Figma (Opens in a new tab), the free web development tool, allows designers to easily create wireframes and prototypes before starting development.
The importance of a good UI and UX cannot be underestimated. As user tastes refine themselves and competition in the digital space becomes fiercer, businesses cannot afford unintuitive, clunky, or inconsistent interfaces that don't work the way users expect. In fact, this is the key to attracting new users and retaining them for longer.
Mockup tools like Figma, which Adobe bought in September 2022, allow you to build realistic prototypes in a very simple way. In that sense, it's like a mix of Photoshop and Canva for professional designers.
But simplicity is not the only advantage of the tool. The browser-based product design tool has a strong focus on online collaboration, no matter what device your team uses.
Figma: plans and prices
- Free tool with monthly and yearly subscriptions at reasonable prices
Figma is a free interface design app with monthly and yearly premium subscriptions for advanced users.
The free version is limited, of course. Users can create three Figma files and three FigJam files. Not bad for casual users, very small teams, and independent designers.
There are two upgrades available for paying users.
Professional adds unlimited files, audio chats, and team libraries. Useful if you need to maintain a consistent brand. The costs are €15 / €14 / AUD €24 per publisher per month.
For annual subscriptions, prices drop to €12/€11/AUD€19 per publisher per month.
Organization offers everything included in Professional, plus organization-wide libraries, analytics, centralized file management, and more. This is only available on an annual subscription, with costs broken down to €45 / €41 / €71 AUD per publisher per month.
In general, Figma offers a mid-range price for the market. Both Sketch and Adobe XD are priced slightly lower; Axure RP is more expensive. Figma costs much less than UXPin, but it's a larger tool that uses live interactive code, so designers and developers work in sync. Penpot offers a free, open source design and prototyping tool for creatives working on tighter budgets.
Figma: interface and experience
- Elegant and modern interface, easy to navigate
As you would expect from a dedicated UI design app, Figma's interface is extremely clean. When you first go to the home page, there's a lot going on, to be fair. And if this is all new to you, the sheer number of options on the sheet may initially threaten to overwhelm you.
But in fact, despite many options (which is not bad), everything is presented well on the screen. Everything seems to be where it should be. This makes navigation intuitive and easy to perform any required action. For a browser-based tool, it's also incredibly responsive.
Ultimately, if you have an intermediate understanding of graphic design software and applications, you should find Figma's straightforward interface easy.
- Interface and experience: 5/5
Figma: Design
- Powerful tools for consistent designs
If you know how to position and resize shapes and lines, you can use Figma. The basic layout work is based on placing shapes, images and text boxes in an empty frame and then changing the properties to achieve the desired result.
Don't underestimate Figma though. The prototyping tool is much more powerful than it seems at first glance. You'll find all the main tools, from scale and text tools to smart pen tools, located at the top of the screen. And yes, keyboard shortcuts are fully supported to access them, for greater efficiency and better creative workflows. This even extends to your freehand pencil tool: by holding down the Shift key, you can ensure that your horizontal and vertical lines are absolutely perfect.
Once you start creating your wireframe or mockup, each component or element is added to the Layers panel on the left. This is where Figma best reflects Adobe's best photo editor. In operation, though, you'll find it similar to Sketch, the Mac-only design app. But by opting for the familiar layer-based system, it offers more control over each element and makes it much easier to adopt across the board. equipment.
To make the design process even easier, you'll find templates for different devices in the Prototype tab on the right. Apple products dominate this section, with a host of iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch options. But you'll also find support for Android small and large screens, Microsoft Surface Pro 8, and even TVs. It would be nice to see this list expand further, but overall it's a quick way to make sure your designs meet the needs (and devices) of your users. However, just to be on the safe side, you can use Figma Mirror to view designs on Android and iOS. As with the main tool, mirrored prototypes will update instantly if changes are made to the design.
After signing, Figma allows you to export to PNG, JPEG, SVG, and PDF. It's not a huge variety, but they are accessible formats and, again, that means everyone involved in the process can see the finished design.
Figma: Online Collaboration
- Designed to work with your team
Online collaboration is the feather in Figma's hat. With hybrid and remote working now the norm, this is a non-negotiable feature for most design teams. And Figma makes it easy to collaborate, from initial concepts to final delivery.
You can quickly share designs – just hit the Share button – but the tool offers a good level of control over how (and what) you send to others. From there, users can write comments, leave comments and, on the Professional and Organization plans, even have audio chats with colleagues to collaborate in real time.
If you rely on online collaboration, FigJam will play an important role in this regard. The whiteboard tool is designed for brainstorming and organizing ideas. Like Figma, it's delightfully simple to master. Best of all, design files work in both tools to help boost productivity and the creative process.
Elsewhere, the team library ensures style guides and branding are maintained across projects. This helps teams create more consistent designs and branding throughout the workflow, and hopefully less hassle or back-and-forth once the product is shipped to developers.
There is also support for free and paid layout components, widgets, and plugins created by the wider Figma community. This gives the software even more utility (and certainly helps when those deadlines start to loom).
- Online collaboration: 5/5
figma: final verdict
Figma offers a modern and intuitive UI and UX design that is clearly accessible to everyone. In fact, we can't overstate how easy it is to use. It does everything designers need, and it does it with a powerful and advanced set of tools, whether you're simulating a new app or website, or any other graphic design element. But its focus on online collaboration makes it a must-have for teams in an organization.
Figma: Board
Plans and pricingFree, with monthly and yearly subscription updates4Interface and experienceSimple, modern, clean and easy to use5DesignPowerful tool that enables consistent and accurate designs5Online collaborationStrongly focused on online teamwork5I should buy?
