Me - “Oh Figma has another update, I hope they fix those long-standing bugs I deal with all the time. Especially the ones that have been lingering for a few years.”
Figma - “Here’s some features that no one was really asking for. Oh, and we didn’t fix that 4 year old bug yet. But… you can now uh… AI integration!, no wait… stickers! uh, no wait, follow cursors!”
Examples of what still hasn’t addressed properly:
Linking between pages within a single document to make more efficient prototypes. In development terms, it’s similar to a separation of concerns. I’d like each page to represent a single portion of the application. Example, first page “home”, second page “documents”, etc.
Prototypes in general. They are still buggy as hell. It’s sometimes easier to work with a developer to make a live working prototype than to manage them in Figma.
Working inputs. I’d love to see inputs that allow you to type. You know, being that data collection in a UI (until AI takes over anyway) still requires manual input from users. Forms have been around for only what… 35 years.
Overrides in variables. It still isn’t well thought out. Color overrides on icons within a design system library. Doesn’t work when swapping variants. Bug is as old as variants. Even when everything is named the same. I’m not resorting to masking.
Variants are still buggy. It’s great that we have them, but they still aren’t well thought through in terms of product usage. Especially when using the ATOMIC method of nesting.
Detachable and fully resizable windows like Adobe products. I wrote a custom script just to resize the left panel because of the nesting issue. At least keep the “detached” color window open when I click on another layer.
Right panel text issues. Don’t name anything more than a few characters wide because you won’t be able to read it. Similar with dropdowns, small and not very wide.
No collapsible menus within the panels? Seriously, adding titles using the / to create a directory structure only to realize it is flattened in the UI? Example, “Primary/50” should create an accordion for Primary. It doesn’t.
Recent component list is never the most recent items. It’s typically items I interacted with a few days ago.
Anyway, just a post to vent on how I’m sick of searching for solutions/workarounds to long standing bugs and/or poor decisions while Figma releases updates no designer I know even cares about…