Affinity Publisher vs. Figma

Honestly, I thought our department would use this more for creating documentation for our staff and doing some mock-ups and layouts to envision future projects. I also run the social media for us, and I didn't expect to come to rely on Publisher for some of my social media layouts. There are other apps and subscription services that can streamline some social media posts, but with a bit of usage I've come to like using Publisher, as well.

Incentivized

Figma allows us to create assets across multiple teams, such as email templates, website assets like site banners, product pictures, and Amazon/retail digital content. Outside of Figma, our design team still needs to rely on some other features to create all of our assets. This could include things like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and GIF makers. It would be nice if Figma included some of the basic features of these other platforms so that we could create everything in one platform.

Incentivized

• Supports just about any format you'll need for your project.
• The variety of templates makes startign projects simple.
• The program is just really powerful and fairly priced.

Incentivized

• Detailed enough to create pixel perfect designs with total control over the outcome
• Creating and implementing design systems to improve consistency and speed up design work
• Robust prototyping tools to create simple animations or to connect various pages
• I love autolayout, which improves design spacing and responsiveness

Incentivized

• Menu differences can be an impediment to new users from other softwares
• Some functions are not in places I would expect

• Prototyping in Figma is pretty much nothing more than a glorified slide show. Sure, variables, etc are available but it takes way to long to set them up and even more time when there are revisions needed.
• It would be helpful if there were a contextual help system for various functionality. For example, advanced autolayout (like space between) can become very tricky to implement sometimes. I often wish there were an AI assistant to ask for help. I often use ChatGTP to help me through these times.
• Searching layers needs to be much easier and more intuitive.
• I would like to be able to make groups like the layers palette in Photoshop. That would help with organization and speed a lot.

Incentivized

Figma is a pretty cool tool in many areas. My team almost uses it on daily basis, such as, brainstorming on product/design topics, discussing prototypes created by designers. We even use it for retrospectives, which is super convenient and naturally keeps records of what the team discusses every month. Furthermore, I do see the potential of the product - currently we mainly use it for design topics, but it seems it is also a good fit for tech diagrams, which we probably will explore further in the future.

Incentivized

It offers a user-friendly interface and powerful design tools that make creating high-quality graphics and layouts straightforward. However, some features can feel complex, especially for new users, which may require a bit of a learning curve. The integration between desktop and iPad is excellent, but improving compatibility with other popular software could enhance collaboration and efficiency even further. Overall, it’s a robust tool that balances functionality and ease of use quite well.

Incentivized

It's easy to use for designers who are familiar with design terms and functions from Photoshop and Illustrator. However, non-tech and non-designer collaborators have a hard time figuring out how to leave comments and apply changes, compared to other online design tools like Canva and Squarespace. Even simple drag-and-drops and rearrangement of certain blocks become too complicated due to uncommon functions like Hug and Lock.

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The only regret I have is, its not available when there is no internet

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I think its great, As there are many other software or systems which can be integrated with it as plugins or API's

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So far, when we've needed support, it has been top tier. However, I rate it an 8 because sometimes searching for things within the application hasn't yielded answers I've hoped for, so I've had to turn to YouTube or other outside sources. Thankfully there's a fantastic community that surrounds Affinity and their various apps that's been quite beneficial

Incentivized

I haven't used their support lately but in the past, they had a chat that I used often. They often responded in a few hours and were able to give a satisfactory solution. I would imagine it's less personal now but the community has expanded drastically so there are more resources out there to self serve with a bit of Google magic.

Incentivized

In-person training has its own benefits - 1. It helps in resolving queries then and there during the training. 2. I find classroom or in-person training more interactive. 3. Classroom or in-person training could be more practical in nature where participants can have an hands on experience with tools and clarify their doubts with the trainer.

Incentivized

Online training has its own merits and demerits - 1. Sometimes we may face issues with connectivity or the training content 2. The way training is being delivered becomes very important because not everyone is comfortable taking online training and learning by themselves. 3. With the advancement of technology online training has become popular but there is a segment of people who still prefer class-room training over online one.

Incentivized

The features in Affinity Publisher easily stack up against the much more expensive Adobe suite of products. With the ability to open all file types it is a bit of a workhorse for all things. We have been using it for social media template designs as well as client booklets and case studies. It's a very versatile program.

Incentivized

I would use Figma for sure for any product design you need, for any marketing or visual illustrations related to a product or business. Even if the navigation between files/folders and within the design is not the best, the capabilities and focus on designing are the best in the market, vs other tools like Miro.

Incentivized

I think this is great and as I mentioned at ADP we use Figma extensively whether by designers, researchers or content writers

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• The one-time purchase model has saved us approximately 50% compared to subscription software, freeing up budget for other critical business needs.

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• We have the Figma Org Plan subscription on the annual renewal basis, and we use Figma exclusively for all of our digital product design initiatives/projects. As we are still a very small & lean In-house UX/Product Design team, we see the value in using Figma to curate our Design System libraries which allow us to collaborate and partner with our PMs and Engineers quite well on multiple product design & development initiatives.

Incentivized