By all accounts, Figma has been an amazing tool for designers. We've used it extensively at 37signals, and I'm sure most every other software shop has too. Adobe didn't pay $20 billion for nothing. But we don't do the bulk of our design work with or in Figma when developing Basecamp or HEY for the web. That's all done directly in HTML ...

Design for the web without Figma

https://world.hey.com/dhh/design-for-the-web-without-figma-4bc3a218

Give me a stack of punch cards and an IBM

Yeah like most things there's more nuance to real world workflows and you should just use whatever tool is most effective for your stage of the project imo. Classic annoying DHH bait post though lol.

fuck everything I'm going back to coding with pen and paper

"All our web designers work directly with the native materials of HTML, CSS, and usually even a fair bit of JavaScript and Ruby. The design process and its iterations flow through updates to the real code that runs the real app, and, as quickly as possible, against real data"

I actually think of Figma as a very constrained design tool and personally don't see too many instances of designs that can't be easily implemented. Photoshop is/was a different story.

It’s how I work. But it isn’t as binary as the article makes out, I do a lot of back and forth depending on what design problem I need to solve. 

That all said you shouldn’t gate keep tooling. Use what works for the team and deliver together.

Flashback to a Python exam I once had 😵‍💫

Yeah totally agree. Use the tool that's right for the job, and understanding when something has reached its limitations in working through a concept is important

One of my frontend colleagues told me he even uses Figma himself for hobby projects before coding. He especially likes auto layout because of how similar it is to the way he works.

I feel like as far as DHH spicy takes go, this take isn’t even really that spicy. Having a deep understanding of materials does make designers more effective and Figma isn’t the end all be all of tools.

For what it’s worth, I design most (not all) things in code (after designing in my head and sometimes rough sketches). If your visual design and components are already mature and you’re adding features then jumping into code can get you to the best feeling option sooner

i love coding and i’m always excited when i get to do it, but it is objectively faster to perform even the most basic tasks in Figma vs code. i can’t imagine iterating on the same component and comparing them side-by-side in a browser. such a weird take.

I agree with a lot of this. Figma is great. But I’ve found it to be way quicker to code a site than build out components and prototypes 🤷‍♂️ like everything, depends on the site/product, depends on the team.

Yep. Curious what people have to say about it

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