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The Collapsing Abstraction Layer

A thirty-year timeline of digital prototyping tools

PixelMockupComponentIntelligence1995200020052010201520202025Raster editorsVector designClickable prototypingCode-designAI generationPhotoshop (web UI era)×Macromedia Fireworks×Adobe ImageReady×Sketch×Adobe XD×FigmaFramer X×Framer (Sites)Axure RPBalsamiqInVision×Adobe Edge AnimateFlinto×Marvel×Zeplin×Principle×ProtoPieInVision StudioFlash×Dreamweaver×WebflowFramer Classic×Origami StudioCursorv0DevinOpenAI CanvasWindsurfLovableClaude CodeFigma Make
Thirty-one years of digital prototyping tools. Each bar marks a tool’s active life; bars with a cross are tools that died. Era shading shows the four-epoch compression — Pixel, Illusion, Component, Intelligence — each successive era shorter than the last. The tight cluster at the bottom-right is the Intelligence Era: the collapse itself.
  • 2005 Adobe acquires Macromedia ($3.4B)
  • 2010 Jobs: Thoughts on Flash
  • 2013 Adobe kills Fireworks
  • 2014 Material Design launches (Google I/O)
  • 2016 Figma public launch
  • 2020 Flash Player EOL
  • 2022 Adobe–Figma $20B deal announced
  • 2023 Figma Dev Mode + Variables (Config 2023)
  • 2023 Adobe–Figma terminated; $1B break fee
  • 2025 Figma IPO