Config '24 Thoughts and Takeaways

Config is a conference created by Figma, where designers, makers, and innovators come together to connect and explore new ways to enhance product design and development. 

Naturally, there's a lot of excitement surrounding Figma’s latest features and updates at the event. This year, I was fortunate to attend Config in-person.

Among the more talked-about topics is the rollback of Figma’s new “Make Design” AI tool

Just days after its launch, Figma announced the rollback of their “Make Design” feature following growing concerns about the tool closely copying professional app designs. The generative AI tool, embedded in Figma, allowed users to create UX layouts and components through text prompts.

With a mindset of "better late than never" I'm happy to see Figma quickly acknowledge and take responsibility for this. 

From my perspective, as an audience member at Config, Figma CEO Dylan Field appeared a little bit out of his element during the AI Make Design reveal. In light of the rollback, the awkwardness we felt from him on stage now makes sense.

It seems that his unease was perhaps a result of not feeling 100% confident about the feature, due to a rush to make the Config deadline. Through conversations and glances with those seated around me, it was clear many of us shared the same sentiment: the presentation left us questioning the reliability of the AI toolset.

WillowTree Research Director Jill Heinze recently shared her thoughts, quoting Field’s statement on the feature rollback: 

"Ultimately, it is my fault for not insisting on a better QA process for this work and pushing our team hard to hit a deadline for Config. - Dylan Field, CEO of Figma. 

In Jill’s post, she emphasizes how tiring — and costly! — it is to see company leaders, like Field repeatedly prioritize speed-to-market over quality assurance. She concludes her post by saying that “Tech leaders really need to make value, not just deadlines,” which I fully agree with.

“Tech leaders really need to make value, not just deadlines”

Building upon this quote from Jill, I’ve recently noticed a growing imbalance between scope, speed, and quality across the industry. Leaders, understandably, want to prioritize speed and quality over scope. 

However, more and more, leaders are doing this without acknowledging that two elements are at odds. Speed drives rapid development and quick market entry, while quality relies on a thorough design and testing process to ensure high-quality output. As some designers and researchers know well, you simply can’t have both …without cutting corners. 

While it’s understandable that Figma's team faced this challenge (as many of us have), it’s surprising that the tradeoff for speed over quality came from Figma — a brand from which we’ve come to expect high quality. We look to industry leaders to set an example of maintaining a balance between these competing priorities, and perhaps we’re shocked (but not surprised) to see the “Make Design” feature fall into this classic trap.

My hot take? The “Make Design” tool wasn’t worth the squeeze 

While I could see this feature being useful for educating teammates or clients seeking to understand design strategies, this feature in particular doesn’t seem to serve the needs of Figma’s core audience. Designers. 

To me, the tool feels like a nice-to-have for cross-functional team members looking to visually communicate their ideas, making me wonder why Figma’s team rushed to add it in the first place.

WillowTree’s Chief Design Officer Alex Carr recently shared similar sentiments in an insightful LinkedIn post. “If you are opening up Figma and you’re blocked by a blank canvas, then you have already skipped a bunch of steps,” Alex wrote. “Sketching, idea generation, mood boards, inspiration gathering. If you’re not sure what to make when you get to Figma, then you are not ready to make something in Figma.” 

He further added, “I think the designers that will utilize this feature are probably the same designers who won’t iterate very much on it.” 

While the tool might be beneficial for some, it falls short in serving the iterative and explorative needs of the design process.

Figma Slides are a designer’s dream

Even though the craze of AI may have overshadowed other announcements, Figma’s team delivered immense value with their announcement of Figma Slides.

As someone who spends a lot of time designing and prototyping presentations in Figma, I’m excited to see how this feature streamlines my weekly client reviews and design share-outs.

The biggest differentiator with Figma Slides is that designers can now embed prototypes directly into their presentation. Instead of using a static image series to communicate how the design will function, clients can see and interact with the design directly on the slide itself. 

At WillowTree, our brand and experience design practitioners always emphasize the value of getting our designs into the hands of our clients. Figma Slides does exactly that. Instead of switching between different tools, clients can now see designs in context, get excited about design progress, and give more efficient feedback.

While building, designers can apply a unifying theme to a series of individually-styled slides, cutting down on hours of re-styling. Instead, we can focus on where we truly excel: storytelling. 

Overall, this product feels like a game changer.

Aside from Figma features…What Config talk inspired me the most? 

To be honest, the Figma feature announcements were the least interesting thing about the conference.

In fact, Jason Ballard’s closing talk on Config’s final night was arguably the most conviction I’ve felt from a presentation in a long time. I encourage everyone to watch it. 

In his talk, Ballard highlights the global housing crisis, pointing out that traditional construction methods have remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years. His company Icon aims to revolutionize construction through automation and 3D printing to reduce the cost of construction for houses, while increasing the quality. He argues that beauty is not merely an aesthetic quality, but a reflection of deeper human values, aspirations, and the potential for a better future.

For Ballard, beauty in design represents the harmony between form and function, where practical solutions also inspire and uplift the human spirit. He contends that even as we incorporate advanced technologies like AI into our lives, maintaining beauty in our designs ensures that these innovations enhance the human experience rather than detract from it.

“Beauty will save the world. Beauty is the difference between dystopia and utopia, both metaphorically and probably literally. If we don’t find a way to do what we do at Icon [Insert your own company name here] beautifully, it will be a curse to the world, instead of a blessing.” — Jason Ballard, CEO and Co-founder of Icon

For me, this was a reminder that beautiful design is worth fighting for. It’s easy to forget why aesthetics matter when you're juggling business decisions, tight timelines, and the pressures of the corporate world. 

Designers are advocates for the end user, but even we sometimes lose sight of why creating beautiful design is as crucial as functional design.  Even the word “user” can become less human in our everyday design speak. 

This was not only a reminder of why I love design as my chosen profession, but a key takeaway from the conference. My work in design can be the difference between a blessing and a curse.

The best designers never stop advocating for their utopias.

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