How About We Detach Instances for Once?
My thoughts on Config 2024 Asia Pacific
The coveted Config 2024 Asia Pacific, a first of its kind, has just wrapped up on July 2, 2024. Hosted for the first time ever, Singapore got the lucky charm to be the venue, Marina Bay Sands specifically, with hundreds of designers and developers (mostly, I guess) flocking the early morning to happy hours in the evening. It’s probably the earliest hours that any designer can manage to wake up, unless you are one of those founders who are committed to starting their day at 5am in the morning.
I always have both affinity and apprehension towards Figma, and any community events like this. For one, it feels like it’s a very sales-y event (of course, Dylan and his team would love to get more customer base in Asia Pacific), but in other side of the coin, it’s probably one of the rarest moments that designers can get together (if they are not debating on LinkedIn or design Twitter). But to be honest, it does feel good to reconvene as a community after all the layoffs that happened, and see that there are still energies going strong. I feel sorry for those who can’t attend though, for whatever reason, especially when Config only accepts registration through company emails.
As an introvert, it was strange that I felt particularly energized meeting old design friends. Not that they get older by a lot, although they actually do. In a graceful way.
Out of four people who registered in my team at Tripadvisor Singapore, only two got accepted.
The morning opened with a chit-chat at what they called “Makerspace”. This space is a reminiscence of Figjam in real life. We surely had fun going around and just putting our “marks” on the whiteboards.
Soon enough, we listened to Figma’s latest updates, as most designers are already aware of. I don’t actually have to write them here, as you can find them online easily, and on social media, where designers rave about these things (maybe a bit too much?)…
Their update brings a redesigned interface, making it more intuitive for new users and efficient for experienced ones. Enhanced AI tools are integrated throughout, with a centralized "Actions" button providing quick access to features like image generation, background removal, and text translation. Collaboration is also improved with an enhanced Dev Mode, new statuses for tracking progress, and focused views with annotations. Additional updates include performance enhancements, bug fixes, and new shortcuts, making Figma an even more powerful and versatile tool for design teams.
I am particularly more interested in Figma Slides. Figma Slides is a new feature introduced in Figma's latest update, allowing users to create interactive presentations directly within the Figma platform. It offers a seamless way to integrate designs with presentations, making the transition from design to presentation smoother and more efficient. Figma Slides offers features like templates, transitions, and live interactions, providing a powerful tool for designers to communicate their ideas effectively.
However, all these tooling and tech updates didn’t excite me too much. I felt like they’re the natural path in which Figma, as a profit-making company as it should be, should be going on.
The sessions after lunch actually brought some highlights for me.
Designing at scale
Alejandro Urrutia Daglio (Executive Manager Experience Design, Commonwealth Bank), shared on how to scale quality at an entreprise level. Working for a large bank in Australia, he surely faces different challenges than those of smaller or even medium-sized companies. He argued that the rate of the quality of a product is not parallel to the size of the company. In fact, it is the opposite. The bigger the company, the quality of the product normally suffers (or dwindles down).
To strategize for this, he argues that in larger companies, we also need to scale up the conditions that allow quality to happen.
Quality is a result of an input, then output, and an outcome.
Without going into too much details, essentially, to achieve a scalable output (and eventually outcome), we need a scalable input. This includes setting up a scaled-up criteria for success (what he calls “Expectations”), scaled-up standards or universally-accepted heuristics (“Standards”), the required specializations and skills (“Specializations”) and last but not least, the required “Culture”.
My take on this? I feel like I agree, particularly on the whys (“Expectations”) and the “Culture” part. However, I’ve seen this discussed over and over again and while the way that Alejandro outlined it sounded fresh and amazing, in reality, corporations still struggle day by day.
It does feel like a first refresh for me in the day though, after morning full of sales-y product updates.
The anti-thesis of “vanilla” design
The next one was one of the best, if not the only one, that day. Shantanu Kumar from his own skh.design, a design agency based in India, argued that the design world has come to what he coined as “vanilla-ization” of design. Design has been such a commodity, every design starts to look the “same”. The same vibe, module, layout, experience. This happens not only in identity design (his specialization), or UX, but also other sub-fields like interior design. He then showed a photo of how cafes have same aesthetics everywhere. Or how houses in the suburbs look exactly the same.
He then proceeded in outlining his process designing for a cafe brand in Sikkim, a small state in northeastern India known for its diverse culture, stunning landscapes, and rich Buddhist heritage, with the world's third-highest peak, Kangchenjunga, located on its border with Nepal. It is home to various ethnic groups including Lepchas, Bhutias, and Nepalis, and features a wide range of climates from subtropical to tundra due to its mountainous terrain.
This setting inspired him to do something different for the brand, and explored its heritage and cultural history, intertwining it with the fauna (red panda, cute!) and resulted in a brand that represents the local values best.
My take on this? While we’ve seen many culturally-inspired brands, I think this is such a refresh and a balancing act to all the tech and AI-related updates in the morning. When all directions seem to go to automation and scalability, Shantanu does it in the way that is not at all scalable, nor automated. Whatever the output and outcome, I still find strong values in his process. We should do more of this. Even in UX.
Soulful design vs regurgitation machine
I loved this one to bits. It’s a talk by Feng Zhu, a prominent concept artist and designer well-known for his work in the entertainment industry, including video games, films, and television. He has contributed to various high-profile projects and has worked with major companies like Electronic Arts, Blur Studio, and Lucasfilm.
In addition to his professional work, Feng Zhu founded the Feng Zhu Design (FZD) School of Design in Singapore in 2009. The school offers an intensive one-year diploma program focused on entertainment design, aimed at preparing students for careers in the industry. Feng Zhu is also known for sharing his knowledge and expertise through tutorials and lectures, many of which are available on his YouTube channel.
His premise is of similar nature to Shantanu’s, where design and arts have often become “soulless” because designers try to imitate based only on what they consume on screens. He also argued that many young visual artists he met do not know why they became artists. This resonates with me deeply, as I continue to ask myself questions today about why I became a designer in the first place. “Most young artists can’t answer that.”
He then suggested that every artist needs to pay more attention to the process. We can break rules and shouldn’t rush to the end. He pointed out many short-form and “listicle” videos on YouTube about steps to “become a better artist/designer,” stating that these types of content are detrimental. Real artists should learn from “the world.” He highlighted how travel made him a better designer, mentioning trips to places like Egypt to learn about Egyptian mythology. He invested a significant amount of time in “learning the world,” which he found immensely beneficial.
I also love his stance on “not changing.” He loved airplanes as a boy, and that passion continues to inspire his work. Now, he even has a pilot's license and flies his own airplanes.
The best part of his talk? His take on AI. He explained that AI “regurgitates” information without processing (thinking, feeling) it. Similarly, humans are fed information, and if we don’t think and feel about it, we become just like AI, merely regurgitating what we consume. To beat AI in the future, we must be more than “regurgitation machines.”
Some other highlights
I think the main theme of the day was AI versus (or rather, coexisting with) design and humanity.
Here is a collection of quotes and insights:
Isha Hening, a visual artist, on how AI helped her work, “I use it to scale up rendering on 50K screens, something that would’ve been costlier on render farms. I use AI just to do the boring work, so we can have the fun work.”
Jordan Singer, the designer at Figma, argued that AI should be “Augmented Imagination”, and that this age will not be the downfall of artists and designers, instead a “renaissance”. Think of AI as a way to elevate our process and think more strategically.
Dylan Field, CEO of Figma: “Our tech actually lets you do and explore more designs. The world is evolving, so is our tooling. I don’t see a world where AI replaces us, but I see a world where AI helps us elevate it.”
Katja Forbes (Head of Client Experience, Standard Chartered Bank): “The way we see AI willl influence banking and finance is that we’ll implement it very intentionally.” She means that essentially AI will not be there just because it can be there. It has to help the customers and/or the business.
Ryan Singer, designer and author of “Shape Up”, as quoted by Alejandro: “Best is in relation to your constraints.”
Alejandro Urrutia (Executive Manager Experience Design, Commonwealth Bank): “Having a good design system does not guarantee good product, it only expedites the potential for it.” (But yes, it’s still potential.)
Meng To (designer author) who recently moved to Singapore, highlighted how designer and developer roles are blurring with how design tools are now enabling designers to foray into testing their ideas or even implementing them. What I like about him is that how he still thinks design as a craft that’s very close to designer’s heart, highlighting the evolution of design tools and how “creating” has not changed meaning over time.
Gumpita Rahayu, typographer, highlighted how typography still matters in UX because 70% of the screen experience is text. He then pointed out how some types have problems rendering on Figma in which the ascender and descender are not aligned thus making some type nudged down vertically. This is not Figma problem. This is more of the type problem, hence he proposed that designers also care about selecting typefaces that are designed especially for screens. The future for typography for digital is flexible typography.
Conclusion
I have a strange relationships with Figma and design conferences. At one side, I love catching up with industry’s latest, and tech’s latest. I also love rekindling relationships with fellow designer friends, particularly those I had the fortunate change to work together with. I think face-to-face design conferences that gather us all regardless of niche is rare these days, especially in Asia Pacific. Singapore is such a sweet spot where everyone in Asia can come without hesitation — it’s event-friendly and visa-friendly for most. I cherish the moment.
At one other side, I think this just yet another sales-y, hype-driven event. Half of the day is kinda something I can learn online by reading Figma’s website or following people’s hypes on social media (and there’s a whole bunch of them).
Also, I get tired and bored about people hyping for AI.
That is why I am more inclined towards the afternoon sessions when they are kind of “anti-AI” and “anti-tooling”, more like exploring ourselves as a human again. Isha Hening, visual artist, when asked about how she explored ideas, “Well, I just look at my surrounding, for example how the light hits some materials, or the food I eat.” That is just wonderful. No taking inspiration from Youtube and screens? That’s rare.
Learning about autolayouts and preparing efficient Figma files is one thing but it doesn’t say anything more about how to think and feel. This, I feel, something that we have to nurture more. I hope AI does help do the autolayouts stuff, so that we can detach components… once in a while… and focus on the fun stuff.
Thanks for reading.
Bonus: the misaligned shape on Figma’s motion graphic:
