🔖 What I’ve been thinking

Last month, an image for “Figma Website” was leaked online. It was around April Fools, so it may be a joke, but it stirred up a bunch of thoughts I’ve had in my head.

It’s not just designers, it’s anyone with an idea. Framer, Webflow, Wix, Squarespace, Canva, and others have been working in the no-code arena for years, so Figma would be playing catch-up. I can’t blame them, Figma sees the writing on the wall just like everyone else. They’ve been bringing elements of code into the product: dev mode, variables, heck even auto layout is essentially flexbox.

I love Figma, but I’m starting to think visual design tools have plateaued. Figma’s output is a picture of a thing, rather than an actual working thing. The mocks might perfect but the final product rarely is. Why make a picture of the thing when you could make the actual thing?

With the proliferation of Ai-assisted code editors, there’s never been a better time for designers to learn other skills like code. The biggest thing stopping them is Figma.

Figma is an excuse not to learn code. A Rube Goldberg machine for avoiding code.

With Ai, more and more folks can do basic design and code. Or design and sales. Or design and writing. Or design and customer support. Or design and literally anything else. Investing in a complementary skillset that expands our creative range and makes us harder to replace.

Disciplines like design and engineering won’t die, but it’ll be harder to survive on a single skill set. Ai is perfect for brainstorming, prototyping, and production. There will not be enough work left for specialists. Generalists will own the future, and things like code and product sense will always be in demand.

Learning a new skill used to take years just to get the basics. Ai speeds up this learning curve dramatically. The ones who keep learning and trying will come out ahead.

It’s an expectation at Shopify that employees extend their skills with Ai. Note: I don’t agree with Tobi’s note in its entirety, but it shows where things are heading. A similar memo was circulated at Microsoft. Same at my company. We’re officially in the age of doing more with less.

I haven't ditched Figma, but I've stopped improving my Figma skills or learning the new stuff because Figma can only do so much. I use it as a tool communicate the idea I’m after, but I use other tools for writing (Notion) and shipping (VS Code, Cursor, and Github).

I don’t know what’s in store for Figma. Maybe it’ll gobble up a bunch of tools and become this all-in-one Ai-infused writing-designing-shipping behemoth. Or maybe Figma's already had its time in the sun, we designers are a finicky bunch and frequently move on to the next shiny thing (Remember how “cool” Sketch, Netlify, Squarespace once were?).

But until Figma branches out from UI design and prototyping, I’ll be investing my time elsewhere. There’s so much more that needs to be done.

🧶 Stray Links

I’ve been binging Wes Kao’s newsletter and particularly enjoyed her post on giving rich design feedback instead of just “Looks good to me!”. I try to give descriptive, actionable feedback to my own team and wrote about what I look for so they can anticipate some of my feedback.

Another gem from Wes’s newsletter is how to be concise is a classic. Before you joke about the article being 11min long, remember that concise does not mean short.

Litmus was acquired earlier this month, which unfortunately resulted in many of its employees being let go. Litmus has been my friend (as much as a company can be a friend) to me and countless others. If there’s any silver lining, there’s a bunch of super-talented folks on the market that any company would be lucky to have.

You’re not burned out because you’re weak. You’re burned out because you’ve been relevant, valuable, over-functioning for too long.

The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average, and the Arctic Ocean could have its first ice-free day before 2030, much earlier than expected.

Next on my reading list: Tyranny, Inc., which argues the real threat to American freedom today isn’t from government overreach but from unchecked corporate power. I try to have a healthy amount of cynicism around what I do for a living, so I’ll read this right after I finish Careless People.

Open Ai has probably spent tens of millions of dollars on users saying “please” and “thank you” to its models. Many say they’re nice to be spared in case of a robot uprising.

🏛️ From the Archives

A favorite I periodically re-read.

Another site I love binging, Anthony Hobday has a nice list of small, timeless UI “Quality of Life” improvements we can all use on any design.

🎨 Nice Site

I love seeing good design in under-served industries.

Thanks for reading ✌️
- Ted