How did I challenge the imposter syndrome to design (yet another) Figma kit?
Introduction
When you turn on your Mac or PC every morning to start working, there are a series of tools that start with you ready to take home another productivity day.
I’m Alessio Calvo, 30 years old product designer based in Rome, Italy. For 5 years I have been working as at Immobiliare.it and I rely on several of these tools, the first of all is Figma (a tool that meets the needs requested by the team to which I belong, as opposed to Sketch used previously).
Figma is a tool for the design of user interfaces, coming from a path dictated by the predominance of Photoshop (how much suffering) I can only be enthusiastic about this historical moment regarding design tools (The choice is difficult given the presence of many other existing tools, but from my experience I can give you a simple advice: it is not the tool that makes the designer, but exactly the opposite).
What moved me forward
Now I would like to take up the question that is the title of this article: why did I make yet another kit? I’ll explain why in 2 points:
First
I appeal to all the people who, like me in the course of their career despite showing love, passion and respect for their work, in reality have never shown it for themselves and in the same way I judged my works, convinced that no one would have appreciated what I would have done.
For years (10 to be precise) I have been afraid to design things outside the jobs I did for clients, simply because I never felt up to the other people in the community who created extraordinary things instead. But (and there must be a but in each of you) I understood that this was and is only a fear to face, take it by the horns and throw it against a wall.
A mood that made me stay still. We must remove all negative thoughts from our heads that push us not to do, to remain still. Tackling this project made me feel alive and happy, I didn’t know where it would take me, but the energy and stimulus that generated in me was the push that allowed me to go on. Finally I went into action without feeling the weight of convincing someone, the only thing I thought of was doing it (the same can be said for this article, being my first).
Second
With Figma it is possible to work with the whole team on the same file, and to manage reusable libraries and components, create text styles, colors, effects, create prototypes and receive feedback from the people involved in the process. In short, a tool with a capital T for those who are involved in the design of digital products and services in this period. This kit was born thanks to these possibilities that Figma offers.
The problem
What I found whenever wireframes had to be built, user flows structured or information architecture, was a sense of slowing down the whole process rather than the other way around. I went from a web app (Whimsical) to create the flows and wireframes, then to create prototypes of these wireframes with Marvelapp and then work on the high fidelity version on Figma … do you understand the steps done so far?
Tracking and synchronizing these 3 main tools after the various iterations of the process became very frustrating to manage. From this problem I understood that I had to get out of this situation.
The solution was to design a library of components that included all the useful elements to design ideas faster then define and send in development without ever leaving Figma. Boom! I felt something personal happen, totally mine, something that if I went back I would do it immediately and moreover I made a kit that will help me work faster.
What I learned from this project
But these are not the only advantages that I have gained by making this work. Thanks to this side project I was able to learn many things about Figma by improving many skills, knowing more in depth its functionality; I was able to follow a project following my rules and experimenting according to what I thought was right for me and for the project itself, without ever losing focus on the final goal: solving a problem that I encountered.
Conclusion
So an invitation I can give you is: do your side project, of any kind, but do it, it will help you experiment with new things, it will help you grow and learn, even if you are wrong.
After this experience I will probably follow other projects, now I really don’t think I will stop.
If you, too, are designers, like me, I invite you to consult the kit that you will find at this link. If you interested you can follow me on Twitter to get updates on Artisan Kit.
I will write an article where I will go into more detail about the project, in the meantime a list of the readings that helped me unlock:
- Deep work - Cal Newport
- Do the Work - Steven Pressfield
- The One Thing - Gary W. Keller e Jay Papasan
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck - Mark Manson
- Beginner’s mind - Shunryū Suzuki-Roshi
Thank you for reading my story. We can get in touch on Twitter as I continue to document my journey. Have a good day!.
