Building on modern web app architecture

What does an in-browser application look like? A decade ago, the Web 2.0 boom was approaching its peak and the bleeding edge of in-browser applications was Google’s Workspace-predecessor, “Apps for Your Domain”—lightweight, low-powered partial recreations of standard word processors and spreadsheets. A few years before that, the most prominent in-browser apps were tiny Flash games. Not anymore. Consider Figma: a market leader in visual and UX design that has successfully broken Adobe’s stranglehold on productivity tools for creatives. It competes directly with Adobe XD, and while the apps are close equivalents on design functionality, Figma is leagues ahead on performance and flexibility. With a modern web app architecture, it can run on any device, performs well on low-end laptops, and files can be shared and collaboratively edited within the application—no exporting, downloading, or navigating Adobe’s clunky Creative Cloud ecosystem. And remarkably, it’s all entirely in-browser. Web Assembly and WebGL

Mar 10, 2025 - 20:40

What does an in-browser application look like?

A decade ago, the Web 2.0 boom was approaching its peak and the bleeding edge of in-browser applications was Google’s Workspace-predecessor, “Apps for Your Domain”—lightweight, low-powered partial recreations of standard word processors and spreadsheets. A few years before that, the most prominent in-browser apps were tiny Flash games.

Not anymore. Consider Figma: a market leader in visual and UX design that has successfully broken Adobe’s stranglehold on productivity tools for creatives. It competes directly with Adobe XD, and while the apps are close equivalents on design functionality, Figma is leagues ahead on performance and flexibility. With a modern web app architecture, it can run on any device, performs well on low-end laptops, and files can be shared and collaboratively edited within the application—no exporting, downloading, or navigating Adobe’s clunky Creative Cloud ecosystem.

And remarkably, it’s all entirely in-browser.