In UX, use whatever tool is at hand
UX is about communication.
Practicing UX in a team context (which is how most of us work, I imagine), means communicating with colleagues.
And for the most part, colleagues sure as hell don’t use the same tools that we do (ie Figma, Sketch, etc.). Would I prefer everyone across my company know how to navigate a Figma file? Sure.
But this isn’t the reality we live in.
We all have our own preferences when it comes to communication styles and tools, and our responsibility as UX designers is to adapt. After all, we do have the word “user” in our title — and that includes our cross functional partners.
The only caveat I’ll add is this: whenever you do use a non-design tool, make sure to provide a reference or link to the actual source of truth (eg Figma). In that case, if the screenshot or words become stale, at least there’s a pointer to the most current iteration of the UX. There’s nothing worse than someone referring to a Jira ticket to build something that’s 4 months out of date. Of course this does assume, as I’ve said elsewhere, that your Figma files are organized well enough for someone else to navigate. But anyway.
Here are the variety of ways I’ve communicated to my colleagues in the last 6 months — whatever it takes to get the job done 🤘
Screenshots in Slack (+ Figma URL, of course)
Scribbled hand drawings in a notebook shared over Zoom
Miro meanderings and whiteboard sessions
Loom videos on the latest in-progress designs
Annotated designs in Markup.io
Screenshots in Jira tickets (+ Figma URL)
Actual whiteboard sketches when we meet in person (party!)
Chromatic comment threads
Git comment threads
Confluence wiki pages
Screenshots in PowerPoint or Google Slides (+ Figma URL)
User stories in Jira written using the Gherkin Method (+ Figma URL)
