Figma Config 2025 Review: Was It Worth the Trip?

from A Digital Strategy Podcast · host Symon Oliver, Marcello Gortana, John Kowalski

💡 Key Topics: What Config is really like in person, and why Toronto has no local equivalent (RGD, Tech Week, Web Summit gaps) AI fatigue at the conference, and audiences literally clapping when a talk wasn't about AI Why Figma let agents take a backseat in the keynote, unlike last year's AI-heavy product slate John on the new production and motion features, and where designers will push them Anna O on UX for robots and seniors, plus the idea that taste comes from the people you're responsible for Ella Rochelle Lawton on street art as a design system, and real data on murals improving communities The Waymo talk: designing for a driverless car and using the note E for calmness (psychoacoustics) Jezebel DC's "low-tech" talk: why 2000s design was better before attention became the product, with Lego and Animal Crossing as case studies Chelsea Larson (Anthropic) on language as design, prompts as UX, and AI as cars rather than the Industrial Revolution A Stripe designer (Matthew) on density in design and the ink-to-meaning ratio, plus "prove the question is a bad idea before dismissing it" The post-conference verdict versus the pre-trip guesses 📖 Chapters: 0:06 — Back from Config: first impressions 0:51 — Conference scale, and why Toronto has nothing like it 2:18 — Was it AI overkill? First day vs. second day 3:07 — Why Config is valuable: industry direction and art-based talks 3:44 — AI burnout and the crowd clapping for non-AI talks 4:14 — Why Figma let agents take a backseat this year 5:00 — John on the product release: production and motion 5:47 — Favorite talks begin 6:47 — Anna O: UX, robots, and design for seniors 7:43 — "Taste comes from the people you're responsible for" 9:01 — Ella Rochelle Lawton: street art as a living design system 10:14 — The Waymo talk and psychoacoustics (the note E) 12:10 — Jezebel DC: low-tech lessons from the 2000s 13:11 — Lego, Animal Crossing, and designing without dependency 14:53 — Chelsea Larson (Anthropic): language as design 16:25 — AI as cars, not the Industrial Revolution 18:50 — The Stripe density talk and the ink-to-meaning ratio 21:45 — "Prove the question is a bad idea before dismissing it" 23:33 — The secret second talk: too much talking about craft 24:40 — Final ratings: 9, 9, and 9.5 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes on design, web strategy, and building better digital businesses. #figma #figmaconfig #config2025 #figmaai #designconference #uxdesign #uidesign #designtools #waymo #anthropic #designsystems #b2bdesign #designindustry #datavisualization LinksYou can learn more about Tennis at our website. Be sure to follow us at LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jul 2, 2026

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Config 2025 is over, and Symon, Marcello, and John are back to debrief. Before the trip they rated it a six and a seven. Did it hold up? In this follow-up episode, the team unpacks Figma Config 2025 from the ground: what the conference is actually like at 10,000-person scale, why the AI overload was real but Figma smartly let agents take a backseat in the keynote, and the talks that genuinely stuck with them. They get into Waymo's psychoacoustics, street art as a living design system, low-tech lessons from the 2000s, Anthropic on language as design, and a Stripe designer's case for density. Then they close with a final rating. A two-part Config preview and follow-up. This is part two.