Figma CONFIG'23 review

If you are a designer, it is almost impossible to ignore what Figma did with CONFIG this year - it was bigger, grander, and more hyped up than ever. For people who don't really attend conferences and are wondering whether it is worth spending the time, energy, and money ($500 ticket + additional cost for flight and accommodation for San Francisco if you don't live in the Bay Area), here are some of my thoughts..

The 'good'

With over 8,500 people from all across the world, Figma's intention was pretty good - letting designers across the world connect and enjoy a common medium through which they express/showcase their work. To be fair, it was pretty surprising (in a good way) to see that there are 8,500 of us who are equally excited about creating new things and share that passion.

The venue was great (Moscone Center, San Francisco) - everything was well organized, way-finding to different talks was easy, and someone from Figma was always present around you to help.
The branding for the entire event was insane - I could definitely see a big focus this year on motion design, marketing, and print media and it was evident in their conference swag too.
The talks themselves were well balanced across different disciplines - traditionally, a lot of them have been focussed on mostly on tool proficiency and are more technical in nature. But this year they had a good mix of content design, product design, deep dives into their new features, and development.
The features Figma released were pretty impressive - a whole lotta focus on complex prototyping, improving handoff process, and a lot engineering focussed code export updates.

The 'meh'

I am personally not the most experienced when it comes to rating/reviewing conferences, but from my limited experience around their usefulness and inclusiveness, here are my thoughts on what I found a bit weird

8,500 people - I think no matter how good your intention is as a company and how well the event is organized, having 8,500 people under a roof just always feels like a not so great idea. This lead to lines everywhere, inability to get into a talk you wanted to attend because of limited capacity (yes, that was a possibility even after having a ticket) and just a chaotic experience overall.
It still feels very design focussed - whether it be sessions, or the features that Figma focusses on, it all seems to be focussed on product designers and engineers. I am yet to see Figma focus on user researchers, improving their workflow, or sessions around how their research team (if at all) uses Figma for user research.
Limited plugin showcase - In my opinion, Figma plugin ecosystem deserves its own CONFIG, but looks like they had 5 plugins showcased both of the days, majority of them looked sponsored by companies like UserTesting, Maze, Anima etc.
Diagram x Figma - I love Diagram, and I love Figma. However, the vision they showcased seemed a tad underwhelming considering what a company like Framer is already doing out there.

Summary

Again, being able to write something like this means I am coming from a place of privilege - having a free ticket, living in San Francisco, and having been in this industry for about 5+ years now - and that also means that for someone who is super early in their career all the things I said above can seem completely useless. Despite the hype, CONFIG overall is a great reminder for all folks to reflect on how far HCI discipline has come - with more and more companies taking a user experience first approach to their products, and more companies enabling designers to build more complex things.

If you are a designer, it is almost impossible to ignore what Figma did with CONFIG this year - it was bigger, grander, and more hyped up than ever. For people who don't really attend conferences and are wondering whether it is worth spending the time, energy, and money ($500 ticket + additional cost for flight and accommodation for San Francisco if you don't live in the Bay Area), here are some of my thoughts..

The 'good'

With over 8,500 people from all across the world, Figma's intention was pretty good - letting designers across the world connect and enjoy a common medium through which they express/showcase their work. To be fair, it was pretty surprising (in a good way) to see that there are 8,500 of us who are equally excited about creating new things and share that passion.

The venue was great (Moscone Center, San Francisco) - everything was well organized, way-finding to different talks was easy, and someone from Figma was always present around you to help.
The branding for the entire event was insane - I could definitely see a big focus this year on motion design, marketing, and print media and it was evident in their conference swag too.
The talks themselves were well balanced across different disciplines - traditionally, a lot of them have been focussed on mostly on tool proficiency and are more technical in nature. But this year they had a good mix of content design, product design, deep dives into their new features, and development.
The features Figma released were pretty impressive - a whole lotta focus on complex prototyping, improving handoff process, and a lot engineering focussed code export updates.

The 'meh'

I am personally not the most experienced when it comes to rating/reviewing conferences, but from my limited experience around their usefulness and inclusiveness, here are my thoughts on what I found a bit weird

8,500 people - I think no matter how good your intention is as a company and how well the event is organized, having 8,500 people under a roof just always feels like a not so great idea. This lead to lines everywhere, inability to get into a talk you wanted to attend because of limited capacity (yes, that was a possibility even after having a ticket) and just a chaotic experience overall.
It still feels very design focussed - whether it be sessions, or the features that Figma focusses on, it all seems to be focussed on product designers and engineers. I am yet to see Figma focus on user researchers, improving their workflow, or sessions around how their research team (if at all) uses Figma for user research.
Limited plugin showcase - In my opinion, Figma plugin ecosystem deserves its own CONFIG, but looks like they had 5 plugins showcased both of the days, majority of them looked sponsored by companies like UserTesting, Maze, Anima etc.
Diagram x Figma - I love Diagram, and I love Figma. However, the vision they showcased seemed a tad underwhelming considering what a company like Framer is already doing out there.

Summary

Again, being able to write something like this means I am coming from a place of privilege - having a free ticket, living in San Francisco, and having been in this industry for about 5+ years now - and that also means that for someone who is super early in their career all the things I said above can seem completely useless. Despite the hype, CONFIG overall is a great reminder for all folks to reflect on how far HCI discipline has come - with more and more companies taking a user experience first approach to their products, and more companies enabling designers to build more complex things.

If you are a designer, it is almost impossible to ignore what Figma did with CONFIG this year - it was bigger, grander, and more hyped up than ever. For people who don't really attend conferences and are wondering whether it is worth spending the time, energy, and money ($500 ticket + additional cost for flight and accommodation for San Francisco if you don't live in the Bay Area), here are some of my thoughts..

The 'good'

With over 8,500 people from all across the world, Figma's intention was pretty good - letting designers across the world connect and enjoy a common medium through which they express/showcase their work. To be fair, it was pretty surprising (in a good way) to see that there are 8,500 of us who are equally excited about creating new things and share that passion.

The venue was great (Moscone Center, San Francisco) - everything was well organized, way-finding to different talks was easy, and someone from Figma was always present around you to help.
The branding for the entire event was insane - I could definitely see a big focus this year on motion design, marketing, and print media and it was evident in their conference swag too.
The talks themselves were well balanced across different disciplines - traditionally, a lot of them have been focussed on mostly on tool proficiency and are more technical in nature. But this year they had a good mix of content design, product design, deep dives into their new features, and development.
The features Figma released were pretty impressive - a whole lotta focus on complex prototyping, improving handoff process, and a lot engineering focussed code export updates.

The 'meh'

I am personally not the most experienced when it comes to rating/reviewing conferences, but from my limited experience around their usefulness and inclusiveness, here are my thoughts on what I found a bit weird

8,500 people - I think no matter how good your intention is as a company and how well the event is organized, having 8,500 people under a roof just always feels like a not so great idea. This lead to lines everywhere, inability to get into a talk you wanted to attend because of limited capacity (yes, that was a possibility even after having a ticket) and just a chaotic experience overall.
It still feels very design focussed - whether it be sessions, or the features that Figma focusses on, it all seems to be focussed on product designers and engineers. I am yet to see Figma focus on user researchers, improving their workflow, or sessions around how their research team (if at all) uses Figma for user research.
Limited plugin showcase - In my opinion, Figma plugin ecosystem deserves its own CONFIG, but looks like they had 5 plugins showcased both of the days, majority of them looked sponsored by companies like UserTesting, Maze, Anima etc.
Diagram x Figma - I love Diagram, and I love Figma. However, the vision they showcased seemed a tad underwhelming considering what a company like Framer is already doing out there.

Summary

Again, being able to write something like this means I am coming from a place of privilege - having a free ticket, living in San Francisco, and having been in this industry for about 5+ years now - and that also means that for someone who is super early in their career all the things I said above can seem completely useless. Despite the hype, CONFIG overall is a great reminder for all folks to reflect on how far HCI discipline has come - with more and more companies taking a user experience first approach to their products, and more companies enabling designers to build more complex things.

Figma CONFIG'23 review

Figma CONFIG'23 review

The 'good'

The 'meh'

Summary

The 'good'

The 'meh'

Summary

The 'good'

The 'meh'

Summary

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