Figbruary 2024

Every day in February 2024, I tried something new in Figma based on a prompt, even if I didn’t know where to start. I timeboxed myself so I wouldn’t spend too long per task. I viewed the prompts as an opportunity for growth and skills training.

The challenges were humbling and fun. It was a positive learning experience. Every day’s results below.

Landscape Scene

Prompted to create a landscape illustration, city, night sky, or forest scene. I used basic shapes to create a paper cut-out style scene inspired by D&D.

Only Frames

Prompt to create anything using only frames in Figma. I made a little animation that had nothing to do with UI out of only manipulated frames.

Watch UI “Showing Gratitude”

This prompt stumped me for a bit, as I didn’t quite grasp the “showing gratitude” bit of the challenge. It was still a good personal challenge to make a watch UI.

AI Speech Visualizer

Any representation or visualization of voice and sound, possibly from AI or similar interactions. I just made a quick joke with the sound bars.

Plant Care Instructions UI

The challenge was to make a plant care UI or card. I created an example app page in mobile for care of one of my favorite plants.

Book Cover

Prompted to create a book cover for a science fiction novel titled “Beyond the Auto Layout Cosmos” in constructivist art style. This was new for me.

Design Your Desk

This challenge was to create a mock-up of my desk setup. I didn’t include everything, but I used an isometric plugin in Figma to make something quick.

Make it Pop Button

Created a skeuomorphic button that forms bubbles around the edges, and when pressed the bubbles pop.

Charging Animation

Prompted to create a simple but animated charging indication, so I made one for phones.

Pentagons

Prompted to make anything using pentagon shapes. Everything except text is 5 sided, with animated components. Abstract old-school arcade inspired art.

3D Effect

Needed to simulate a 3D effect in any way we wanted. I made a fictional site for a fake brewery and a totally not-real beer can that you can rotate.

Looping Animation

Prompted to make any sort of looping animation, so I made a loading screen based on Pong with the palette colors from the OG Pong game cabinet.

Moon Spinner

Design a looping loading spinner that looks like a planet with a moon rotating around it. Played with rotation and smart animation.

Iridescent

Needed to make anything we wanted iridescent. I made a toggle button that goes from “boring mode” to “party mode” and becomes more colorful.

Wrong Color Picker

The challenge was to design a color picker “but wrong.” For fun, I came up with jelly beans picking the color themes for a site preview, instead of a real picker.

Expand Menu

Prompt to create an expanding menu for an app or site. I built a fictional mobile page and gave it an expanding menu.

Keyboard Typing

Prompt to simulate keys or text being typed out. Instead of just displaying text on the screen, I opted to create a functional keyboard with typing prototyped.

Create With Plugins

Prompted to create anything using Figma plugins. I made a mobile game screen with noise, texture, and pixelation plugins using a favorite wallpaper.

Weather Widgets

At first I made an animated weather widget, but then decided on something static, because I prefered the simple approach.

Animated Line Chart

Prompted to create any variety of line chart in Figma, as long as it was animated. I made something about one of my hobbies.

Minimalist Countdown Timer

Prompt was to make a countdown timer that could be reset while being minimal. I used this as a breathing exercise.

Loading Screen Inspired by Piet Mondrian

The challenge was to create any sort of animated loading indicator inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian. I had fun with this one.

Food Icon

Task was to create an icon for your favorite food. There’s no shortage of pizza icons out there, but I made a few anyway. Pineapple DOES belong on pizza.

Duck Loading Bar

The challenge was to create a loading-style animation where water level goes up and down, with a duck that reacts to being clicked on.

Graffiti Inspired

I’m not into graffiti, nor do I have that kind of artistic leaning, but I came up with something simple in Figma just to do the challenge and try something new.

Cyclical Calorie Chart

Prompted to make a cyclical chart of calorie lost over time during a day. Made a quick animation to go with it so it wasn’t just static.

Variables

Needed to use variables to make whatever we wanted. I decided to brush up on variable modes like dark mode and text string changes.

Fuchsia

Had to make anything we wanted incorporating fuchsia. While I’m not the biggest fan, I was inspired by the warm glow of my salt lamp.

Ice Cream Generation

The prompt was to use Figma to create an illustrative ice cream builder. I created a banana split customizer with a decent amount of variants.