Design Just Shifted (Thoughts on Config 2025)

If you watched the Config Keynote last week, you probably felt it too. That moment when it hit you. This isn't just a batch of new features.

This is a line in the sand.

I was sitting at my desk, watching the stream across my monitor. No lights, no stage, no pressure to give a talk this year.

Just me, quietly absorbing a flood of announcements that could shape the next decade of our craft. It felt like one of those rare moments when you can sense the ground shifting. Not in panic, but in recognition.

The design world is changing. Fast.

And if you're a designer quietly wondering, "Am I supposed to keep up with all of this?" You're not alone.

The Figma 2025 Reveal

Figma didn't just roll out new features. They announced four new products:

Sites, Make, Draw, and Buzz

It's no longer just a design tool. It's becoming a full creative ecosystem.

There's also a major upgrade to the Grid system in Figma Design, giving designers more layout power than ever before.

For some, this feels like a leap. For others, a natural next step. Either way, it's clear Figma is expanding its territory quickly.

What Matters and What Doesn't

Let's start with the new products.

Sites is the one I had early access to. I didn't spend as much time with it as I wanted, but the potential is obvious. No-code tools have been working toward this for years, blending visual design with functional front-end output. What’s exciting here is having that capability built directly into the design tool many of us already use every day. That alone makes it worth paying attention to.

Make might be the most exciting. It gives designers a dedicated sandbox to experiment with AI, generate code-based prototypes, and stay in the flow. A lot of what exists now in AI is focused on code and prototypes, so having a dedicated space in Figma to both iterate with AI and design feels like a breakthrough. It's still technical, but it feels like a real playground for building with speed and intent.

Draw looks fast. It reminds me of why I used to love Illustrator years ago. It was my go-to tool for so long. For people who enjoy direct manipulation, sketching, and detailed vector work, this could replace a whole category of tool and bring back that speed and flexibility I remember.

Buzz is the sleeper. It's simple, but powerful. Imagine generating dozens of style-aligned assets without needing to constantly recheck guidelines. It won't replace brand designers, but it will save them hours with its no-nonsense approach to generating content based on style guides. It’s exciting because it gives you back more time to design instead of duplicating and checking work.

Then there's Grid. The new layout update in regular Figma is impressive, but it might trip people up if they don't already understand how or why grids work. For anyone who does, this will be a massive upgrade. Especially when paired with Auto Layout. I’ll be talking about this feature specifically and its importance in an upcoming Shift Nudge Live student call.

Some of this will reshape how we work. Some of it will help us move faster. Not every tool deserves your full attention. Knowing where to focus is the real advantage.

The Industry Shift

This isn't just a product update. It's a signal.

Figma is pushing toward becoming the central platform for visual creation. Design, content, code, publishing, all in one place.

Some might wonder if Figma is stretching beyond its core purpose with all these additions. But Figma's mission, as I understand it, is to eliminate the gap between imagination and reality.

Each of these new products serves that goal - providing tools for different creative skillsets to bring their ideas to life. Rather than diluting their focus, they're expanding pathways to that same destination.

The Big Question for Designers

For designers, developers, and content creators, this raises a big question. Do you stay in one unified tool, or keep stitching together your own custom workflow?

There's no right answer. But the convenience of one system is hard to ignore.

At the same time, AI is weaving itself more tightly into the creative process. Tools like Make are going to blur the line between creator and prompt. We'll see more people shipping work without knowing much about design at all.

That's going to flood the market with output. Some of it will be good. A lot of it won't. But this isn't a bad thing. It means design itself becomes the differentiator.

Taste, clarity, structure are going to matter more, not less.

The tools are getting louder. The signal will come from the people who still know how to think.

Overwhelm is Real

Let's say the quiet part out loud. This is a lot.

The pace of change can make even the most experienced designers feel behind. New tools. New workflows. New expectations. It's easy to feel like you're supposed to master everything the moment it drops.

But speed isn't the same as progress. We can generate more, prototype faster, and ship quicker, but if we lose sight of the purpose behind the work, none of it really sticks.

AI will get you to 75 percent in seconds. That last 25 percent still takes vision, taste, and experience. And the truth is, that final stretch is where the real value is.

That's where the craft comes in. That's where you make something that feels intentional and human.

So if you're feeling overwhelmed, that doesn't mean you're behind. It probably means you care.

How to Stay Grounded

I don't try to keep up with everything. I focus on what helps me do my actual job.

Right now, my work is design, design education, critiquing designs, and creating content that helps people get better at design. That gives me a clear filter. If a tool helps with that, I'll explore it. If it doesn't, I'll pass.

You don't need to learn everything. You need to know what kind of work you want to do. Then pay attention to the tools that help you do it better.

Use new tools like any tool, with purpose and intention. If I need to put a roof on my house and there's a really cool new jackhammer out, I don't need that jackhammer. That's not what you use to put a new roof on a house. The same applies to design tools. Just because something new and exciting launches doesn't mean it's right for your specific job.

Stay curious, but stay focused.

What's Next for Shift Nudge

These updates don't change the fundamentals. They change how we apply them.

What's shifting is the how, not the why. That's why I'm doubling down on helping designers build strong fundamentals first, then layer in the new tools with confidence. Shift Nudge has always focused on the core principles of typography, layout, and color, and how we apply them to create beautiful interfaces. These principles will matter whether you're designing with AI, for Apple Vision Pro, or for holographic car dashboards.

There's a growing need for fundamentals as the cornerstone of good design, with methodologies taught on top of them, not in place of them.

There's also a growing opportunity to teach designers how to work with AI instead of trying to work around it. Tools like Make are going to bring that into the daily workflow.

I am going to help designers stay focused on what matters: vision, clarity, and structure, while letting AI handle some of the weight and create speed and efficiency for implementing those fundamentals.

Shift Nudge will keep evolving. The foundation stays the same.

Closing Reflection

No matter how fast the tools change, someone still has to make the call.

Someone chooses the typography, sets the tone, defines the color system, balances the layout, and decides how things move. AI can help with some of the defaults. It can accelerate the start. But it doesn't replace the person with taste and vision.

In fact, I believe that person will have an even bigger impact going forward.

There's always going to be someone in charge of how something looks, feels, and functions. That person decides what to keep, what to remove, and what message it all sends.

That role still matters. And yes, it's going to change. You may not spend as much time kerning by hand or building every screen from scratch. But that doesn't make your eye less important. It means you'll apply it differently.

The tools are shifting. Your judgment is still the anchor. That's the real job.

And it's not going anywhere.