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Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

figma.com

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Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#161

Post by CityOfThrowaway »

eddieroger wrote: post #148
revskill wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a MacOS user, zooming on a touchpad is painful.

As a MacOS user with a Logitech Ergo mouse, I haven't figured out how to navigate at all, and have to get my external trackpad out just to move around. If anyone knows how to move around Figma with a scroll wheel, please tell me, seriously. I would be glad to be wrong. That said, the touchpad experience is at least intuitive.

I have the same mouse and it works fine:

1. Hold the cmd key on your keyboard while spinning the scroll wheel to zoom in and out

2. Click and hold the scroll wheel and move the mouse around to pan

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#162

Post by the_mar »

drewbeck wrote: post #151
bgribble wrote: post #103

As a developer, the "one big bulletin board" visual model that Figma promotes is one of the worst steps backwards in UX I have ever had to deal with. I am constantly zooming in and out and scrolling around trying to find anything. I hate it so much.

I can for sure see how the 'big board' approach isn't good (and it looks like they're attending to this to some degree with the new Dev Mode features). I'm curious what handoff experience you had before that was better. Prior to Figma (as a designer) my workflows were always "send a PDF with designs, export some assets", which I imagine was non-standard, and not great, so I'm wondering what was improved for you befor…

I had a brief and horrific period of my life when I had to export assets for android at the weird android resolutions.

I really don't understand why there isn't a better designer>developer hand off experience. It seems like Figma is trying with the CSS stuff and the layouts, but I don't think it quite works

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#163

Post by eddieroger »

CityOfThrowaway wrote: post #161
eddieroger wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a MacOS user with a Logitech Ergo mouse, I haven't figured out how to navigate at all, and have to get my external trackpad out just to move around. If anyone knows how to move around Figma with a scroll wheel, please tell me, seriously. I would be glad to be wrong. That said, the touchpad experience is at least intuitive.

I have the same mouse and it works fine: 1. Hold the cmd key on your keyboard while spinning the scroll wheel to zoom in and out 2. Click and hold the scroll wheel and move the mouse around to pan

Thank you! I will try this. I think I had the pan down, but would have liked shift+scroll for sideways and it wasn't doing that.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#164

Post by paulddraper »

bgribble wrote: post #103

As a developer, the "one big bulletin board" visual model that Figma promotes is one of the worst steps backwards in UX I have ever had to deal with. I am constantly zooming in and out and scrolling around trying to find anything. I hate it so much.

Never have I seen such an accurate description of figma.

My soul resonates with this

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#165

Post by andsoitis »

tharkun__ wrote: post #147
Akronymus wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For us, figma has the final say in looks. So, it's actually a benefit that the designers can change it afterwards, as it is refined. They still have no incentives to keep the links up to date, though.

Being able to change things as design is still in flow is great, agreed. Once something is agreed upon the ability to change things without notice is really bad, especially if you're expected to follow the design as it has "final say". You go an implement something on Monday based on designs and show it to stakeholders on Tuesday. They compare with the figma board and flogg you because it looks nothing like it. Ugh!…

That sounds like an opportunity to improve on collaboration (i.e. people talking, notifying each other) as well as trust ("compare with the figma board and flogg you because it looks nothing like it")

For instance, if something is agreed upon and a designer changes it afterwards, they could simply give you a heads up that they intend to do so with context so the two of you can discuss.

People > process.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#166

Post by dawnerd »

Akronymus wrote: post #125
bgribble wrote: post #103

As a developer, the "one big bulletin board" visual model that Figma promotes is one of the worst steps backwards in UX I have ever had to deal with. I am constantly zooming in and out and scrolling around trying to find anything. I hate it so much.

We use figma quite extensively as a reference for our current project. The disgners constantly move stuff around, so the links to them, in tasks, break and point to nothing. Which is a major pain in the ass indeed. So yeah, 100% agree that the "big bulletin approach" is a negative.

Ugh yeah when designers change things after a client signs off and in the middle of implementation. It confuses everyone and no one remembers what was actually signed off.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#167

Post by aabhay »

novok wrote: post #117

Since figma devs are looking at this thread, could you please add proper p3 color space support? Everyone’s phone supports p3 at this point, especially iphones and the gap prevents mobile designs from looking the best they can be because there is too much friction to use it. Sketch supports it!

Seconded!

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#169

Post by Hermitian909 »

dahwolf wrote: post #157
Hermitian909 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an engineer at a large company whose moonlighted as a designer it's felt like a huge win. It's now way easier to both stop designers from adding one-off design and interaction patterns that confuse users and to write truly reusable components that allow us to iterate faster as a company while maintaining a high level of visual consistency and polish. That's a big challenge once you start hitting org sizes in the h…

No need to convince me of that, I'm an engineer. But I still empathize with those designers. It's mechanized design which to some feel like a prison for their creativity. Even more so when all designs start to look the same across companies, and then there's AI design still to come. What you emphasize, speed/productivity, is indeed the credo of our world, but that doesn't necessarily align with the goal of design. Ta…

> Take Apple, they don't seem to care about speed or continuous delivery at all, yet are widely celebrated for design excellence.

For a large software product to be designed well I think you need at least the following four things organizationally:

1. Talented people

2. A collaborative culture that allow those people to argue their position

3. Leadership that believes in good design and is willing and able to invest in it

4. The discipline to maintain consistency across many surfaces

Apple has all 4. I'm at a company that had 1-3 but really struggled with 4 pre-figma. The transition has allowed our design team to really focus their creative energies onto more impactful problems and much less time designing settings page #32. Admittedly this done mean the less talented designers have less fun when they're working, but this griping is exactly what I deal with from mid level engineers who want to work with latest shiny framework, just part of making good product IMO.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#170

Post by nateroling »

The problem with these kind of pixel-perfect, inspectable design tools, is that there's no distinction between important details and unimportant details.

For example, if our app uses a letter-spacing of 1.2 for all the body text, and your Figma design uses a letter-spacing of 1.25, is that important? Or is that a mistake?

In something like Figma, being consistent is difficult for designers. But in code, being consistent is the default — exceptions are hard for developers!

There's a fundamental mismatch that just ends up being painful all around.

"The map is not the territory." Trying to get a design doc to 100% accuracy is often a waste of time. Design tools need a way to specify which details are important, and which are not.

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