Hi Georgiy Chernyavsky! The all-new UI design and Prototyping with Figma track starts at Ambition Empower next week, and we have some questions for you.
First, how much time do you estimate you save each week just by keeping your Figma files in order?
– Keeping the files tidy and standardized helps me, and the team save between one and four hours each week. Mostly, time is saved on onboarding and navigating design files during collaboration. This applies to designers, but also engineers, and other team roles. Simply put, the more collaboration the more time you save.
It seemed like Figma came out of nowhere and quickly became a world standard. Why would you say that is?
– Going cloud was the primary differentiator. As if someone looked at cloud document services (Google, Office 365) and went, “Huh, that’s much better than sending copies of document files. I sure wish there was something similar for design.” Of course, Figma has tons of other handy features. However, in its early days, it won designers’ hearts by providing effortless collaboration and sharing.
In your experience, what are most people struggling with regarding Figma, and why?
– The biggest struggle is keeping up to date with Figma’s new features. This does not only mean knowing about them, or how to use them, but mainly how to implement them in one’s daily work. Whenever Figma releases something big and shiny, this can also require a lot of work. Designers who work on big products or design systems would probably share my sentiments. Implementing variables in a UI library in Figma can become quite a project in itself, just like switching to variants was only some time ago. That’s where dedicating some time to learning about those demanding features helps a lot to reduce confusion and to create a solid plan on how to implement any new feature.
Figma has improved when it comes to collaboration between designers and developers. What would you say is the most helpful in this aspect?
– Figma has been great for collaboration with engineers since the very beginning. But recently, it became even better by introducing Dev Mode, which we will cover in the track. However, despite how well any tool is designed for collaboration, communication with your colleagues is usually the key. Spending time with engineers, ideating, and reviewing the details of designs helps me and my team stay aligned and keep collaboration smooth.
Thanks, Georgiy! Looking forward to your new track!
…
Ambition Empower is a subscription service where thought leaders within UX, service design, and product design help you and your team grow. It is optimized for busy organizations, allowing members to spend as little as one hour per week and still stay ahead of the competition. If you’re not already one of the 400+ members – join now!
