Figma the villain, why great products fail, decentralizing UX with GenAI

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.

“Globally, Figma has created a “love brand,” particularly among younger designers and those who focus primarily on UI design.

Its savvy community engagement, strong brand equity, and initially user-friendly approaches made it easy to forget that, at the end of the day, Figma is still a business.

And businesses need to grow, especially when they’ve raised a significant amount of venture capital and are operating in a post-zero interest rate era. This is where, it seems, the current friction begins.”

The story of Figma: long enough of a hero to become a villain? By Jan Takacs

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The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.

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Make me think

  • The home as a place of production
    “We are allowing tech to colonise every single facet of our lives. This hyper-digital life takes us further away from ourselves and the embodied experience. (…) To create environments in which humans can truly thrive, we need to be guided by different principles than just comfort and ease.”
  • The marginalization of touch in a digital world
    “The sheer number of tools and toys that have been replaced by an app on my phone is mind blowing. Pen, paper, calculator, notebook, novel, telephone, wall clock, wallet, credit cards, photos, maps, video games. Sure, it’s convenient, cost-efficient, and space-saving, but it’s thrown me into a serious case of texture withdrawal.”
  • Spotify has a fake-band problem. It’s a sign of things to come.
    “Covers of popular songs were being inserted into large, publicly available playlists, hidden among dozens of other covers by real artists while racking up millions of listens and getting paid.”

Little gems this week

How Robinhood gamified investing and exploited users By Elvis Hsiao

Decentralizing UX with ML & GenAI By Deniz Can Demir

Turning opportunities into real innovation–with a twist
By Nicole Gallardo

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Figma the villain, why great products fail, decentralizing UX with GenAI was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.