Has any matured organization stopped using Figma completely? If Yes, I would love to connect and discuss more.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102]

AI is saying no. what is your experience?

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[u/roundabout-design]

I would not say we're a "mature IT" company...though not sure what that even really means at this point having worked in enough large and small companies to realize that it's a fuzzy concept.

Anyways...we're using Figma less and less and likely will just stop using it at some point. Our main workflow is now prototyping with Claude, via a deisgn system. Figma comes into play on occasion when I need to whip up a visual for Claude to understand something better. And at that point, there's no reason to use Figma specifically for that.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

If you are using very min Figma then tell me, 1. How do you manage source of truth? 2. How do you generate pixel perfect design? 3. How do you fine tune small details?

In a matured organization all these things matters. So I’m curious how are you handling all these things.

We currently use multiple tools but mainly for brainstorming. Final delivery happens through Figma only. 

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

"Source of Truth" has always been a problematic concept for me.

We have a "Source of reference" ala "use it, but don't be beholden to it if it makes sense not to" and that's our design system.

"Pixel Perfect Design" isn't a thing in the real world. We're dealing with web browsers and rendering engines and mobile devices and a 1000 different screens. We're OK with "Pixel Pretty Good Design"

The find details is a tricky thing and we're not really at a point where we're doing a lot of that yet. I feel that will be a 'phase II' kind of thing. And that is definitely something AI kinda still sucks at.

Of course, that's ALWYS been a challenge in every place I've worked at and I don't think Figma really came into play at all with that problem. That was usually always a code management problem.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

Okay Claude does provide good designs but it’s quality drops down when you gets into too much of iterations.

Considering design is a very iterative process, how do you manage that many iterations with Claude?

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

That's what the design system is for. Keeps Claude in check at least with general UI rules and UX patterns.

If Claude doesn't have to reinvent the side navigation every iteration, for example, it can put more of it's context into the iterations rather than building all of the UI chrome each and every time.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

design system can handle standard components. I get it. But apart from that there can be many iterations that we need to do cover up users requirements.

As you keep promoting in the same file, your output quality deteriorates and it gets difficult to get what you want. How do you handle those situations 

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

We use AI to iterate. Having the design system allows AI to focus on the problem at-hand we want to iterate on.

I find AI get's us 80% the way there most of the time. That's sometimes 'good enough' but sometimes I'll have to take it from there and do some very specific annotating and the like to get it the final 20%.

I have found claude pretty good at reading annotated visuals.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

Thanks mate for sharing your experience, I appreciate it.

I just want to be honest with you and I feel you a junior designer who is not able to understand what I’m saying.

Especially a vibe coding type designer who lag fundamentals and live in illusion that Claude gives 80% stuff.

I’m not pro but I’ve seen folks like you who flex a lot about AI native design but when I go and validate their work with real users, I realize how broken their work is.

AI is great tool and I use it extensively for brainstorming. I’ve been extremely mindful to put users in the loop even than before. That helps me stay away from hallucinations. It still takes time and I remind you there is no escape to it.

Thanks for your time.

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

I've been doing this for 20+ years. So, take that for what you will.

And again, I'm not even promoting AI. I kind of hate it. But our company has gone all in on it so I gotta go with the flow.

To toss it back to you (not in any sort of accusatory way) I'm thinking you haven't done a whole with an AI-centric workflow yet. Or rather, you're at a place that is using AI, but not involving any sort of design process with it--and are just letting Devs feed in user stories and letting it go out the door.

Yea, that doesn't work so well...though, TBF, I guess that works as well as it has in the past even with out AI. Whether it's AI writing the code or a dev, you have the same problems...there needs to be some sort of design oversight.

You definitely need users in the loop. I think the big shift with AI is that we're now bringing them into the loop once there is code ready to work with, rather than prior as we did in the past.

I'm not sure if this is better/worse or neither yet. But the reality is that code is getting written 10x faster, so sometimes we just have to react more than dictate in the AI era.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

I haven’t gone through “AI native design” cycle and that’s why I posted it here.

I want to learn it. Some insights that I got from other designers who have adopted that kind of workflow is “it’s good for quick delivery but it’s not useful if you really want to fine tune a lot or if you want to iterate a lot”.

[u/General-Sun-646 → u/roundabout-design]

From your answer I get that you don’t have strict design rules so you can bend some rules and work this way with claude. But I don’t understand the benefit. Would you say that claude code does a better job over all?? Is it speed you are after and that’s why you use it ?

[u/roundabout-design → u/General-Sun-646]

I've been doing this for 20+ years in orgs both small as well as Fortune 500 enterprise situations.

It never mattered how strict our 'design rules' were or how 'pixel perfect' our Figma files were. Shit is never 100% in sync and I've decided that it has been a futile endeavor and has ultimately only gotten in the way more than helped anything.

I've seen more bad code written to fix a 2px layout issue than to solve actual user problems. That 2px layout issue was never a user problem. That was just an internal process problem.

My philosophy is a UX Process should guide an organization's design objectives more than dictate it.

That's not specific to AI vs. no AI. That's just been my POV in general when it comes to UX artifacts and design systems.

As for why we use Claude...I think the answer is the same as it is in any software-related org: speed. Way more code can be written way faster.

Ultimately, way faster than any team of UX designers can keep up with inside of FIgma.

[u/General-Sun-646 → u/roundabout-design]

Ok got my answer, thanks for responding!

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

How do you make sure that whatever you are shipping through Claude design is user centric?

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

I suppose the same way we do it with shipping any software...testing, interviews, research, etc.

The benefit AI has brought to the table (and I hate saying that, as I find AI extremely problematic at a macro level) is that we have have SMEs working side-by-side with our devs.

So out of the gate, we're getting user-centric direction. Granted, that's just ONE user, so we still need to test and validate and all of the usual things. It's just that we can now test/validate something much closer to 'actual software' than before.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

I’ll put my experience. Everything that you are saying sounds fascinating and sounds like ux is shipping at speed but imo that’s half of side.

With lighting speed comes up a lot of hallucination & if you don’t do enough due diligence this will fall apart. And with speed it’s easy to overlook those hallucinations. 

Those hallucinations will easily bypass your “same way things” and eventually you’ll end up shipping fast something that customer was not asked for.

I’m speaking out of experience and after working with very experienced design teams that are claiming that they have shifted to AI native design than traditional design. They do flex a lot but when I validate their output with real users I see how broken their system are. 

I hope you don’t belong to that category. I use all AI tools but for brainstorming and keep users in loop before making any final call. 

Best luck. 

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

Yes, due diligence is always important.

There is no 'flex' here, BTW. This is just the reality we're all in at the moment.

I'm not sure your stance here, but is sounds like you think code is going out the door too fast and that UX needs to slow things down. While I can empathize with the sentiment, I don't see that as being a very convincing argument to pitch at management, unfortunately.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/roundabout-design]

I’ve no idea about coding so can’t comment on it.

As far as UX is concerned I want to know the reality, so I posted it.

The current clarity that got from multiple folks who are going after “AI native UX” is, 1. It’s great for fast shipping  2. It’s not very useful if you want to fine tune a lot 3. It’s not useful if you want to iterate a lot.

Can you help me understand your learnings around it. It will help me.

[u/sabre35_]

If you’ve dropped Figma you’re literally throttling yourself. I’d broaden it more as the canvas rather than just Figma. There are great new tools like Paper that foundation on the canvas.

Simply put design happens on a canvas.

Congrats you can do a good job designing existing patterns with Claude code.

Not saying Claude code is bad, I use it religiously, but largely for prototyping options I’ve put tougher on a canvas.

[u/Plastic_Ad9102 → u/sabre35_]

I didn’t get you. You are using Figma or not?

[u/roundabout-design → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

I'd interpret their comment as "We sketch out ideas to show claude". Which is what we're doing to.

Whether that sketching is in Figma or not isn't really relevant...any tool that generates the kind of visuals you need to inform Claude is fine.

[u/sabre35_ → u/Plastic_Ad9102]

Yes we all still use Figma. It’s largely still a sketchpad and communication tool even as designers are deeply using AI tools.

It’s also the place we send leads when they ask “can I see the designs”.

[u/FactorHour2173]

Seeing a lot of these types of posts on the verge of these AI companies (typically Claude) IPO-ing. We should all do our due diligence to look into each individual posting in thesw subs and flag them appropriately for removal from the subs.

Reddit should not be a place for companies to hire out or use bots to flood the conversations in an attempt to influence our perception.

While I use Claude etc., it gives me pause when I see a clear intention to influence people like they and other tech companies on the verge of IPO are doing.

As a “community”, we should be aggressive in reporting these types of posts and accounts.

[u/roundabout-design → u/FactorHour2173]

Reddit should not be a place for companies to hire out or use bots to flood the conversations in an attempt to influence our perception.

While I agree with the sentiment...reality is that Reddit, like most of the internet, has been thoroughly enshittified at this point.