Figma - Deep Dive: Designing AI features for FigJam (project walkthrough)
The discussion revolves around Figma's initiative to integrate AI into their design tools, specifically through the development of AI templates. The project aims to address the challenge of starting from a blank canvas, which can be daunting for users unfamiliar with design tools. By allowing users to describe their needs, the AI generates templates, reducing the need for manual design work. This approach not only simplifies the process but also ensures that facilitators can focus on content rather than design details. The project involved extensive exploration and iteration, with a focus on creating reliable and discoverable entry points for users. The team prioritized making exploration quick and cheap, allowing users to experiment with AI features easily. The final design incorporated feedback from various stakeholders, including Figma's CEO, to ensure it met user needs and expectations. The project took about three months from conception to launch, highlighting the complexity and effort involved in developing high-quality AI tools.
Key Points:
- AI templates help users start from a blank canvas by generating design templates based on user descriptions.
- The project focused on making AI tools accessible and easy to use, especially for non-designers.
- Extensive exploration and iteration were key to developing a user-friendly AI system.
- Feedback from stakeholders, including Figma's CEO, was crucial in refining the final product.
- The project took three months, emphasizing the complexity of developing AI tools.
Details:
1. 🎨 Figma's High Standards and Iterative AI Design
- Figma maintains exceptionally high standards, humorously noting that achieving 90% of a goal is relatively easy, but the final 10% is akin to 'd gears', emphasizing the challenge in perfecting their design processes.
- The initial iteration of AI integration focused on developing AI templates and entry points, underlining the importance of establishing clear principles and use cases for AI within the platform.
- Key elements included a comprehensive prompting system and the design of AI icons, indicating a broad stroke approach to integrating AI thoughtfully and effectively.
- Figma's iterative design process ensures continuous improvement, with each iteration refining AI functionalities to better meet user needs.
- The integration of AI has been structured to not only enhance user experience but also to align with Figma's overall design philosophy of simplicity and effectiveness.
2. 📈 From Concept to Creation: Figma's AI Journey
2.1. Introduction to Figma's AI Features
2.2. Jam Bot and Collaboration Tools
2.3. Template Generation and User Experience
2.4. Development Challenges and Iterations
2.5. User Feedback and Future Directions
3. 🔍 Deep Dive into AI Template Development
- The project required extensive exploration, resulting in two large Figma files due to the volume of design iterations.
- Initial AI template design was foundational, focusing on template-driven AI tools without a pre-existing AI system in place.
- The design process involved creating a new page for engineers to access the final specifications, ensuring clarity and alignment.
- Early iterations included outlining features such as drafting agendas, outlining goals, and describing activities, with a focus on making AI tools more accessible.
- Dropdowns were initially used to convey use cases but were found to hide them, leading to further exploration of more visible design solutions.
- The importance of meeting AI users where they are, such as integrating existing drafts from other platforms, was highlighted as a key consideration.
- Prompting was identified as a major challenge for non-designers, leading to the use of placeholder text to guide users in understanding syntax.
- Visual elements like icons were considered to improve user experience by making interfaces intuitive and minimizing hidden options.
- The concept of remixing templates with existing ones was explored to provide users with familiar starting points, enhancing usability.
- Final designs included a progressive prompting system to assist users in building out their prompts, demonstrating the evolution of the prototype.
4. 💡 Strategic Exploration and Decision-Making
4.1. Strategic Exploration Initiatives
4.2. AI Templates as Strategic Solutions
5. 🔄 User Experience: Entry Points and Interactivity
5.1. Entry Points Design Iterations
5.2. Template Integration and Permanent Entry Points
5.3. Exploration and Emphasis of Multiple Entry Points
5.4. Enhancing Creation Experience with AI Integration
6. 🎯 Focusing on User Needs and System Interoperability
- The exploration focused on starting with a new file starting point, anticipating the need for first draft-related features across multiple platforms like Sigma design, fig Jam, and Figma slides.
- Emphasized the importance of developing an interoperable AI system across products, rather than creating isolated experiences, to enhance the Figma ecosystem.
- Suggested avoiding building a comprehensive system until further validation and user feedback are obtained to ensure the system's utility and user acceptance.
- Prototyping and technical validation were ongoing, emphasizing the need for iterative development and user feedback to mature the idea.
- Leveraged existing tools like template placeholders to avoid creating new foundational systems prematurely.
- Highlighted collaborative efforts, including onboarding new team members like Jordan Singer, to align on overall AI system development and product-specific needs.
7. 🔨 Final Stages of Development and Executive Feedback
- The development process involved narrowing down exploration to focus on the new file state and entry points for AI tools, with a key decision to anchor the AI entry point in the overall navigation for revisitable access.
- AI features within Figma, including Fig Jam and Figma Slides, are in open beta, allowing widespread testing, while Figma's design AI tools are in closed beta, emphasizing extensive testing and feedback.
- Legal considerations were crucial in setting user expectations, particularly as this marks Fig Jam's first major AI release beyond JamBot.
- The team debated whether to place the AI entry point in the toolbar or file-level controls, ultimately deciding on overall navigation to ensure accessibility.
- Feedback from beta testers is being closely monitored to refine features, though specific outcomes from these tests are still pending.