Real-Time Collaboration with Figma is a Gem (With Some Issues)
April 22, 2019
Real-Time Collaboration with Figma is a Gem (With Some Issues)
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Figma
Currently, Figma is being used pretty rarely at our organization. However, we’ve used it in the past when we’ve been searching for a less expensive, web-based solution that allows for real-time collaboration. We’ve run into some collaboration issues with other products that don’t enable real-time co-working, like Adobe XD, so we’re considering ways we might use Figma in our design efforts when we want to work with remote designers who aren’t necessarily full-time members of our organization (e.g. contractors).
- No installation needed! Functioning fully within a web browser, Figma can save on computer storage. And as an editor/designer, all the free space I can have is very much valued.
- Figma allows for real-time collaboration. This is the best part of this product, as it removes some of the issues of designing "in a vacuum" when your designers are often working remotely.
- Figma allows for ease of sharing and facilitating design feedback loops. Instead of having to use a plugin to a tool like InVision, we can quickly receive feedback within Figma and know that our comments are safely stored in the same place as the original designs.
- With larger files, Figma tends to run a little slowly. This was sometimes problematic because a lot of our designs do involve large files.
- No built-in animation tools (you have to use the Principle integration). We’re starting to involve small animations in our designs, and Figma’s lack of this type of functionality made it difficult to have an in-app solution to creating prototypes with animations. We are reluctant to take on another tool for the sake of integration when other products have this feature built in.
- Offline use is risky -- if the internet drops out, then one must keep the screen open until the internet reconnects. This may not be a big issue for people living in more urban places, but sometimes having the internet go out can be a regular occurrence for many designers on staff.
- Lots of saved time and energy by being able to have feedback loops in the same program that stores the designs. We don’t have to use multiple programs to have a conversation about a single design.
- It took significant time to onboard designers who were primarily familiar with the interface of Adobe programs to Figma. Because we primarily use Adobe programs, this took a lot of time that we could have spent creating and iterating.
Figma enables people to create designs AND collaborate. The difficulty of keeping all of the feedback on a design in one place (or tracking it down!) can be difficult when working with other programs, and Figma facilitates the ability to have streamlined feedback loops all in one place. Plus, there’s a Team Library functionality that enables designers to access designs for iteration or inspiration, which is also a helpful feature that is missing in other programs. However, this program’s interface is less clear than others’, the program doesn’t always provide ease in integration with other apps, and the program can just be laggy if you’re working with larger files (that would otherwise typically not cause an issue in other programs).