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Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

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Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#181

Post by nkrisc »

tharkun__ wrote: post #143
Akronymus wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've completely reneged on linking to figma in individual tasks. I take screenshots of the state of figma at the time we all agreed that "this is it" (or close enough to what we'll implement). Sure I'll leave a link in the epic to the figma "bulletin board" for that feature so that people can find it and look around. But that's it. We're also never gonna implement exactly what's shown in figma (or said screenshots) e…

At a previous job me and my team (UX Design) were so well meshed with the developers that I could hand them a text outline of the page structure I wanted of our design system components and they could produce it with 90% accuracy. Afterwards I would sit with them at their desk and we’d work out the last 10% together - either things I hadn’t thought of or bits they weren’t sure how to implement. It was glorious and it’s still the highlight of my professional life.

Unfortunately that’s been the exception in my personal experience, so most of the time I have to produce pixel-perfect comps that leave nothing to the imagination.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#182

Post by spacebacon »

A designer using Figma is equivalent to a developer using no code solutions. The design is compromised and potential to do something great is capped. I prefer an illustrator art board over Fisher Price my first UI apps. Wire-framing UX is best done with the freedom of a large art board to play in. Extra points if you design UI completely with vector. God mode if you build your own components.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#183

Post by metalrain »

While I'm happy Figma exposes layout as CSS rules, one does not copy paste styles directly into project.

There is still disconnect how to interpt the layout from lower level back to structural abstractions.

Like margin of 24px may actually be 16px default margin + 8px additional margin for this element type.

I'm not sure if Figma or other design tools can solve this disconnect, but I think that would help a lot.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#184

Post by andsoitis »

tharkun__ wrote: post #172
andsoitis wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They could. They don't. It may not even be their fault. They don't know. They just change things. They live in their world. You tell them, they are sympathetic, apologize, vow to do better next time. They're in their world. They do it again. The flogging still happens. Is that broken? Yes! Does it still happen in too many companies? Yes! Is there an easy fix where you "trust but verify"? Yes! (as in, sure I trust the…

> They could. They don't. It may not even be their fault. They don't know. They just change things. They live in their world. You tell them, they are sympathetic, apologize, vow to do better next time. They're in their world. They do it again.

We can use your language and persuasive skills to effect change. That change might be better collaboration. That change might be the person gets fired because it, together with other behavioral patterns, are judged to yield poor outcomes. Outcomes that are not good enough.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#186

Post by balaji1 »

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.

Good product engineers just go with the flow - workflows with Figma is way up there, compared to without. Those folks were probably the early adopters, and they were much happier to work with designers now.

Minor design details tend to change and even if they are missed out, they get caught at some point - cost of dev rework is generally manageable.

Another big tool for bigger product teams has been component libraries (and corresponding Figma assets). That makes it all simpler.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#187

Post by balaji1 »

Framer [1] seems mind-blowing for small product teams. Or at least the idea of it if Framer can be adopted successfully by a small team. I tried it briefly on a small project, it felt powerful, but big disclaimer we never went to "prod" on that project. Also I am not sure about performance, etc. Any thoughts or anecdotes?

[1] https://www.framer.com/

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#188

Post by zarzavat »

nateroling wrote: post #170

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 consist…

When writing CSS for a Figma design, I first try to match the Figma as exactly as is reasonable, then I do a visual diff to make sure I haven’t missed any important details, then I clean up the CSS and relax some of the constraints until the (S)CSS is maintainable e.g. if I have padding of 19 and 21, lifting that out into a $padding: 20px constant.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#189

Post by SkyPuncher »

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.

Do your designers not wire up prototypes?

Makes it way easier.

Re: Making Figma better for developers with Dev Mode

#190

Post by mrxd »

nateroling wrote: post #170

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 consist…

Design linting tools solve this problem.
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