Spike: Exploration on variables in Figma

[garrettbear]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA2WwX7qlYA

Summary on findings

• variables are currently in beta
• variables do provide a better designer experience since they would no longer need to use an additional plugin for light/dark/other theme mode and is a native experience
• variables currently only supports color, string, number, and boolean (typography and shadows not yet supported)
• to use variables with a rest API we would need to upgrade our plan to enterprise which is a hefty cost for a small feature that would not bring enough value to the company
• there are simple free tools to export the json quickly from figma
• as for automation it is too early for us to consider automation without truly getting things situated from the design side first and knowing what final output we would like for it to result in
• it shows great signs of potential and at this point is too early for us to know what kind of impact this will have on the dev side

Example repo

[garrettbear]

Updated info in the description. Has potential, but too soon for dev side of things. Design will continue to play around with it and we will decide if we can incorporate it into Token Studio and then keep what we currently have or start building out a new process of Token Studio with a combination of variables