THERE′S SOMETHING ABOUT FIGMA

Since its inception in 2016, Figma, a cloud-based design and user interface tool, has revolutionized the design landscape. Its standout feature lies in its accessibility and user-friendly interface. With Figma, the hassle of downloading or installing software is eliminated, as everything operates seamlessly through your web browser, enabling work from anywhere, at any time.

But how it started?

Dylan Field (an American Tech. Executive) and Evan Wallace started developing Figma in 2012 while they were students at Brown University, studying computer science.

Wallace focused on graphics and worked as a Teaching Assistant for the Computer Science Department, while Field was the chair of the CS Departmental Undergraduate Group. Their initial goal with Figma was to make creative tools accessible to everyone by offering free and easy-to-use tools directly in a web browser. The program entered into closed beta in late 2015 and was released to the public in September 2016.

Since then, the remarkable growth and acclaim Figma has achieved within the industry are noteworthy. By 2020, Figma witnessed a significant surge in its user base, with 66% of designers embracing the platform, marking a substantial increase from the previous year's 37%. (*) Moreover, Figma's valuation soared to an impressive $10 billion by 2022, buoyed by investments totaling $200 million.

Notably, influential industry players such as Microsoft have integrated Figma as a pivotal element in their design workflows. The tool's impact has been so profound that Adobe recently announced its intent to acquire Figma for an astounding $20 billion. This strategic union of industry giants promises to yield a more robust and collaborative design ecosystem. (**)

Figma facilitates real-time collaboration among users for the creation and prototyping of user interfaces and web applications. Leveraging vector graphics design tools, design teams can craft intricate wireframe layouts for websites, adaptable to screens of varying sizes. Furthermore, users can integrate interactive features like scrolling and hovering, ensuring a contemporary look and feel to their webpages.

This capability enables the rapid production of functional prototypes, facilitating swift feedback loops for designers. Moreover, Figma offers the option to export code snippets from prototypes, streamlining the handoff process to developers once designs are refined.

The robust collaboration features of Figma have fostered a vibrant community of designers and developers, continuously generating new plugins, templates, and widgets for public consumption.

Through Figma's platform and other community forums, users can share designs, offer feedback on templates, and enhance the functionality of interactive interface elements. This active community ensures a constant influx of new resources, empowering users to adapt and repurpose existing assets to better suit their requirements.

Thanks to the expansive Figma community, collaboration extends beyond internal teams, allowing users to engage with a global network of designers and developers to refine their web designs collaboratively.

Figma is also a good choice for people who are just starting to learn web design. It's easy to get to and the tools are simple to use. Also, Figma offers a free version that beginners can use without any time limit. This means new users can practice a lot with Figma and find free tutorials to help them learn.

The free trial has some limits, like the number of files you can work on at once and how many people can work on a design together. But as teams grow, they can sign up for subscriptions made for bigger groups like teams, organizations, or schools.

You don't need any special skills to start learning Figma.

Some people find it helpful if they already know other design software like Photoshop or Illustrator. But even if you're completely new to design, you can start using Figma and start learning in just a few hours.

Why everyone is crazy about Figma?

Figma's combination of collaboration features, accessibility, powerful tools, and community support makes it a popular choice among designers for creating digital interfaces and experiences, let′s see this in more details:

• Collaboration: Figma is a cloud-based design tool that allows real-time collaboration among team members. Multiple users can work on the same file simultaneously, which streamlines the design process and fosters teamwork.
• Cross-platform Accessibility: Figma can be accessed through a web browser, making it platform-independent. Users can work on their designs from any device with an internet connection, whether it's a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet.
• Version History and Auto-save: Figma automatically saves changes and maintains a version history, which allows users to revert to previous versions of their designs if needed. This feature provides peace of mind and prevents the loss of work.
• Vector Editing: Figma offers powerful vector editing capabilities, allowing designers to create scalable and high-quality graphics. This is particularly useful for designing icons, logos, and illustrations.
• Prototyping and Animation: Figma includes prototyping features that enable designers to create interactive prototypes of their designs. Additionally, it supports animation, allowing designers to bring their prototypes to life with transitions and microinteractions.
• Plugins and Integrations: Figma supports a wide range of plugins and integrations, allowing users to extend its functionality and integrate it into their existing workflows. This flexibility makes it easy to customize Figma to suit individual preferences and project requirements.
• Community and Resources: Figma has a large and active community of designers who share resources, tips, and tutorials. This community support fosters learning and creativity, making it easier for users to improve their skills and stay up-to-date with the latest design trends.

I asked “What do you particularly like about Figma and what would you like to change?” To different professionals (based in different countries) that use Figma everyday, let′s find out their answers:

Wenjuan Zhou , Brand and Marketing Design Team Lead, Tencent, China

Firstly, I find Figma offers several key advantages:

Figma significantly enhances design efficiency for designers, particularly in UI and UX work. Especially the prototype feature, it not only boosts my productivity but also allows for verifying the validation of my product's logic. Additionally, Figma facilitates the swift creation of interactive demos.

Figma boasts superior performance compared to traditional tools like Photoshop and Illustrator. While similar tasks might cause lag or freezing in the latter, Figma remains consistently smooth and responsive even with large file sizes.

The extensive range of plug-ins available in Figma greatly simplifies design tasks.

On the other hand,the potential for Figma's community feature to evolve into a robust platform for designer interaction akin to Behance and Dribbble is evident,but the user experince of community there's room for improvement：

1.Making the community entrance more prominent.

2.The functionality for saving liked or favorited items within the community needs refinement. Presently, these saved items aren't readily accessible from user profiles, necessitating navigation back to the home page to locate them within opened files. A smoother, more intuitive saving and retrieval system would enhance user experience.

3.Figma's approach to file permissions within the community could be more reasonable. The current setup, when you copy the file to your home page and delete the file, you will be prompted: You're about to delete the file xxxx,people with edit access on this file can restore it later from the Deleted section of the Drafts tab.In this scenario, I feel a strong concern about potentially impacting others if I were to delete any files that I've copied from their creators.

Basira Nazari , UX-UI Designer, Cimdata Bilungsakademie GmbH, Germany

I particularly appreciate Figma's seamless collaboration in real time and the ability to create designs directly in the browser. What I would change is improving the performance of large files and an even more intuitive user interface for new users.

Lubena Awan , Product Designer, Urban Sports Club, Germany

I like how Figma provides an ecosystem for design, prototyping and collaboration with all the team members. Over the last couple of years, Figma has shown an amazing growth and it seems ever improving. However, one thing I dislike is that Figma starts lagging with heavy files.

Rae's Design , Product Designer, Freelancer, Thailand

Being a recent UX/UI design graduate, Figma has quickly become my design ally as the platform enables a seamless transition from wireframing to high-fidelity designs, streamlining my workflow. Also, the plugin that allows me to check accessibility has empowered me to work on projects fluently and produce high-quality work that can be accessed by all users, which is ideal for someone starting their career. The extensive library of plugins has added an exciting layer of customization and exploration.?I'd love to see Figma improve in a few areas. Firstly, fixing the lagging when there are a lot of wireframes, Figma starts to lag and the interactive prototype wouldn't work anymore. Additionally, more built-in educational resources or tutorials within the platform.

Gabriella Kovacs , UX Designer/Practitioner, Classist, United Kingdom

Will just give a little context, because other designers might be using Figma differently depending on their circumstances.

I work in a mature startup as the only designer on the team and collaborate closely with the product owner and developers. Figma is great for collaboration, it is our preferred tool for ideation, wireframing, and prototyping. Advanced features such as auto layout, components and variables can really speed up your workflow. It is easy to keep files organised and share them, or get feedback on the work you have done. Haven't explored dev mode yet, but I really like the idea of bringing design and dev together under one roof. Community resources are so useful. Figjam is brilliant, I can easily access pretty much all UX-related templates, saves a lot of time :)

I also love to discuss user flows and implementation with dev using Figma.

Every now and then I get an audio and video project and I need to rely on tools other than Figma, probably this is the only aspect where I feel Figma is lacking. Apart from that, brilliant tool, so much to love about it :)

(*) https://uxtools.co/survey/2020/#toolkit

(**) https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/10-reasons-why-uiux-designers-should-use-figma-your-project/