The 1970s were a sweet spot in product design, especially in France, where makers were beginning to marry natural materials like wood with the new optimism of plastic.
Static images don't show motion. You can't inspect real product structure. You don't see how interfaces evolve over time. You rarely understand what actually works in production. So I decided to go deep. I reviewed every major design reference platform I could find - not just the popular ones - and analyzed how they actually help in real-world work. The conclusion?
The Snapseed camera defaults to an automatic mode, but also includes optional controls for ISO, shutter speed, and focus, along with flash and zoom. It allows you to shoot using saved looks and edit stacks from the app, which can be altered after the shot is taken, along with a range of preset film effects inspired by specific films from Kodak, Fujifilm, and more. There's even a handful of UI color themes to pick from too.
The latter feature is aptly called "Coloring book," and lets you make blank coloring templates in version 11.2512.191.0 of Paint based on a text prompt. Users can access this feature by selecting the Coloring book option from the Copilot menu in Paint, and then describing what the design should be, such as "a cute fluffy cat on a donut." Paint will then generate four results that Paint users can click to add to their canvas. From there, you can presumably use Paint itself to color the image, or print it out to use traditional art materials.
Design tokens are all your design decisions, that define a design system's aesthetic properties, everything from colors and font sizes to spacing units and border radii. They are the modern evolution of hard-coded values. They are stored in a central, platform-agnostic repository, establishing a single source of truth for your entire digital product suite. This central management allows teams to consume the exact same design values across all platforms (web, native apps, documentation).
Adobe has improved the tools for Generative Fill, Generative Expand and Remove that are powered by its Firefly generative AI platform. Using these tools for image editing should now produce results in 2K resolution with fewer artifacts and increased detail all while delivering better matches for the provided prompts.
One skill separates good designers: the ability to clearly articulate their intention. No matter what tool you use, whether it's a traditional UI design tool like Figma or Sketch or AI tools like Figma Make, your ability to explain what you want to see accounts for 50% of your design success. The other 50% comes from your hard and soft skills. When it comes to AI-powered design, your ability to write decent prompts will have a direct impact on the quality of your design. In this guide, I want to share some specific tips and tricks that you can use for Figma Make to maximize the output.