Figma Relaunches AI-Powered App Generator as ‘First Draft’ After Apple Controversy

Figma is back with its AI-powered app generator, previously known as Make Designs, which had been temporarily removed following accusations of copying Apple’s iPhone weather app. The design platform has reintroduced the tool under a new name, First Draft, along with significant updates and improvements to address the concerns raised during its initial release.

The updated feature, which is still in limited beta, offers a more flexible and customizable approach to generative design, allowing users to explore different layouts and options without the risk of creating overly familiar-looking interfaces.

The Controversy Behind Make Designs

Figma’s Make Designs tool was launched in June 2024, enabling designers to use generative AI to kickstart app designs with ease. However, early users quickly noticed that the AI-generated designs often closely resembled existing applications, particularly Apple’s iPhone weather app. Despite Figma’s insistence that the tool wasn’t trained on any customer data and only used off-the-shelf AI models, the company decided to pull the feature to undergo further testing.

The controversy highlighted the need for generative AI tools to offer more diversity and originality in their outputs, leading to Figma’s decision to reevaluate and rework the tool before bringing it back to the market.

Introducing First Draft: A Redesigned AI Tool

Figma’s new and improved First Draft tool is designed to provide designers with greater flexibility and less “opinionated” design choices. The company has introduced several key updates to make the tool more adaptable to different design needs, giving users the ability to create everything from lo-fi wireframes to high-fidelity visual layouts.

In the relaunch announcement, Figma revealed the introduction of four design libraries that users can choose from, based on their specific requirements. These libraries allow for more exploratory designs, offering a looser starting point for creative work compared to the more utilitarian approach seen in its other features, like Visual Search.

The tool is designed to assist designers by arranging and customizing design system components, but it remains grounded in user inputs, meaning it doesn’t generate designs based on existing apps or user data.

How First Draft Works: AI-Driven, Yet Flexible

First Draft builds upon off-the-shelf AI models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Amazon Titan, to generate designs based on three key elements: the model, the context, and the prompt. The context includes proprietary mobile and desktop design systems, packed with numerous components and assembly examples. Designers enter their goals as prompts, and the AI selects, arranges, and customizes the design components to create a tailored starting point for further refinement.

Figma emphasized that First Draft does not train on customer content and is focused on helping users explore design options rather than replicating existing solutions. The AI tool acts as a creative partner, helping designers generate initial ideas that can be further fine-tuned, rather than fully designing apps or websites from scratch.

New Features: Tailored Libraries for More Creative Freedom

One of the standout features of the First Draft relaunch is the ability for designers to select from one of four design libraries, each offering different levels of fidelity based on the project’s requirements. These libraries include:

• Wireframing library: Ideal for creating basic, low-fidelity wireframes to sketch out initial ideas.

• Higher-fidelity libraries: Suitable for more polished designs, offering a range of visual styles and patterns to explore.

This new flexibility gives designers more control over their starting points, whether they’re looking to map out basic user flows or create a more visually refined prototype. These libraries also serve as a counterpoint to Figma’s Visual Search feature, which allows users to search existing Figma files or components using text prompts or images.

Ensuring Accuracy and Originality

To prevent the issues that led to the initial controversy, Figma has emphasized that First Draft was relaunched after “extensive analysis, iteration, and testing.” The goal was to create a tool that assists designers without compromising originality or accidentally mimicking existing designs. The updates ensure that designers have more creative freedom and less chance of unintentionally reproducing similar-looking apps or websites.

Conclusion: A New Chapter for AI in Design

With First Draft, Figma is once again at the forefront of integrating AI into the design process, offering designers a tool that combines AI’s speed and efficiency with the flexibility and creativity that the design world demands. While still in its beta phase, First Draft is poised to become an essential part of the Figma platform, helping designers take their ideas from concept to execution faster than ever — while ensuring that their designs remain uniquely their own.

As AI continues to evolve in the creative space, Figma’s renewed focus on originality and adaptability with First Draft marks a significant step toward making generative AI a trusted ally for designers everywhere.