Figma Setup

Config 2025 - UI Prep

Friday Five Newsletter #119
Hi Friends,
I’m back with the 119th issue of Friday Five. Every other Friday, I share my best tips about Figma and design systems. Each one created or curated by me to help you become a better designer.
Config 25 Recap! Last week, I had an absolute blast at Figma’s annual conference in San Francisco. The energy was electric—so many new features, fresh ideas, and inspiring conversations. It was such a joy to catch up with old friends and meet some incredible new folks, too.
While it feels like there were hundreds of exciting announcements, I’ve rounded up the 5 new Figma features I’m most excited about.

P.S. Huge thanks to everyone who joined the hike I led—what a perfect way to kick off the conference! Great views, great convos, and an even better crew :)
1. Use Auto Layout's Grid setting
Tip from Config (NEW!)
Use the new Grid feature to make well-proportioned and responsive designs. No more tangled webs of horizontal and vertical auto layouts, or wrapped content that doesn't resize quite right. Grids let you design flexible, responsive layouts in a way that feels a lot like CSS—as Christine explains so clearly here. 

..But what I’m really excited about is their potential for data tables. In the Config Deep Dive, Miggi demoed how Grids can be used for individual table cells. Making notoriously complex components much easier to build and design.

You can find and apply this new feature by selecting a frame, navigating to Auto Layout, and clicking "Grid".

2. Create your portfolio with Figma Sites
Tip from Config (NEW!)
Use Figma Sites to design and publish your portfolio. This new site builder lets you design and publish simple websites directly from Figma. A great option for anyone who is thinking about building or rebuilding a portfolio website. Perhaps to show off their new design system skills..
You can copy and paste your work from any Figma Design file into your new Site file. You can also continue to use your existing design libraries, styles, and components—no rebuilding required. Or if you’re starting from scratch, you can borrow from one of the many templates already available.

3. Make things with Figma Make
Tip from Config (NEW!)
Use Figma Make to chat with AI and prompt your way to a new design or prototype. Generating both the design and code at the same time. This massive new product can do things like..
Prototype existing designs: Import designs from an existing Figma file and ask Make to turn it into a functional prototype.
Brainstorm new ideas: Ask Make to generate a brand new design with your given requirements.
Improve your designs: Add designs from an existing Figma file and ask Make to improve certain elements.
Publish to sites: Publish your prototyped design to Figma Sites directly from Make. Like this cute calendar generated with Make!

4. Add Figma Buzz to your Design System
Tip from Config​
Use Figma Buzz to make handing assets off to non-designers much easier. This is a new marketing frontier for your design system. You can create templates for ads, social media posts, and one-pagers using your team's branding and specs. Non-designers can come into these files, make a few customizations, and export anything they need. No more bugging you to swap out a photo or re-export something.

5. Add depth with the Texture Effect
Tip from Config (NEW!)
Figma’s new Texture Effect lets you add richness and dimension to your designs with just a few clicks. You can apply it to fills, strokes, shadows—even text layers—to make things feel more tactile and unique.
It’s perfect for bold, eye-catching backgrounds or adding subtle texture to branded components and UI elements. This effect opens up a whole new layer of visual interest.

Cheers, 
​Molly at UI Prep​
Do you need help with your design system?
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Industry Design Systems
Industry Influencers

Conference topics

Get Started: a practical Design Tokens Workflow in Figma
Philipp Jeroma
(he/him)
Design Systems Europace AG

UI Architecture
Spectacular component alignment between design and code
Nathan Curtis
(he/him)
Design System Consultant Directed Edges
Governance
My Toolkit: Educating Teams and Demonstrating Design System ROI
Romina Kavcic
(she/her)
Design Systems Lead / the designsystem guide
A conference
for Design System
makers 🎨

Learn from
Actionable Sessions
& Case Studies 📚
Get over 20 hours of content including:
🗣️ Q&A 🖼️ Slides 📑 Templates
🗂️ Files 🤝 Networking
We've helped
Thousand become
Better Design System
Experts 💪🏻
learn together
with your team
Bring your Design System to
the next level - together with your team! A perfect team Learning opportunity
Accessibility
Extended Session 60 min + Q&A
From docs to engagement:
Building design documentation and tools that teams love

Anna Zaremba
Product Design Architect at eBay

Cordelia McGee-Tubb
Design technologist and digital accessibility specialist at eBay

Ryan Tinsley
Multidisciplinary Staff Designer at eBay
Accessibility
Accessibility Foundations in
Design Systems

Stéphanie Walter
UX Researcher & Strategist, Product Designer & Teacher
Career advice
Design System Portfolio Tips

Justine Montgomery
Design Systems at Stripe
FAQ
Personal Access: Can I share my access with others?
With your personal conference ticket you will get personal access to the live conference and all of our recordings. It is a single log-in which means sharing your access with others is not allowed and technically not possible.
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Conference
Connect with
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that helps you become
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3-Day Online Conference
May 28-30 2025
🚨 We're 70% sold out! 👀







Our events are attended by
Design System professionals working at


You?
Career advice
Design System Portfolio Tips

Justine Montgomery
(she/her)
Design Systems at Stripe
Governance
My Toolkit: Educating Teams and Demonstrating Design System ROI

Romina Kavcic
(she/her)
Design Systems Lead / the designsystem guide
Design Tokens
Get Started: a practical Design Tokens Workflow in Figma

Philipp Jeroma
(he/him)
Design Systems Europace AG
UI Architecture
Spectacular component alignment between design and code

Nathan Curtis
(he/him)
Design System Consultant Directed Edges
Design Tokens & Theming
Future friendly Theming

Samantha Gordashko
(she/her)
Design Systems Lead
Accessibility
Extended Session 60 min + Q&A
From docs to engagement:
Building design documentation and tools that teams love

Anna Zaremba
(she/her)
Product Design Architect at eBay

Cordelia McGee-Tubb
(she/her)
Design technologist and digital accessibility specialist at eBay

Ryan Tinsley
(he/him)
Multidisciplinary Staff Designer at eBay
Figma Variables
Extended Session 60 min + Q&A
Master variables and slot
components in Figma

Marcin Spiewak
(he/him)
Design Tokens Crusader

Mr Biscuit
(he/him)
Design Systems Architect
Design Tokens & Handoff
The Dev Lifecycle of a Design Token
Joren Broekema
(he/him)
Developer Design Syste
Design Tokens & Theming
Algorithms & Aesthetics: Building Smarter Design Systems

Marco-Christian Krenn
(he/him)
Graph Engine Wizard & Problem solver Tokens Studio
ms Tools

Figma Variables
Extended Session 60 min + Q&A
Variable modes as a replacement for component properties

Victor Nystad
(he/him)
Lead Analyst Digital Design Equinor

Insert Links to Design System Resources
Design Systems in the spotlight: Evo by eBay
Highlights 👇

For my study and research, I took a close look at the Evo brand and design system by eBay (https://playbook.ebay.com/)

I hope it inspires you in creating or refining your own Design System

Here’s what I liked the most:

• Tokens:
https://lnkd.in/d-BiZ3jH

• Color best practices:
https://lnkd.in/dfKZ6zvw

• Interactive Color pairing tool
https://lnkd.in/d8UrB7s2

• Motion system with examples:
https://lnkd.in/dEsaNYes

• Interaction design:
https://lnkd.in/db-q_u_Z

• Data visualization
https://lnkd.in/dCDcN2Qt

• Accessibility:
https://lnkd.in/drm_-tg4

• Include—Accessibility Annotations plugin for Figma:
https://lnkd.in/dCyjriKQ

Want to learn live with the eBay Design System Team?
🔥 Join their upcoming hands-on session at Into Design Systems Conference 2025:

📌 From docs to engagement: building design documentation and tools that teams love
🟢 Extended 90 min session
👉 Learn more about their session: https://lnkd.in/d2PybXWj
Major Systems

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