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Official Apple Design Resources for Figma – iOS 17 and iPadOS 17

185 points by samwillis 3y ago

jitl 3y ago
FINALLY. I only have Sketch installed so I can use Apple design resources to build icons and such. The raster ones don’t work well in Pixelmator, and Photoshop is too expensive for something I use every 3 months. I’m very happy they’re publishing Figma resources.
- DHPersonal 3y ago
  Have you tried Affinity Photo as a raster editor alternative? https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/
  - marban 3y ago
    Affinity user since day one but the whole suite is just so sluggish.
    - steve_adams_86 3y ago
      It wasn’t always. That’s a shame to hear if it’s getting significantly slower.
      - wdb 3y ago
        For me, it's a lot faster than PhotoShop. Could it be a Mac vs Windows thing?
        steve_adams_86 3y ago
        Right, I forgot it’s on windows now. Maybe it’s slower on there, because it seems very snappy on macOS still but I have nothing to compare it to (I think I’ve been affinity-only for close to 10 years!)
- qingcharles 3y ago
  Keep an eye out on Adobe's site, they often run 50% off deals, especially for Black Friday etc. I'm paying 50% off right now and for some reason they just emailed and gave me another two months free just on "GP".
hurricanesugar 3y ago
This is significant because all previous iOS resources attempting this level of detail have been created by the design community. A designer named Joey Banks created widely adopted UI Kits for iOS 13-16[1]. Earlier iOS resources were created by an agency called Teehan+Lax[2] and some others I’m forgetting now. All community-created design resources have historically been really good best guesses. Now they’re available directly from Apple. Apple is letting design teams reveal what’s happening on the inside a little bit and this is one example. [1] https://www.figma.com/@joey https://www.figma.com/@joey [2] https://teehanlax.com/tools/ https://teehanlax.com/tools/
- marcellus23 3y ago
  Hasn't Apple been providing Sketch resources for several years?
  - filmgirlcw 3y ago
    Yes. And Photoshop. And Adobe XD. I just checked and they still made those available this year too. I’m guessing Apple probably made previous libraries available for Figma too but I can’t say that for sure.
    - haswell 3y ago
      Where have they made these resources available in the past? I was under the impression that the 3rd party projects were so popular because of a lack of such resources from Apple. Is it just that the Figma-native assets are new?
      - avree 3y ago
        Yes, they have had these assets available for 5+ years https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ Figma is new.
    - perardi 3y ago
      I don’t believe so—I distinctly remember searching their site last month for an official Figma UI kit, and they only had Sketch and Adobe. The iOS 17 assets for Figma are new. Which, whew, thank you, Apple.
danielvaughn 3y ago
Apple seems to be turning a bit of a corner with the 17 release. Loosening up the app store restrictions, and now this.
- whizzter 3y ago
  Any good summary of what restrictions they've loosened?
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    They recently added a bunch of features to iOS Safari to allow webapps to run much better as offline apps; web push, badging, opening in a third-party browser, etc. https://webkit.org/blog/13878/web-push-for-web-apps-on-ios-and-ipados/ https://webkit.org/blog/13878/web-push-for-web-apps-on-ios-a... They're being brought onboard to the Mac now, including the ability to add one to your dock. https://webkit.org/blog/14205/news-from-wwdc23-webkit-features-in-safari-17-beta/ https://webkit.org/blog/14205/news-from-wwdc23-webkit-featur...
  - vxNsr 3y ago
    Not really but I noticed during their keynote they kept mentioning that features and apis would be opened to 3rd party apps. In the past these sort of features were always exclusive to apple’s own apps and considered part of their moat.
    - geoffpado 3y ago
      It’s a developer conference; it’s always been about announcing new features and APIs for third parties.
  - danielvaughn 3y ago
    Not that I know of - that comment of mine was a bit vague. I'm actually not sure if it's in this exact release, but I've heard that (a) Apple is going to allow you to publish an app outside of the app store, and (b) they don't make you pay the $100 dev fee unless you actually want to publish your app. Both of those are really positive changes for the developer experience.
diebeforei485 3y ago
It was probably some weird legal reason that they couldn't do this before.
- isametry 3y ago
  Such as…?
  - diebeforei485 3y ago
    Same reason why they didn't use github for a while - they didn't like the standard ToS so negotiated certain clauses.
- michelb 3y ago
  But they did this before over the past years, except not in Figma.
  - diebeforei485 3y ago
    Exactly.
wahnfrieden 3y ago
Wish designers would use SwiftUI directly, like the ones who can prototype html/css components/layouts
- mattl 3y ago
  How would they do that?
  - snayebaziz 3y ago
    Self-promotion warning: I make an app that’s a design tool for SwiftUI, aimed at designers who don’t use code. It’s called DetailsPro. Right now, it’s a bit basic, but I’m planning on adding prototyping, animation, and generally expanding its capabilities throughout the year. I too agree it’d be great if designers could use SwiftUI because then you’re getting instant validation the whole time that your design is possible. https://www.detailspro.app https://www.detailspro.app
    - deluxeroyale 3y ago
      Nice! I’ll try to use this on the next project that I design.
  - wahnfrieden 3y ago
    check the wwdc session on it
perardi 3y ago
So this is notable, for some value of notable, because Apple has not provided Figma assets before. They have provided really quite good Sketch UI kits up until now. https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ Depending on how much Kremlinology you want to indulge in, this is either… (a) Apple recognizing what tools its users use, and providing useful assets (b) Apple is giving in by not promoting the platform-native Sketch app and accepting they are being washed away by the tide of cross-platform Electron apps† (c) Apple is engaging in a Big Corporation conspiracy with Adobe, the probable new owners of Figma, to lock you into proprietary subscription software forever and ever † yes, I know Figma is not Electron, it is a wild cross-platform browser runtime unto itself, but you know what I mean
bmikaili 3y ago
Where's macOS though
secretsatan 3y ago
Is the generated code any good? I wouldn’t ever use any of the code figma provides for ios currently but i also still use xib extensively. But i also it’s very hard for other developers who have not had extensive experience with that sort of ui building to understand and decipher something that has shit tons of trait based constraints and properties embedded in it. Also, the conflicts that happen should any 2 people work on the same file are horrible. So, swiftui is inevitable and seems preferable to me to the kind of code figma produces which gives no indication of the final result.
itsuka 3y ago
For those who are curious (like me), Human Interface Guidelines and design templates for visionOS will be published later this month alongside the first visionOS developer seed. (source: WWDC23 Slack)
kadomony 3y ago
Poor Joey. Or maybe he’s relieved now.

185 points by samwillis 3y ago

jitl 3y ago

FINALLY. I only have Sketch installed so I can use Apple design resources to build icons and such. The raster ones don’t work well in Pixelmator, and Photoshop is too expensive for something I use every 3 months. I’m very happy they’re publishing Figma resources.

DHPersonal 3y ago
Have you tried Affinity Photo as a raster editor alternative? https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/
- marban 3y ago
  Affinity user since day one but the whole suite is just so sluggish.
  - steve_adams_86 3y ago
    It wasn’t always. That’s a shame to hear if it’s getting significantly slower.
    - wdb 3y ago
      For me, it's a lot faster than PhotoShop. Could it be a Mac vs Windows thing?
      - steve_adams_86 3y ago
        Right, I forgot it’s on windows now. Maybe it’s slower on there, because it seems very snappy on macOS still but I have nothing to compare it to (I think I’ve been affinity-only for close to 10 years!)
qingcharles 3y ago
Keep an eye out on Adobe's site, they often run 50% off deals, especially for Black Friday etc. I'm paying 50% off right now and for some reason they just emailed and gave me another two months free just on "GP".

hurricanesugar 3y ago

This is significant because all previous iOS resources attempting this level of detail have been created by the design community. A designer named Joey Banks created widely adopted UI Kits for iOS 13-16[1]. Earlier iOS resources were created by an agency called Teehan+Lax[2] and some others I’m forgetting now. All community-created design resources have historically been really good best guesses. Now they’re available directly from Apple. Apple is letting design teams reveal what’s happening on the inside a little bit and this is one example. [1] https://www.figma.com/@joey https://www.figma.com/@joey [2] https://teehanlax.com/tools/ https://teehanlax.com/tools/

marcellus23 3y ago
Hasn't Apple been providing Sketch resources for several years?
- filmgirlcw 3y ago
  Yes. And Photoshop. And Adobe XD. I just checked and they still made those available this year too. I’m guessing Apple probably made previous libraries available for Figma too but I can’t say that for sure.
  - haswell 3y ago
    Where have they made these resources available in the past? I was under the impression that the 3rd party projects were so popular because of a lack of such resources from Apple. Is it just that the Figma-native assets are new?
    - avree 3y ago
      Yes, they have had these assets available for 5+ years https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ Figma is new.
  - perardi 3y ago
    I don’t believe so—I distinctly remember searching their site last month for an official Figma UI kit, and they only had Sketch and Adobe. The iOS 17 assets for Figma are new. Which, whew, thank you, Apple.

danielvaughn 3y ago

Apple seems to be turning a bit of a corner with the 17 release. Loosening up the app store restrictions, and now this.

whizzter 3y ago
Any good summary of what restrictions they've loosened?
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  They recently added a bunch of features to iOS Safari to allow webapps to run much better as offline apps; web push, badging, opening in a third-party browser, etc. https://webkit.org/blog/13878/web-push-for-web-apps-on-ios-and-ipados/ https://webkit.org/blog/13878/web-push-for-web-apps-on-ios-a... They're being brought onboard to the Mac now, including the ability to add one to your dock. https://webkit.org/blog/14205/news-from-wwdc23-webkit-features-in-safari-17-beta/ https://webkit.org/blog/14205/news-from-wwdc23-webkit-featur...
- vxNsr 3y ago
  Not really but I noticed during their keynote they kept mentioning that features and apis would be opened to 3rd party apps. In the past these sort of features were always exclusive to apple’s own apps and considered part of their moat.
  - geoffpado 3y ago
    It’s a developer conference; it’s always been about announcing new features and APIs for third parties.
- danielvaughn 3y ago
  Not that I know of - that comment of mine was a bit vague. I'm actually not sure if it's in this exact release, but I've heard that (a) Apple is going to allow you to publish an app outside of the app store, and (b) they don't make you pay the $100 dev fee unless you actually want to publish your app. Both of those are really positive changes for the developer experience.

diebeforei485 3y ago

It was probably some weird legal reason that they couldn't do this before.

isametry 3y ago
Such as…?
- diebeforei485 3y ago
  Same reason why they didn't use github for a while - they didn't like the standard ToS so negotiated certain clauses.
michelb 3y ago
But they did this before over the past years, except not in Figma.
- diebeforei485 3y ago
  Exactly.

wahnfrieden 3y ago

Wish designers would use SwiftUI directly, like the ones who can prototype html/css components/layouts

mattl 3y ago
How would they do that?
- snayebaziz 3y ago
  Self-promotion warning: I make an app that’s a design tool for SwiftUI, aimed at designers who don’t use code. It’s called DetailsPro. Right now, it’s a bit basic, but I’m planning on adding prototyping, animation, and generally expanding its capabilities throughout the year. I too agree it’d be great if designers could use SwiftUI because then you’re getting instant validation the whole time that your design is possible. https://www.detailspro.app https://www.detailspro.app
  - deluxeroyale 3y ago
    Nice! I’ll try to use this on the next project that I design.
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  check the wwdc session on it

perardi 3y ago

So this is notable, for some value of notable, because Apple has not provided Figma assets before. They have provided really quite good Sketch UI kits up until now. https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/ Depending on how much Kremlinology you want to indulge in, this is either… (a) Apple recognizing what tools its users use, and providing useful assets (b) Apple is giving in by not promoting the platform-native Sketch app and accepting they are being washed away by the tide of cross-platform Electron apps† (c) Apple is engaging in a Big Corporation conspiracy with Adobe, the probable new owners of Figma, to lock you into proprietary subscription software forever and ever † yes, I know Figma is not Electron, it is a wild cross-platform browser runtime unto itself, but you know what I mean

bmikaili 3y ago

Where's macOS though

secretsatan 3y ago

Is the generated code any good? I wouldn’t ever use any of the code figma provides for ios currently but i also still use xib extensively. But i also it’s very hard for other developers who have not had extensive experience with that sort of ui building to understand and decipher something that has shit tons of trait based constraints and properties embedded in it. Also, the conflicts that happen should any 2 people work on the same file are horrible. So, swiftui is inevitable and seems preferable to me to the kind of code figma produces which gives no indication of the final result.

itsuka 3y ago

For those who are curious (like me), Human Interface Guidelines and design templates for visionOS will be published later this month alongside the first visionOS developer seed. (source: WWDC23 Slack)

kadomony 3y ago

Poor Joey. Or maybe he’s relieved now.