5 Reasons Why Figma Is Our Favorite Design Tool ❤
A designer is only as great as the tools they use. And at SeaLab, as a leading remote-first design agency, not only do we know excellent design concepts, but we also know that the technology we use is vital when it comes to making even our wildest ideas reality and bringing incredible creative visions to life. In today’s world, collaborating online has never been more important — and it is the latest tech which makes it possible.
As creatives who eat, sleep and breathe digital design, this is a topic we could talk about all day. But, there’s one design tool which has risen ahead of all the competition to become our number one: Figma.
Figma is a collaborative interface design tool where teams can work together on UI projects, towards one shared goal. If that sounds a lot like what SeaLab does, that’s because it is — and it’s why we’re proud to be a Figma design partner. Though the software launched back in 2016, it was 2020’s sudden need for remote collaboration tools which propelled it to explode in popularity. According to research by UXtools.com, 37% of designers used Figma in 2019, with that number jumping to a huge 66% by 2020.
So, here’s why Figma is our favorite design tool. Once your team makes the switch, it’ll be yours, too…
Collaborating on designs is made simple
Forget the old-school idea of Adobe and Sketch files saved to a hard drive and the pain-staking time wasted sharing files between stakeholders for feedback (FinalFinalFINAL.sketch) In today’s UX Designers’ world, remote collaboration is everything, and how well a team can work together, from anywhere, can make or break a project. Figma makes this as simple as one real-time platform, with a drag-and-drop interface capable of supporting multiple stakeholders in a file at any time, with the abilities to upload, edit and view files as a team.
Projects are fast and efficient
We’ve tried and tested all the major design platforms, and there’s none more efficient than Figma. Not only does it boast zero lag, but the product itself has been made three times faster over the past three years.
At the same time, Figma is an all-in-one solution. Design work, commenting and link sharing all takes place within one overarching platform, even integrating with Slack to keep corporate communication in one place and more effortless than ever.
For SeaLab, this total collaboration tool, which allows multiple designers to work and edit a project at once, means completely cutting out time wasted sharing and waiting, and instead allowing our designers to spend more time being creative and executing incredible concepts. As Ellen Beldner, Head of Product Design at StitchFix and fellow Figma fan sums up, “I want my team to spend time thinking about high level UX problems, rather than mindlessly repeating busy work. Figma helps them do that.”
With Figma as our go-to design tool, SeaLab’s designers will never be left searching for missing assets or waiting on feedback for a project again — and it feels good ❤.
High-quality designs and modern features
Arguably the best thing about this software is that it takes the quality of user interface design to a whole new level. Simple collaboration means that projects are of the utmost quality.
More specifically, those projects include state-of-the-art features designed with the way modern markets use the internet. For example, the tool’s Auto Layout function will win the hearts of designers on any team by automatically creating responsive designs which can stretch to fill spaces and resize buttons with their text 😍— eliminating manual resizing. Another of our favorite features is the ability to automate your design work with plug-ins such as diagrams, stock images and charts — a simple addition for deft digital designers, and one which has had a game-changing impact on our workflow.
Our designers can work from anywhere, at any time
Unlike most design software, Figma is entirely web-based, which means projects, designs and assets can be accessed from anywhere, wherever our team of elite designers are working from. It also means that it doesn’t matter whether our designers have a Mac, PC, or Linux operating system, as there’s no need for installed software to use it. Similarly, our work is autosaved to the cloud, so our hard work can never be lost.
Less stressed, happier designers with freedom to work from anywhere means better, more creative designs all round — we’ve seen it first hand, and you can see our awesome recent work for proof, too.
It’s used by the biggest tech companies in the world
SeaLab is in unbeatable company when it comes to the other market-leading organizations which use Figma on a regular basis. Airbnb, Dropbox, Netflix, Twitter, Notion, Uber and Zoom are just some of the world’s biggest companies which have used Figma to make their interface design more efficient.
“With Figma, the process is way more organic. You can share things with anyone at any point of time,” says Mudit Mittal, design lead at Airbnb, “It’s the reality of the world, we’re an open design culture now.” At SeaLab, we have always known the future of digital product design is online, collaborative and open. Now, the tools available to us, like Figma, are as cutting-edge yet easy to use as the products we are using them to build.
Ready to see how SeaLab’s team of expert designers can use Figma to create your perfect design solution? Learn more and reach out today, here.
