Four of our designers and design engineers had the opportunity to attend Config 2024 — here are a few of the things we took away from the experience, and more importantly the talks we’d recommend watching because we’re still thinking about them!
What inspired you most at Config 2024?
Christy: Attending the session Design engineering - from Design to Engineer by Jhey Tompkins was full-on information overload, but it was also so inspiring! In the day to day trenches of building software it can be easy to lose track of the fun ways that the technologies we use daily can be applied. Jhey’s talk demoed a variety of ways you can use some advanced CSS and Javascript techniques to interfaces. His creative approach to presenting examples included constant animated easter eggs making the talk feel a little more like a magic show than a talk on advanced styling wizardry. ✨
Pouya: Design as Therapy by Joyce Croft, a NASA designer, was an inspiring one for me. Despite AI being a major theme of the keynote at ConFig, Joyce’s focus on human capabilities and the designer’s role in being authentic, empathetic, and sentient stood out. She shared insights on working with challenging personalities and key points for designers on practicing empathy, being approachable, and simplifying design by using clear language and educating stakeholders.
Ryan: I don’t have a single session that comes to mind, however, there were more than a handful of sessions that made me think, for one reason or another, I could do this. If I put myself out there, maybe I could be there in 2025 speaking about something I made or helped with, or have an opinion on, etc. That was one of the most inspiring things about Config for me personally.
Sophie: For me, seeing the two speakers at the “Bringing delight to everyday apps” session was very impactful. I enjoyed hearing Josh Wardle speak about how, counterintuitively, focusing on a narrow audience of one person helped him create a globally beloved experience in Wordle. It was also inspiring to see how Andy Allen of !Boring Software turns mundane apps into delightful mini worlds by taking inspiration from the game design industry. Both talks helped me think more about what makes digital experiences delightful, fun, and human.
Your most informative or engaging sessions at Config 2024?
Christy: As someone who works heavily with design systems, I went into The Broken Promises of Design Systems expecting a slightly jaded discussion of the pitfalls of design systems. Instead I heard a thoughtful analysis with a positive approach to how we can maintain the useful parts of design systems and modify our design processes to improve some of the issues.
Pouya: Two talks, "The Value of Opinions in Design Systems" and "The Broken Promises of Design Systems", were incredibly insightful for me. Nate Baldwin, a principal product designer at Intuit, emphasized how bringing diverse opinions into design systems can spark creativity and make the systems more inclusive and innovative. He highlighted the power of varied perspectives in enhancing the overall robustness of design systems.
On the other hand, Cam Worboys, head of design at Cash App, took a critical look at design systems. He highlighted that while these systems aim for efficiency and consistency, they often end up being too rigid, and suppressing creativity instead of fostering it. He talked about the importance of flexibility and adaptability within design systems to truly benefit design teams.
I think both speakers converged on the idea that design systems need to evolve to better support creativity and inclusivity.
Ryan: I have two sessions that come to mind. First was [Design Engineering – from Design to Engineer] by Jhey Tompkins, DX Engineer at Vercel. It was very rapid-fire and frankly almost hard to keep up with but in a super fun way. It was filled with easter eggs, funny moments, and technical ability, all wrapped in a very nicely animated, interactive, and clean presentation. I’m still trying to get my hands on his slide deck, although Jhey’s Codepen is a great place to start.
The other session was completely unexpected for me and was a slow roll from the beginning to the end. The session was called In Defense of an Old Pixel by Marcin Wichary, Director of Design at Figma where he spoke about pixel fonts and how they are so special and fun and unique. I was treated to a special part of the presentation only available to those in the audience, where we scanned a QR code and were presented with an 8x8 grid where we were instructed to design our version of the letter “A”. As members of the crowd submitted their designs they started showing up in a grid on the big screens. Marcin then went on to sort and filter them in real-time. The talk was brilliant and included a very engaged and creative use of technology. Well done.
Sophie: I’d have to agree with Ryan that In Defence of an Old Pixel by Marcin Wichary was the most engaging session I saw at Config! Being taken through the fun and rich history of pixel fonts and getting to collaborate with the entire audience to create a huge new pixel alphabet was unforgettable.
Most interesting experience while in San Francisco?
Christy: Exploring a few parts of the city was so much fun. I love the way that cities meld people from many different walks of life together — getting to experience a few parts of San Francisco’s unique version of that tapestry was lovely.
Pouya: San Francisco is buzzing with technology! Everywhere you look, there are Waymo self-driving cars, Teslas, and electronic order screens. It was also cool seeing people with colorful Config totes around the city, museums, and airport, making me feel part of the community. As for the neighborhoods, I loved the Mission District with its amazing street art, tasty food spots, and Dolores Park with a fantastic view of downtown.
Ryan: 100% driving riding in a self-driving Waymo.
Sophie: Visiting San Francisco this year was like visiting the future - like Pouya and Ryan mentioned, advanced technology was everywhere in the city as well as well represented at Config. Blended with those were great, typical human moments - delicious bites of food in Japantown, walks along the pier, and honestly just hanging out and catching up with my Nearform colleagues was fantastic.
Best travel/conference tip for attending Config in 2025?
Christy: Definitely picking up your badge the day before, and being clear about your priorities for the conference - with such a jam-packed conference there isn’t time to go to all of the talks and converse with all of the interesting people. So choosing your priorities and balancing your time and energy are key.
Pouya: Picking up your badge the day before to avoid long lines, engaging with the community via Slack for post-conference networking, setting your LinkedIn QR code as your phone wallpaper for easy connections, and grabbing lunch in the nearby neighborhood to avoid long lines within the conference and to be honest the food quality wasn’t really good!
Ryan: Stay an extra day and explore the city. I haven't been to San Francisco since I was a child with my dad. It was super fun trying to see and experience some of the same things he and I did back then.
Sophie: Don’t worry about making every single session in your agenda - take breaks throughout the day, and enjoy lunch outside with colleagues or alone for a breather.
How about the new AI features?
Christy: I’m excited about the AI features for reducing repetitive tasks - naming layers, auto-layouts, and search functionality. Not sure about the boilerplate features though, seems like it could just exacerbate homogeneity of app styling.
Pouya: I'm particularly excited about using AI for naming layers, creating auto-layouts, and enhancing search functionalities. I feel like these can streamline workflows and reduce repetitive tasks. Personally, I see AI as a source of inspiration and a good starting point, much like exploring community resources for innovative design patterns.
Ryan: I want to like AI+Figma, but I don’t at the moment. I do not have access to the new features so I cannot comment on them directly.
Sophie: Like Ryan, I have a pretty negative knee-jerk reaction to AI, but I agree that some of the grunt-work tasks like naming layers can definitely be handed off to automation.
Most exciting new feature?
Christy: Code Connect - I think the new features that are now out of beta with Code Connect have a lot of potential for enterprise design system teams in particular. I attended Drive design system adoption with Code Connect and the configuration options to connect coded components to their Figma counterparts are exciting for a couple of reasons:
- The config files can function as documentation on how Figma properties translate into component properties.
- The maintenance they will require when design/engineering modifies a component will force communication/collaboration between design and engineering. Currently that collaborative friction has to be artificially added to the design system process, and Code Connect configs could be one way to formalize that collaboration. Adding friction to processes seems like a bad thing, but anyone that works on design systems regularly knows that collaboration and communication between design and engineering can make/break the effectiveness of a design system.
Pouya: I know there are mixed feelings about the new UI, and some of the changes in UI3 might seem extreme, but I recommend watching this talk from Figma’s product designers about their thought process on the new changes. The new UI might be challenging to use initially, but the logic behind grouping related items, creating more space, and offering greater flexibility is something that I’m looking forward to. I haven’t used it yet, so I might have a different opinion later!
Ryan: Figma's release of Code Connect pre-Config was a game-changer for designers and developers. The latest updates released at Config continue to make the entire design to engineering process more efficient and reduce the gap between design and code.
Sophie: Slides! I often find myself building presentations in Figma, and now that’s become a whole lot easier with Figma Slides. Now, the challenge will be to convince project managers to use it too…
