Some might say I'm being too harsh on Figma but I actually think I'm not being harsh *enough.* For better or worse, Figma is the industry-default design tool. When they select their priorities, it communicates to designers *what they should consider important* both as a role model and as a tool. - ThreadSky

spavel.bsky.social • 50 days ago

Some might say I'm being too harsh on Figma but I actually think I'm not being harsh *enough.*

For better or worse, Figma is the industry-default design tool. When they select their priorities, it communicates to designers *what they should consider important* both as a role model and as a tool.

Reposted from Pavel🐀

We're time traveling back to 1997 today, when WISYWIG editors were all the rage. In the decades since, web technology has clawed its way from that primitive state with semantic HTML that made accessibility possible and let content drive appearance rather than vice-versa.

Then Figma blew it all up.

Comments

sminn.ee•50 days ago

It’s infuriating that they can’t give it to a developer to do it properly as a series of JavaScript-generated divs covered in tailwind classes

sminn.ee•50 days ago

More seriously: it’s sad that Figma opted to be a nail in the coffin, rather than Jesus to the Lazarus of semantic, accessible HTML, but the man was already dead.

jcklpe.bsky.social•49 days ago

More people should know about @penpot.app which is an open source alternative. Worth signal boosting them. Designers need credible exit.

bryanzug.bsky.social•50 days ago

I felt this Dreamweaver label in my bones.

ddt.bsky.social•49 days ago

Many government clients know a lot of civic tech uses Figma (and Figma invites this: https://www.figma.com/government/). These new accessibility-breaking features put pressure on designers to poop out this stuff quickly, but making it comply with a11y regulations will be a nightmare.

brandononearth.bsky.social•50 days ago

Them centering generative AI will also normalize it despite its biases, inaccuracies, and environmental impact. Like wysiwygs, it will narrow the scope of what’s considered “good” or acceptable which will just be a slip of existing patterns

spavel.bsky.social•50 days ago

A tool that makes it easier to pump out shit code and experiences that trample all over WCAG guidelines, and publish directly to the Web, means that fewer designers will be taking the time to do it properly. The path of least resistance now lies through making a website that sucks.

spavel.bsky.social•50 days ago

By choosing to focus the vertical slice of their beta on pumping out shit code, Figma is effectively endorsing this as a practice. They are saying through their actions "we, as the industry leader, believe that this is acceptable practice."

This speaks far louder than lip service to accessibility.

spavel.bsky.social•50 days ago

Advocating for semantic HTML will be much harder going forward, because any designer can point at Figma and say "but this is how they do it." And what can you say? It IS how they do it, and they encourage others to do it because it is the tool that they chose to release.

spavel.bsky.social•50 days ago

@curiousscutter.bsky.social says "you do not need to build a pants version of your app to find out that it is pants" but this is exactly what Figma Sites is for. It is a pants site builder, for building pants sites.

spavel.bsky.social•50 days ago

There is an argument that teams will now spend less time building their pants sites, because the pants site builder makes it easier to do that.

But optimizing doing the wrong thing doesn't make the thing righter! More effort will go into building pants sites overall, because of Figma Sites.

spavel.bsky.social•50 days ago

The UX design role is going to have to bifurcate if it's going to grow up.

Designers who want to be more strategic will be defining the info arch & content. Designers who want to work in delivery will focus on the HTML/CSS.

Figma Sites is entirely backwards facing; it serves neither function.

mwdelaney.me•49 days ago

The average stakeholder (not user) needs to understand the difference and they have an incentive not to.

jason.revolutionarygames.co•50 days ago

I’ve been beating the drum of semantic markup amongst front end devs for years now, but it’s been a losing battle for a long time now.

krosskeys.lol•50 days ago

Sir this is the 5th body we've found this month and it has the same calling catd as all the others. Somebody branded

on his chest.

krosskeys.lol•50 days ago

Then you slapbox them while repeating "HTML IS MORE THAN JUST CONTAINERS FOR CSS TO STYLE, IT IS FOR LOGICAL CONTENT DESCRIPTION AND ORGANISATION IN THE DOM" continue until they agree or die.

wedgeantilles.bsky.social•50 days ago

I hate figma, seriously. I just did a project and the designer was all pro-figma, and it just added like three steps to each part of my job

subcide.com•50 days ago

Definitely not harsh enough. Didn't cover that because they're so overwhelmingly dominant, they have no incentive to improve tools meaningfully, as people can't switch. Last 2 years of updates to Design have been near stagnant. Chasing a VC exit with more tools, not better tools.

subcide.com•50 days ago

We need portability in our file formats so that design tools can compete on experience, rather than lock-in.

jcklpe.bsky.social•49 days ago

Checkout open source alternative @penpot.app if you haven't. I believe they have a figma import tool.

subcide.com•49 days ago

Yep, import/export tools aren't really sustainable as an alternative to open formats, especially when feature parity isn't there, and things like design system linkages and things may not work well. Penpot too small to be a viable competitor too.

jcklpe.bsky.social•48 days ago

Agreed but it's hopefully going to develop into a true competitor someday.

andrewmaier.bsky.social•50 days ago

Thank you for your service. I don’t miss dreamweaver (or frontpage) but the VCs do, apparently.

double-ues.bsky.social•50 days ago

But are you being harsh enough on Ligma?

champl.in•50 days ago

Figma has recognized that just being the default design tool will not enable the infinite growth that’s expected of any company now, so they’ve really leaned in to technologies that are antithetical to the ethos many of us align with

I hate it!

nathanielflick.bsky.social•50 days ago

From what I can see from Figma sites, they took their own React/C++ framework and applied that to their sites app. Div-itis and no accessibility built in.

arn.is•50 days ago

Being critical on Figma is like disrespecting a cult leader

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