Figma Config 2025 according to two experienced product designers

When I scroll through design communities on social media, it is challenging to know what to believe.

How do you determine which new features actually matter for your design workflow? And more importantly, are Figma’s announcements really going to change the way you work? Tyler White and I sure have our thoughts on the matter!

Let's look at the main announcements from Figma Config 2025 and how they (might) impact your design process.

Main Config announcements and our thoughts

We're going to review the main announcements and talk but our thoughts, whether or not the announcements are 'production ready', and how they might slot into our day-to-day as product designers.

Figma Make for prototyping

Figma Make probably gets the most attention out of all new features announced at Config 2025. This announcement is Tyler’s favorite.

His current workflow involves taking code from his Figma design elements, pasting it into ChatGPT, and then prompting until it works. Having this functionality directly in Figma (Make) would mean no more app switching. And that’s a big productivity gain.

For Tyler, the main potential for this tool depends largely on its ability to export and launch your work.

Let’s say you've created your React application or prototype by using Figma Make, can you then publish it somewhere or copy the code and paste it into an existing codebase? If so, that would be a game changer.

Figma Draw for icons

For icon designers, Figma Draw offers quite a few improvements. Personally, I really like the fact that we have more options for icons now. The ‘fill’ feature is something I’ve used multiple times already.

It is useful for me because I draw a lot of custom icons for product design SaaS projects. Custom icons are a great way to stand out compared to your standard Feather icons or Font Awesome icons.

Up until now, creating icons in Figma has been a bit hit or miss. The new drawing options should make this process smoother.

Grids

Figma finally introduced a (proper) grid system, though it isn’t as big of a deal as some designers make it out to be. You could already design (bento) grids in Figma either manually or using a combination of auto layouts.

The newly announced Figma Grids feature, while easier to use, still has limitations. The most important thing for Figma’s auto layout (where Grids will be a part of) is that it has to be as close as possible to the actual flexbox and grid systems in CSS. It makes the transition easier from design to code.

The current version isn’t quite there yet, but you can assume that it will get a couple of updates along the way.

Figma Sites

Let’s talk about Figma Sites next. This announcement rivals ‘Make’ for getting the most attention after Config, and it divides the design community. Some say it is great while others say is it terrible and nowhere near being ‘production ready’.

Here’s what we think you should keep in mind about Figma Sites.

Up first is content management. This is super important for freelancers working with clients who want to update their own content. You manage content using a CMS.

Regardless of what platform are you delivering your site or product in, whether it's Webflow, WordPress, or the upcoming Figma Sites, an easy to use CMS is key.

If Figma Sites has a strong CMS feature, it will help them a lot in becoming a real Webflow and Framer competitor.

Up next is code quality. Early feedback on code output has raised questions on accessibility and div usage.

While the concerns are super valid, you have to keep in mind that most announcements are currently in alpha or beta testing. They're not full releases yet. It's the first version. Of course it's going to be messy.

What will Figma’s future be?

During our recent Config podcast episode, **Tyler** shared his ideal vision for Figma's future:

'Here's my hope. If the next feature or product that they launch is a dev code editor that merges all and creates a tool to rule them all. You go from Figma to Figma Make to prototyping and send that off within the same code editor.'

When you can do it all in one tool, it allows developers to do some light design work, while designers assist with basic development work. That would be super efficient!

At the same time, there’s a theory about Figma looking to go public. To do this well, they want to have as many features in as many markets as possible.

I’m not sure if there’s anything to this theory, but it goes to show that the design community is divided here.

The middle ground between the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’

Social media reactions tend toward extremes,  with lots of people claiming Figma is ending certain competitors.

Let's use Adobe Illustrator as an example. If you are a product designer like me who does icon design as a side hustle, being able to create icons in Figma is something you can already do. Because of Figma Draw, it's slightly better now.

At the same time, it is only 1% of everything Adobe Illustrator can do. So no, Figma didn’t just end Illustrator. For product designers who didn’t use Illustrator to begin with, it might be the case, but not for the millions of other designers.

Figma Sites will also not replace Framer or Webflow overnight. The gap in terms of features, quality, and stability is simply too big.

Yes, the current (beta) version is probably going to get better. And I wouldn't judge Figma Sites and compare it to Framer as it is today. Framer and Webflow started out as a bad MVP once, too.

They will far more likely stay competitors that share the market for years to come.

What new Figma features to (not) use

With all the Config talk out of the way, it is time to determine what to start using and what to skip (for now). Here’s how.

- Weekly testing time. Set aside time to test the new features. I, for example, have a one-hour block scheduled each week for personal projects and tests such as these.

- Real projects. Could one of your current projects benefit from any of the new Config features? It is okay to do a test run there!

I will try out the Figma Draw features for a custom icon set I’m designing for a customer. Let's see what happens and if it is as useful as it seems to be at first glance!

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