initial Public Offering Price Range
Following the launch of Figma’s roadshow last week, we’re announcing an increased price range for our proposed IPO.
The making of a product icon
Product Designer Tim Van Damme shares his thoughtful approach to Figma icon design and the creative exploration that shapes each final result.
Designing Better UX For Left-Handed People — Smashing Magazine
Today, roughly 10% of people are left-handed. Yet most products — digital and physical — aren’t designed with it in mind. Let’s change that. More design patterns in Smart Interface Design Patterns, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.
Figma deepens roots in Australia with local data hosting and more
Figma introduces new governance features for enterprise customers, with local data residency expected later this year.
Mike Krieger and Luis von Ahn join Figma’s Board of Directors
Mike Krieger, CPO of Anthropic, and Luis von Anh, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, are joining Figma’s Board of Directors.
Figma Announces Launch of Initial Public Offering Roadshow
Today, we’re announcing the launch of the roadshow for Figma’s proposed initial public offering of Class A common stock.
Why Non-Native Content Designers Improve Global UX — Smashing Magazine
Ensuring your product communicates clearly to a global audience is not just about localisation. Even for products that have a proper localisation process, English often remains the default language for UI and communications. This article focuses on how you can make English content clear and inclusive for non-native users. Oleksii offers a practical guide based on his own experience as a non-native
In good company: How retailers use Figma to elevate e-commerce
Brands like Nuuly, Ruggable, and GitHub are designing multidimensional experiences that build customer trust, serve employee needs, and uphold core values.
Design Guidelines For Better Notifications UX — Smashing Magazine
As always in design, timing matters, and so do timely notifications. Let’s explore how we might improve the notifications UX. More design patterns in our Smart Interface Design Patterns, a friendly video course on UX and design patterns by Vitaly — from complex data tables and nested filters to FAQs and error messages.
How we shaped the visual identity for Config 2025
Figma’s Brand Studio designed an immersive conference that celebrated the spirit of makership at every turn.
Figma moves closer to its community with Latin American Spanish localization
Latin American Spanish becomes Figma’s latest language for product and support localization.
Figma Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering
An update on Figma's path to becoming a publicly traded company: our S-1 is now public.
Bill McDermott joins Figma’s Board of Directors
Bill McDermott, the Chairman and CEO of ServiceNow, is joining Figma’s Board of Directors.