There a lot of new features coming to Figma every Config, like a Figma version of Powerpoint or Illustrator. But this forum is full of requests related to issues people face building UIs.
Here are some recent Figma updates that are really amazing:
- Keep aspect ratio
- Reorder variable modes
These features cannot be replaced with plugins or external apps, and they save a lot of time for large projects. But, it took years to implement so much requested concepts. And now, with the new “Grid” feature (which is very much needed) — same situation: it is unusable in its current state. And there’s no hope it will usable when out of beta (as it was with variables).
Don’t get me wrong, I really like accessibility check in the new color picker. But this can be done, a bit slower, with a plugin. And, there are lot of basic things, that cannot be done at all:
- to set a prototype size per flow. Why can’t I have my desktop mockups on the same Figma page as my mobile mockups?
- to use component variants for states (my “Home” ❖Tab in my ❖TabBar, when swapped from “active” to “inactive”, stops inheriting its label & icon from the main component, and has to be updated manually for every screen)
- to control auto-layout direction with variables (for common responsive setups)
- to have auto-layout (wrapped) cards have same height AND be set to hug content
- to set all dimensions/sizes in % of the parent (manually and via variables)
Or, less important, but also huge time savers
- text wrap for variables table (using hover all the time is annoying)
- variable values shown in inspect panel w/o hover (same)
- search in variable table
- assigning any variable type as a text layer value (for documentation)
- bulk control of nested component properties if multiple instances of the same component are selected
- control color opacity with variables
- have FigJam arrows in Figma
And, just from the top of the head, “great to have” topics which are not covered at all
- to have local overrides for a shared design system
- to have simple solution for responsive setups
- to use simple math with numeric variables
- to have native variables exporter
etc etc
