Why everyone is switching to Figma and you should too
My experience with the design tool
Recently, I read an article from Zomato saying they switched to Figma as their primary design tool. Then, I came across a lot of articles comparing Figma and Sketch. Today I’ll try to share my experience with the design tool.
Figma is a cloud-based design tool, similar to Sketch. Using Figma is free of cost (to an extent), encouraging new designers to explore the world of UI/UX Design.
Real-time collaboration
I think the most significant advantage of using Figma is the collaboration platform it offers. It allows multiple team members to work together simultaneously on the project. The browser-based design helps with collaboration.
“Figma really brings together different parts of the team — designers, project managers, product managers, engineers, and others. The amount and quality of feedback is 10X better than before.” — Shawn Lan, Head of Design at Zoom
I mostly work for my college groups and freelance projects. The real-time collaboration helps me work alongside other designers. Also, developers and stakeholders can view progress immediately. (Rather than sending a different file every time something changes)
Prototyping
With the recent Figma update, Prototyping is now advanced and better. And because all the changes are real-time, any modifications done in the wireframes will automatically change the prototype.
Devices To give your prototypes a finished look, frames for various devices are available. This makes it extremely easy to showcase your prototype to clients and developers.
Frame to frame transitions You can add transitions between frames to make the prototype feel more real.
Browser-based
For someone who has been using Sketch or XD as their interface design tool, one might be sceptical at first. But trust me, it gets better!
You don’t need to save your file repeatedly or worry about losing your progress. And as I mentioned real-time collaboration an added advantage. When the file is large, it doesn’t slow down your system like some other tools might do.
Figma-mirror
This is an added benefit in Figma. The mobile mirror app is so simple and easy to use. You can see the preview of any frame you select and also displays the changes in real-time. This also helps while testing the prototype.
I have also used the Adobe XD mirror app, but it was not very user-friendly. I had to quit the preview and open the file again if I changed anything in the file.
Bonus
Now, by default Figma contains all the Google Fonts (so you don’t need to worry about downloading most fonts). Moreover, you can add new fonts from your computer by installing a simple extension.
I have been using Figma for more than a year now, and it has been phenomenal.
