Figma vs. Microsoft Visio

Figma is a solid design tool to craft the UX design concepts/solutions for digital products. For printed marketing materials such as brochures, marketing flyers, press releases, etc, other design tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign might make more sense to use for those use case scenarios.

Incentivized

Given the versatility and diversity of the diagrams that can be created with Microsoft Visio, we use this tool for the most diverse activities. With our students, we use it to organize group activities and manage the tasks that everyone has to complete. In research groups, we use it to divide tasks and create organization charts. For research activities, especially the more complex ones carried out, for example, in PhD programmes, the diagrams allow us to display all the work phases graphically.

• 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

• Visio comes with icons that can help differentiate processes within a map. These can be used to be a legend and helps create a visually appealing flow.
• Visio is user-friendly and allows the user to easily navigate through the different creative options that can be used.
• Because this is a Microsoft product, Visio works well with other Microsoft products for easy translation.

Incentivized

• 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

• For me personally I cannot highlight anything specific that has any bearing on how I use the product. Everything is very straightforward and clearly signposted including template desgins and categories. The layout is easy to navigate and as it's part of the MS Office ecosystem means there is less to learn as I'm used to a lot of the cross product functionality.

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

We use Microsoft Visio to keep our diagrams updated and to that end we will need the subscription to keep using the software. Otherwise we will be left with PDF versions of the diagrams.

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.

Incentivized

I think Microsoft Visio is pretty easy to initially pick up and understand the user interface to dive into make basic models. It would be nice if there were some fit for purpose templates so that not as much time needs to be spent on some types of engineering diagram structure. Trying to work on a single Visio file with multiple team members is also a sticking point.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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

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

Overall, I feel that Microsoft's support is weak. They are now such a behemoth that their model of putting documentation online for their users to sift through is totally outgrown. Given the amount of money you pay for these licenses, Microsoft should provide easy one-on-one support for their products via email or chat. The idea of paying their rates for support incidents is ridiculous. If you have an enormous amount of time on your hands, use their support websites and you will eventually find a solution most of the time.

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

Figma compared to other tools has user friendly UI which is very easy for all levels of designers. Compared to Adobe XD and Sketch Figma is stable, while in other tools I have faced software crashing in the middle of the work which resulted in loss of data/design. Compared to other tools it's fast and shows less lag. Collaboration in Figma is very easy as it is cloud based but in XD it's not that smooth working with other designers.

Incentivized

Even though it’s a more expensive solution, Vizio is built for the enterprise. Therefore, it integrates perfectly with our existing Microsoft stack, and quite frankly, because it’s such a more mature product, it provides exactly the functionality we need and expect.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• Allows us to get funding for further phases of the project (which is uncountable)
• Well, it lets us show off when needed due to well suited UI-oriented character
• Easily approachable by anyone (browser use)
• User friendly interface
• More advanced cooperation requires some of the users to have a license

Incentivized

• Visio diagrams have help us streamline processes that reduce costs and improve efficiencies.
• It is a very complete program, it allows you to make industrial and civil works diagrams. It also allows you to design 3D graphics. It is a very reliable program.
• Its ability to work with vectors is a big plus. It can easily import SVG graphics, edit their individual lines and then being able to export the edited SVG again.

Incentivized