Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator and a famend enterprise capitalist, just lately stated he encountered a CEO of a “reasonably massive tech firm” who changed the design software Figma with Replit, an AI code companion software.
“Replit is so good at producing apps that they simply go straight to prototype now,” Graham stated as he recalled what the CEO informed him. “This shocked me as a result of I don’t even consider them as being in the identical enterprise,” he added.
A number of builders have resonated with the sentiment. Kenny Totten, founder and COO of AllFly, a journey tech firm, stated on X that Replit and Claude have significantly affected their startup.
“Undecided we are going to proceed with Figma. Replit is definitely slightly simpler to prototype and design in,” he stated. He additionally highlighted one other impact, the place the suggestions loop from buyer to product to engineering will now be 5 to 10 instances quicker.
After all, it isn’t simply Replit however many different AI-powered coding instruments which have displayed an identical impression. Cory Home, an internet developer, stated on X, “My crew is doing the identical factor however with [Vercel’s] v0 as a substitute of Replit. Speedy prototyping is changing Figma.”
He added that designers will proceed to construct a design system – a set of pointers and templates to construct a product – however might want to construct the precise design utilizing instruments like these as a substitute of Figma.
AIM obtained in contact with Viba Mohan, a product designer based mostly out of California, for a sensible statement. Like many, she is a proponent of this transformation and stated she’s utilizing code to shine ideas extra typically than Figma. “I additionally see this being mirrored within the trade with a lot smaller groups,” she stated, indicating that it accelerates the method “a lot quicker”.
“I consider bigger corporations might be a lot slower to adapt to this transformation and that it’s going to harm them,” Mohan added.
However, is it truthful to objectively conclude Figma’s destiny – just like the CEO who met Graham did?
‘There’s a Basic Misunderstanding Taking place Right here’
AIM additionally spoke to Chandra, a Bengaluru-based UX designer with over 5 years of expertise. “In my view, there’s a elementary misunderstanding occurring right here that’s value unpacking,” he added.
Chandra stated that design isn’t nearly making issues look fairly or creating mockups however about forming hypotheses about how customers will work together with a product to attain particular targets. “Growth isn’t nearly writing code; it’s about implementing these hypotheses in a method that’s technically possible, maintainable, and scalable,” he stated.
You will need to perceive that Replit and Figma aren’t competing approaches however instruments that may complement one another. “We will rapidly iterate on totally different approaches [in Figma] with out getting slowed down in implementation particulars,” he stated, emphasising that Figma is a whole design system and a collaboration platform.
It helps groups align on a shared imaginative and prescient, assume by means of person flows and journeys inside a product, and take a look at assumptions earlier than allocating sources in direction of the constructing course of.
Replit, together with different AI instruments, has its personal function.
“It’s implausible for fast prototypes that show a technical idea or show a selected interplay,” he stated, indicating that it’d exchange sure workflows for corporations “obsessed” with speedy validation and proof of ideas.
Nevertheless, not completely. “Claiming Replit replaces Figma completely reveals a elementary misunderstanding of a design’s function,” he stated.
This raises a query concerning the degree of product improvement the CEO, who interacted with Graham, was engaged on. “The truth that a CEO sees them as interchangeable suggests they’re working at a floor degree of product improvement,” Chandra opined. “It’s analogous to saying you’ve changed your structure agency with a development firm as a result of they’ll put up buildings quicker.”
All issues thought of, it’s nonetheless truthful to say that Figma is lagging behind when it comes to AI options. “Additionally it is potential that Figma adapts to this transformation as a result of they’re a robust crew,” Mohan stated.
However what’s Figma doing?
Figma Ought to Pull Its Socks Up
Figma is ubiquitously used within the design ecosystem; is the corporate simply counting on its monopoly? Many really feel the software wants to enhance.
Alex Kehr, CEO of Superlocal Maps, stated on X that instruments like Cursor and v0 may result in Figma userbase’s collapse if the corporate doesn’t react rapidly.
“Past collaboration options, designing in Figma is beginning to really feel prefer it is senseless when useful prototypes may be generated so rapidly,” he added.
Nevertheless, Figma hasn’t shied away from the AI sport. The corporate introduced a bunch of AI-enabled options on its platform. As an illustration, Figma provides a function to generate UI ideas with a single immediate.
It does give customers a headstart by rapidly producing an interface with a design system. Nevertheless, the options weren’t up to speed.
A evaluation from a well-liked UX/UI weblog, DesignerUp, highlighted points with creating greater than a single display screen.
“After attempting a number of prompts to generate a couple of display screen, it failed on all accounts. This, to me, is likely one of the greatest limitations and disadvantages proper now – its incapability to generate full flows or add further screens,” learn the evaluation. Figma additionally isn’t able to producing a number of screens with constant kinds and parts.
One other person on X stated that Figma’s AI rewrite software, a function that improves copy, feels prefer it makes use of an older model of OpenAI’s GPT-2. “It will get easiest issues mistaken and infrequently does the job.”
At present, a number of customers depend on exterior plugins to combine extra helpful AI options inside Figma.
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