Has Figma gone too far

Or is there an end game?

Figma’s recent introduction of prototyping variables has raised the question of whether the tool has gone too far. Some designers argue that using variables to create more realistic prototypes is a waste of time, while others believe that it is a valuable tool for creating more interactive and engaging experiences.

An engaging conversation on the subject can be found here.

What are variables

Variables in Figma are “are stored values that represent design attributes or saved states.”

Within the design system community, these have been referred to as tokens for awhile now. They allow us to break down decisions into smaller predefined sets.

For example, you might want to support square, slightly-rounded, very-rounded, and fully round frames in your application. Up until now, each individual designer in an org could just add a random value into the “border-radius” property in Figma. Now, with variables, a set of options can be stored, so you can opt to set your border-radius to Small instead of 4px . In the future, Small could be adjusted and this would ripple out across the experience.

These micro-decisions can be very useful in driving consistency and decreasing decision-making for product teams. They…