When there was no such concept of UX and UI, only the back-end development process was considered a big deal. But the end-user/customer has no idea what’s happening at the back; he interacts with the app, not the code.
If the design isn’t appealing and User Experience isn’t a convenient one, no user would stay on the page. As a result, UX/UI is now considered a crucial aspect of the development process. And there are dozens of design tools available to create design prototypes before implementing them.
With over 4M registered users worldwide, Figma is the favourite of millions of UX/UI designers. It’s not ‘just another design tool’ but something one would prefer over the rest because of its superior features and ease of use.
What Figma Does?
Figma is a complete designing tool with capabilities to support the entire design process end to end. From creating sketches to feedback collection, collaboration with the team, and creating prototypes, it alone does the job.
So, isn’t it a complete management tool? Yes, you guessed it right. If you are a product manager or a design lead, you can see the progress, suggest changes, and collaborate with your team members right there.
What are the Core Features of Figma?
There’s a reason why four million designers use Figma. Let’s find out what makes it a superior platform to others.
Collaboration
Designing an interface and creating a user experience isn’t a single man’s job. There are multiple creative minds involved including the stakeholders. What Figma does is bring all of them under one roof, so accessing your colleague’s ideas and collaborating with them becomes much easier.
- There are options to give different levels of access to your colleagues.
- As a team lead, you can create levels of team members and decide who can edit the design.
- Real-time collaboration can take place, just like a team meeting.
- As a team lead or stakeholder, you can share your feedback.
- You can ask for revisions to any team member working on a specific area of the design.
Prototyping & Testing
If you are a mobile app developer, you’d be more interested in knowing what Figma has to offer in prototyping. The good news is, not only can you create interactive prototypes but also test them as well on mobile.
I can’t cover the whole prototyping process using Figma here, but I can tell you there are common transitions available to create high-fidelity prototypes.
Figma recently released a smart animate and drag trigger features. The drag trigger is a new type of interaction while the smart animate inserts motion of similar elements.
Testing the prototype is quite easy, each design is presented with a mockup of an actual device surrounding the prototype. Figma Mirror app is also available, so anyone who seeks more realism can perform device-specific testing.
Producing Deliverables
When you have all team members available on a single platform, iterating becomes much more simple. Thus, teams can produce deliverables on time.
When you have short deadlines, you can either reuse the libraries you have stored, or you can use the templates available on Frigma. These could be for designing mobile UIs, Instagram posts, Wireframe kits, Azure diagrams, and many more.
Developer Handoff
Designers and developers are like a team of two pilots flying the same plane. Lack of clear communication or teamwork can cause a disaster.
Figma ensures smooth developer handoff without need of any third-party tool.This way both developer and designer can access the same file and ensure the final product is as per the requirements.
Back Up
Let’s face it. It happens with all of us when after constantly iterating, the previous design or idea feels the best. But what can be done now, we haven’t got any backup?
Figma solves this problem, each file is saved automatically while you’re working on it. It creates a new entry in the version history after every half an hour and a log of all automatically saved version is created
If you wish to, you can restore any of those versions.
APIs & Plugins
With APIs and custom plugins, a wide range of design teams and disciplines can custom the program depending on their needs. Figma proves much more flexible than other tools in various ways:
- Figma lets you import content from external sources to your mockup. This way, you can use real data in mockups and prototypes.
- You can even integrate Google Sheets to populate and sync the content of components in Figma files.
- There are Figma APIs, plugins, and integrations available that can house a design system within a UI design program.
Other Use Cases of Figma
Prototyping or UI/UX designing aren’t the only use cases of Figma. As said earlier, it’s being used in different domains with the objective of delivering top-notch visuals, user experiences, and front-end designs.
Here some other common use cases:
- Graphic design
- Wireframing
- Diagramming
- Brainstorming
- Templates
- Remote design
Summary
- Figma is a design tool used for prototyping, graphic designing, creating social media content, and creating templates for any purpose.
- Figma is not just a design tool but a full-fledged system leads and stakeholders can use to monitor the progress of the project.
- Teams can collaborate with eachother through Figma.
- Figma makes iteration and producing deliverables easier and faster,
- Figma offers free templates, so even if you don’t have time to develop designs from scratch you can still achieve remarkable results.
- Mastering Figma makes you the jack of all trades. If you are working in a tech firm, you can contribute with your designs in almost every area, from creating mock-ups to designing social media creatives, PSDs, etc.
P.S. At Digital Gravity, our UX/UI experts love Figma. Being a leading web design Dubai service, we create 100s of unique and engaging designs on a daily basis. Do you need some awesome designs for your business? We can create!
