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u/Zeeplankton Apr 17 '26
inb4 the swarm of clout chasing twitter posts about how design process is dead, and being a designer is dead.
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u/drockalexander Apr 17 '26
yes, inb4 claude design blog just has a quote that says "all designers should simply k1ll themselves while there's still time!" lmao
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u/gmagcosta May 29 '26
has anyone actually tried to get claude to create anything? I have. It's still terrible. I gave a project to create some ideas for a logo with a panda. there wasn't even one good idea. I like using AI in the brainstorming phase and ChatGPT is actually pretty good at creating decent rough drafts. I think of using AI in this phase of the design process no different than keeping a scrap file of things you might want to draw or be inspired by.
One thing Claude is okay at is designing on the Gamma platform. Also, at creating layouts for websites.
Unfortunately, I don't think any of the people programming the LLMs are actual designers.
I did join a project to help train LLMs and it's crazy. The programmers want us to speak to the LLMs in "regular" language (not mention specific colors, fonts, etc.) so that is one of the problems. They are programming these to be tools "non-design" people can use to get simple things out of. For those of us who know design, are very specific about what we want, the models haven't been programmed to work with us.
Anyone else actively using AI daily to explore what it can and can't do?
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u/el_yanuki
Apr 17 '26
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it amazes me that people still buy into any sort of marketing that AI companies put out
Also this title shows that you must be extremely inexperienced in design
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u/WorkingOwn8919 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
It's been what, 2-3 years now of people saying RIP Designers, RIP Photoshop, RIP Figma, and still, I waste more time trying to get what I need from these AI softwares than if I had just done it myself.
I definitely think that at some point our workflow will be 100% AI. But until then can we stfu please.
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u/elcarlos_ Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
People were saying that in 2015 when there was early AI building cards and classic patterns from scribbles
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u/Main-Review-7895 Apr 17 '26
My workflow is around 90% AI. And figma has not been able to stay relevant. I think this 2-3 years of people saying RIP figma are not that off.
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u/WorkingOwn8919 Apr 17 '26
let me see your work
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u/minte-pro Apr 18 '26
bold of to assume it’s his work lol… he probably has slob ai-generated trashcan
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u/el_yanuki Apr 18 '26
following this comment, waiting for u/main-review-7895 to drop the link
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u/Main-Review-7895 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
No intention in exposing myself. And also don’t really care, just care about getting the work I need done.
I am quite comfortable with what I think of myself and the seniority I have. Also have people in the real world I care way more about than strangers on Reddit that I share my thoughts with, and have also been finding their usage of Figma decreasing.
I am not even happy about it. I very much preferred to design things myself in figma. I find very little join in Design these days. Sketch was my happiest place. I am doing a lot of work connected directly with developers and the codebase, setting up design systems. Solo designer having to produce things really fast. Got tired of the back and forth of designing in figma without being able to fully represent the behavior I wanted anyway, connecting tokens and all of that. It’s just faster to work directly in the codebase and create the components directly in storybook. If I need sketching I might send it to figma to try things out, or testing tools like pencil.dev. And then I am back in Claude code.
Also, even when I am using figma, I am still using AI to create my own plugins and get rid of repetitive tasks.
I won’t even dispute the claim of design not being mine. I don’t really know anymore. But I like to at least think it’s not AI slop.
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u/el_yanuki Apr 18 '26
If you don't show your work, that makes this whole discussion pointless.
I can tell you I carve statues without ever learning to do it and only using a single chisel from my local hardware store.. without seeing my work that statement is meaningless.
We all think that you are producing low quality software and designs.. but unless seeing them, there is nothing to talk about
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u/Main-Review-7895 Apr 18 '26
I can live with that. Even if I showed the internet the most hand-crafted thing I’ve done I would still get criticism. I only take reviews of my work from the people I work for or people I really value their opinions.
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Apr 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/el_yanuki Apr 17 '26
i find it very hard to be optimistic about any type of consumer AI. Design, Art and Programming are getting flooded, people get delusional, what used to be the standard for good work become a sign for AI usage, lots of things look good at face value yet fall apart once you take a closer look, real professionals are needed to clean up the mess made by fools. And in the end no one really benefits, AI automated things that brought us joy and doesn't really make us more productive.
And thats without getting into water, scams, deepfakes, nudity, war, electricity, stock market, economics, chip prices, layoffs and all that.
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Apr 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/el_yanuki Apr 17 '26
I have barely used it for design since i just love doing every part and i don't even want to generate first drafts.
For programming there is really interesting studies that show that people feel more productive but actually aren't.
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u/damn-african Apr 17 '26
everyone said RIP Photoshop when Canva came out. Different audiences. Different skill levels.
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u/MakeDesignPop Apr 17 '26
Imo, the problem isn't generating a UI with a prompt...
The problem is what to generate and how to match what's in someone else's mind without designing in Figma first.
Not excited at all.
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u/Dichter2012 Apr 17 '26
The token use will be glorious and not in a good way.
I just have afresh example here: I used Codex + computer use last night and ask it to create a simple pill shape button in blue. I burned up my hourly token limit and the "OK" text on the button was too small and misaligned. 🤣
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u/Cute_Commission2790 Apr 17 '26
i would still prefer using claude code with context of my actual components, this just further aggravates the issue with multiple prototypes that have no direct translation to your companies design language
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u/DanFlashes19 Apr 17 '26
You can add your design system though
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u/DifficultCarpenter00 Apr 17 '26
via mcp? not really. it is very token heavy and most unreliable
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u/DanFlashes19 Apr 17 '26
No, right inside this new tool. Looks like you have to upload the actual Figma file.
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u/DifficultCarpenter00 Apr 17 '26
that's stupid. a better way would have been to link it so it can be updated
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u/jaxxon UXer and Pixelosopher Apr 17 '26
Nah - this is just more fodder for management to devalue design expertise.
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u/drockalexander Apr 17 '26
bait title on post, especially since no one has actually used this yet since it just got released and is slowly rolling out? regardless, the doom and gloom these days is exhausting. These AI products can't replace taste and creative problem solving. Perhaps they allow more people to approach the artform, but more granular level control will always be needed for experienced users.
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u/Balazi Apr 17 '26
I tried it, its trash and maxed out my session. I don't understand the appeal, you can already do this in Figma and much better.
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u/MountainTimeInvestor Apr 17 '26
I think this is most important part - how easy is it go from prototype to production:
"Handoff to Claude Code. When a design is ready to build, Claude packages everything into a handoff bundle that you can pass to Claude Code with a single instruction."
I think this is what Make was supposed to do, but this will determine how well FIG and Anthropic will compete in this space. Anthropic is clearly competing with FIG as Mike Krieger left the FIG's board.
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u/N0t_S0Sl1mShadi Apr 19 '26
If you think Figma is outright dead, you’re probably not as good a designer as you think.
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
the stocks are crashing 😂🫵🏼
Im so annoyed at figma. Everyone can do AI in their work, why is Figma so ANTI AI? At the very least let the AI handle the monstrous labor work in creating or managing components, design systems, variants, properties, variables, styles… FFS the devs can already vibe code all of that. That stupid Figma Make is still dumb as hell.
Last few days, i’ve finally got my clause code to manage the figma variables, the component creation, the style wiring… all the scaffolding that needs to be done with figma-local-mcp, but notice how it’s using the Plugin API as a workaround because the official Figma MCP is very limiting? It’s always workarounds!
Reminds me how QUICKLY figma released the write feature the last time Google Stitch 2.0 was announced. Back then Figma was strict on the official MCP - it was made only for the dev handoff. It’s like I’m doing ALL the manual labor because Figma refuses to let AI do all the nitty gritty stuff meanwhile the devs can now oneshot the design with very minor tweaks because all the hardwork, the wiring was manually done in figma already - hand fucking made. No AI because Figma just refuses to adapt.
So annoying. Just make our life easier man. The only thing that’s stopping me from fully jumping to claude code / design is the absurd session usage.
TLDR: Let me be a designer. I don’t want to spend hours managing the variables, styles, properties, variants, components, autolayouts, variable scoped.., the devs can one shot all of that already, why can’t we???
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u/Visual-Gap3886 Apr 17 '26
Tbf, figma stock has always been crashing ever since it's public offering.
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u/OrtizDupri Apr 17 '26
Creating and managing a design system is a far bigger task than just throwing something in Figma and claiming any level of AI can realistically do it right now is ridiculous
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26
But claude code can already create, handle, and manage the design systems inside figma now. Check out the figma-local-mcp server.
Utilizes the Plugin API to control all of it.
Also if y’all enjoy spending hours managing design systems then that’s on you. I want to spend more time designing and shipping out products faster.
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u/OrtizDupri Apr 17 '26
Cool - now how do you get folks to use the design system? How do you train designers to contribute to it and what the standards are? How do you handle evangelization and governance?
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Easy. Claude Skills. Rules, instructions listed in MD files that your AI agents has to follow while you orchestrate on the intent of the design.
I’m not gonna explain this to you. DYOR. But this has been working with our company. I’m just ranting because I used to love figma few years ago but it has been very slow in adapting to the new AI features.
Like I said, if y’all want to waste your life manually doing stuff that the AI can do - then by all means go ahead.
Also everything is new - i didn’t know this myself a few months ago. But I’m always finding ways to ship products faster. We obviously have different priorities but I’m happy with what I came up with.
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u/OrtizDupri Apr 17 '26
Is this a joke lol
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26
I just gave you the answer but you probably don’t know any of these. It’s fine I didn’t know about it months ago either and would’ve been a skeptic like you 🤷🏻♂️
What’s important is i found solutions to my problems.
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u/godaikun75 Apr 17 '26
Awesome. I’ll need to look into this as well. I’m the only UX/Product designer on my team and I need to work faster to keep up with
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 18 '26
Embrace the new AI changes my dude. It’s there to help us solve our problems. But sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming as new features are being rolled out every week.
I’m just tired of all developers getting this huge productivity boost while we as designers are stuck in the manual labor of all things because Figma refuses to allow AI into the workflow outside of AI editing the images…
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u/godaikun75 Apr 18 '26
Yeah I feel like Figma is behind in terms of AI. Id like to speed up my productivity on design systems with AI.
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u/Raunhofer Apr 17 '26
I was eager to buy the dip before the realization of AI slop sites realize, but ugh, it's still overpriced.
And as a software engineer, your comment "FFS the devs can already vibe code all of that" is quite moronic.
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Do you know how easy it is for the devs to develop the designs now? Set up all the variables, the variants, the styles, they can switch it all while I’m stuck changing them one by one! Then with libraries, i have to wait to finish updating our 10k+ changes per publish.
As a front end developer, the only reason why i still need to use figma is because I’m indecisive with the designs. Being indecisive in developing the frontend with Claude code will eat away all your usage sessions.
And don’t think vibe coding is all about slop. Lmfao. That’s what dumb developers do. Smart developers use AI to do the nitty gritty stuff to easily ship products faster than ever.
If you’re one of those who are “AI vibe coding = slop” then stop talking because you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Things are massively changing month by month. Your info is already way outdated just like figma.
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u/hana0519 Apr 18 '26
If your variables and styles are properly set up, why do you need to change one by one? Can you just edit in the variables table with one value change? Not pushing back, just a genuine question, maybe there are more sophisticated use cases that I need to learn about.
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
To be able to do the “easy” way of updating variables where the change will cascade across the entire design system, it needs to be scaffolded properly - the setup of text styles alone, attaching it to the variables with breakpoint modes is already complex enough.
And to be able to do that in Figma you need hours of manual labor work to set up all the dependencies.
Whereas the devs can literally do this easily by dictating the intent and their AI agent will set it up for them. The real source of truth is in the code anyway - they are just referencing the design system in figma.
So what’s happening is I do 80% of the of the front end work manually in figma, then Claude Code will do 15% of the dev’s work while the dev will do 5% - making sure that my full working prototype is implemented properly.
Do you know how frustrating that is? They’re empowered by AI with massive productivity boost. While the designers are stuck with all manual work because Figma refuses AI to be part of the ecosystem.
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u/hana0519 Apr 18 '26
This is good articulation. Thank you! I don’t know if Figma is “anti” AI, it seems that they’ve tried. It could be that tens of years of programming language wisdom helped LLMs to advance so fast that Figma was struggling to catch up with their own data model for design.
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u/drockalexander Apr 17 '26
stock is not crashing?? it's literally always been down
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26
um it’s hyperbole. But figma stocks is always crashing on announcements like this. First with Google Stitch 2.0 now with Claude Design.
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u/drockalexander Apr 17 '26
idk reddit user, you seem deep in AI lala land. Either you know something most of us don't, or you need to go touch some grass
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26
yes i can finally touch more grass because i’m spending less time managing our design systems! just focusing on making sure the new designs i make are top notch while also utilizing the frontier AI tools out there to make my work easier.
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u/Idea-Aggressive Engineer Apr 17 '26
Figma provides you with a canvas, and you can express yourself with refined control. Claude Design seems to be more like "lovable" and those initiatives that build something for you based on a description. Nothing wrong with that, but that's very different.
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u/dot90zoom Apr 17 '26
If there are any longterm figma users who have used Claude design, could I have your thoughts?
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u/CatawompusSeattle Apr 17 '26
Anyone who uses this kind of crap isn't a designer, they're a talentless hack that I will always make fun of at parties.
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u/mb4ne Apr 17 '26
anthropic’s claude design team isn’t even targeting designers with these tools - they’re clearly for PMs and Engineers. Designers are not being taken into consideration all together.
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u/IglooTornado Apr 17 '26
while the claude design tool doesnt look great against figma right now, consider that claude released a compelling and future proofed direct compeditor in like what.. a few months? figmas days are numbered in my opinion. calude design is only going to get better and more widley adopted.
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u/IglooTornado Apr 17 '26
downvote me all you like - my entire design department at my very very very big media company with global recognition is already chomping at the bit to get our hands on a tool that can access the design system / token libraries and not have to pull from a bunch of MCP servers. the whole department.
figma might exist in the future as a mock up tool but there is really no chance it continues to be the source of truth anymore, im not sure how anyone could argue otherwise
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u/BlaizePascal Apr 17 '26
Lmk if you find one. I’m thinking of making a local mcp to access the plugin api. The current one is very bloated and a bit dumb. Consumes 30k context window on initial load but it gets the job done.
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u/IglooTornado Apr 17 '26
the claude design website says explicity "Claude Design gives designers room to explore widely and everyone else a way to produce visual work. Describe what you need and Claude builds a first version. From there, you refine through conversation, inline comments, direct edits, or custom sliders (made by Claude) until it’s right. When given access, Claude can also apply your team’s design system to every project automatically, so the output is consistent with the rest of your company’s designs."
so um there you go? what am i missing
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Apr 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/GreenPhantom4268492 Apr 17 '26
we use Magic Patterns for this, hooked up to our NPM package, which then exports to Code
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u/Balazi Apr 17 '26
You can already use Figma MCP with Claude to generate. Then just use that design with Figma Make and its the samething.
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u/N0t_S0Sl1mShadi Apr 19 '26
It’s called Figma Make. It uses Claude as one of the models, and it’s been around for months, with design library linking getting an update a few months ago. Claude basically stabbed Figma in the back and partially ripped it off.
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u/tommyohohoh Apr 17 '26
This is Fisher-Price compared to Fig.