The free web development tool Figma makes it easy for designers to make wireframes and prototypes before the real work starts. You can’t say enough about how important good UI and UX are. Businesses can’t afford interfaces that are hard to use, clunky, or inconsistent that don’t work the way users expect them to as user tastes get more specific and competition in the digital space gets tougher. It’s basically the key to getting new users and keeping the ones you already have for longer.
Figma: Description
Figma is a design tool that runs in the cloud and helps teams work together to make, test, and deliver product designs. Version history, team libraries, audio conversations, content management, overlays, on-canvas commenting, and automated provisioning are some of the features. With Figma’s pen tool, professionals can use vector networks to draw in any direction and make designs with arcs.
Members of the team can “pin” files for quick access, keep track of who is working on the project, add notes to help explain things, and work together in real time.
The app helps people make prototypes, figure out how things work together, and make design transitions. Integrations with third-party apps like Maze, Zeplin, Pendo, Confluence, and more are possible with Figma. It comes with apps for both iOS and Android phones. The solution can be subscribed to on a monthly basis, and documentation is used to provide support.
Pricing and Availability
There are paid monthly and yearly plans for power users that let you use Figma, a free app for designing user interfaces. And, of course, the free version has some limits. Three Figma files and three FigJam files can be made by users. That’s good enough for single users, small teams, and freelance designers. Users who have paid can get two upgrades. Professional lets you add as many files, audio conversations, and team libraries as you want. Helpful if you need to keep your brand’s look consistent.
It costs $15, £14, or $24 AUD per editor per month. If you sign up for a year, the prices go down to $12, £11, or $19 AUD per editor per month. Organisation has all the same features as Professional, plus organization-wide libraries, analytics, centralised file management, and more. If you want to get this, you have to pay an annual fee of $45 (£41) or $71 AUD per editor per month.
In general, Figma’s prices are about average for the market. Axure RP costs more than Sketch and Adobe XD, but only by a small amount. It’s much cheaper to use Figma than UXPin, but UXPin is a more comprehensive tool that lets designers and developers work together on the same project. Penpot gives creative people on a tight budget an open-source, free design and prototyping tool.
Key Features Table
Figma stands out as a flexible and collaborative design tool that lets teams and designers work together on UI/UX projects in real time without any problems. Its cloud-based platform makes sharing and editing files easy, which helps the design process go smoothly. With its easy-to-use interface and powerful features, Figma makes design workflows faster and easier. This makes it an important tool for modern design teams.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | Real-time collaboration with team members. |
| Cloud-based Design | Designs are stored in the cloud for easy access. |
| Cross-Platform | Works seamlessly on Windows, macOS, and Linux. |
| Prototyping | Create interactive prototypes for user testing. |
| Vector Editing | Powerful vector editing tools for precise designs. |
| Version History | Easily revert to previous versions of your design. |
| Plugins and Integrations | A wide range of plugins and third-party integrations. |
| Design Systems | Support for creating and maintaining design systems. |
| Auto Layout | Simplifies the design of responsive and adaptive layouts. |
| Comments and Feedback | Leave comments and receive feedback within the tool. |
| Visit Website |
User Interface and Experience
The interface of Figma is great for designers. It’s clear, clean, and intuitive, and it feels like an extension of your mind. Everything is easy to get to, and features are organised in a way that makes sense. It’s easy to work on both web and desktop platforms, and designs sync up perfectly in the cloud. The ability to work together is a big deal. You can edit in real time with your team, get feedback right away through comments and cursors, and it’s so much fun to see how a design changes as a group.
Also, the prototyping and handoff tools are easy to use, which makes the change from design to development quick and easy. Some people say that the lack of customisation options makes it feel limited, but Figma’s focus on efficiency makes that clear. It gets rid of distractions so you can focus on what’s important: making interfaces that look good and are easy for everyone to use.
Figma: Design
Figma works if you can position and resize shapes and lines. Designing involves dropping shapes, images, and text boxes onto a blank frame and tweaking their properties. Figma shouldn’t be underestimated. The prototyping tool is much more powerful than it appears. All major tools from scaling to text to smart pen are at the top. Keyboard shortcuts are supported for efficiency and creative workflows. Even with its freehand pencil tool, holding down Shift ensures perfect horizontal and vertical lines.
The left-hand Layers pane receives each component or element as you create your wireframe or mockup. This is where Figma most resembles Adobe’s top photo editor. It works like Sketch, the Mac-only design app. But using the layer-based system gives more control over each element and makes it easier to adopt across the team. Under the Prototype tab to the right, device templates simplify design.
This section is filled with iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. It also supports large and small Android screens, Microsoft Surface Pro 8, and TVs. I wish this list were longer, but it’s a quick way to make sure your designs fit users’ needs and devices.
Just to confirm, Figma Mirror works on Android and iOS. Mirrored prototypes update instantly when design changes are made, like the main tool. Figma exports PNG, JPEG, SVG, and PDF after approval. There’s not much variety, but they’re accessible formats, so everyone can see the final design.
Features and Functionality
Figma has a lot of useful features crammed into an easy-to-use interface. Its smart layout and easy-to-use vector tools make wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity design a breeze. Make interactive prototypes with realistic animations and transitions so that developers and stakeholders can see your vision for themselves. When people work together, Figma really shines.
Real-time co-editing lets more than one designer work at the same time, making teamwork easier and getting rid of the hassles of version control. Powerful commenting and version history tools make it easier to talk to each other and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Figma has a lot of great extras besides its core design tools. Make and use design systems to keep your brand’s look and feel consistent, take care of plugins to add extra features, and look around a thriving community of designers to get ideas and help. Figma has the features and functions to make your design workflow easier, whether you work alone as a freelancer or with a big team.
Figma: Prototyping
Figma does pretty much what you’d expect it to do when it comes to prototyping. I’d really like to see functional parts like form controls that you can interact with and other things like that, but that could be said about any modern UI design tool. You’ll instead see the usual page transitions and gestures, like click, drag, hover, and delay. Together, these can be used to move to a new frame, change the type of component, open, swap, and close overlays, go back, “scroll to,” and open links.
This isn’t particularly useful, but other UI design tools don’t usually offer this many ways to interact with the screen (for example, Adobe XD doesn’t have “hover”). ‘Smart animate’ is a feature that makes prototyping animations easy, so you’ll probably use it anyway.
Figma: Online Collaboration
Figma’s best feature is that it lets people work together online. It’s a must-have for most design teams now that hybrid and remote work are the norm. It’s also easier to work together with Figma, from coming up with ideas to handing over the final product. The tool gives you a lot of control over how and what you send to other people. To share designs quickly, just click the “Share” button.
Users can then write comments, give feedback, and, with the Professional and Organisation plans, even have voice chats with coworkers to work together in real time. If you need to work together online, FigJam will be very helpful. The whiteboard tool is made to help you come up with ideas and put them in order. A lot like Figma, it’s very easy to learn. Design files can be used in both tools, which makes them more useful for both work and play.
In other places, the team library makes sure that projects follow style guides and keep the same brand. That helps teams make designs that are more consistent and keep the brand’s identity throughout the whole process. Once the product gets to the developers, there should be fewer problems or back-and-forths. You can also use stock design elements, widgets, and plugins made by the Figma community, which are both free and paid for. This makes the software even more useful, and it helps a lot when deadlines are coming up.
Figma: Version Control
You can “fork” designs into branches that can be worked on, tested, and passed on without affecting the original design before being reviewed and merged into the branch’s main Figma document. This is what version control means. This is the first time that a UI design tool has a feature that makes it better for iterative design methods like design sprints.
Pros
- Cloud-based and collaborative
- Easy to use and learn
- Packed with features
- Free plan available
Cons
- Can be laggy with large files
- Limited offline functionality
- Not as powerful as some other design tools
Final Words
To be honest, Figma is the best value for money right now. This is especially true if you and your team are serious about designOps and branching, testing, making design systems, and using both synchronous and asynchronous work as needed.
Figma has some serious features, but its multiplayer features and audio chats make it fun to work together on design projects. Lastly, it stays competitive with other UI design tools in terms of features and platform support. It also keeps coming up with new ideas without adding too many features, which has been the downfall of many tools in the past.
