Figma for Designers: Collaborative UI Design and Prototyping

Figma is a browser-based design tool that’s become the industry standard for UI design and prototyping. It runs entirely in your browser (with an optional desktop app), which means real-time collaboration is built into everything you do. If you’ve worked with Sketch, you’ll find Figma familiar, but the multiplayer aspect changes how design teams work together.

Key Specs

How Designers Use Figma

Figma adapts to different stages of the design process. Here’s how designers apply it to common workflows.

For UI Mockups

Start with frames (Figma’s artboards) and build interfaces using auto-layout for responsive behavior. Most designers work with a component library, either their own or a community UI kit, dragging in buttons, inputs, and cards rather than recreating them. Use the constraints system to make designs adapt to different screen sizes without manual adjustments.

For Prototyping

Connect frames with prototype links to create clickable flows. Add transitions like smart animate to show how elements move between states. Figma’s prototyping isn’t as powerful as dedicated tools like Principle or ProtoPie, but it’s good enough for most user testing and stakeholder presentations. The convenience of having everything in one tool is hard to beat.

For Design Systems

Build components with variants to handle different states (default, hover, disabled) and properties (size, color). Publish to a shared library so your team can drag components into any file. Figma’s variables feature lets you define design tokens for colors, spacing, and typography that update everywhere when changed.

For Developer Handoff

Dev Mode gives engineers a dedicated view with CSS properties, spacing measurements, and asset export. Developers can inspect any element without accidentally moving things. When designs change, devs see a visual diff of what’s different.

Figma vs. Alternatives

How does Figma compare to other popular design tools? Here’s a quick breakdown.

Choose Figma if: You work on a team, need cross-platform access, or want the largest community of resources and plugins.

Choose Sketch if: You’re a solo Mac user who values native app performance and prefers working offline.

Choose Adobe XD if: You’re already paying for Creative Cloud and need tight integration with Photoshop and Illustrator.

Getting Started with Figma

A 15-minute quick start to get you designing:

Step 1: Create your first frame

Press F to select the frame tool, then pick a preset size from the right panel (iPhone 14, Desktop, etc.) or drag to create a custom size. Frames are Figma’s artboards: containers for your designs.

Step 2: Build with auto-layout

Select multiple elements and press Shift + A to wrap them in auto-layout. This makes your designs responsive. Add or remove items and the layout adjusts automatically. Set padding, gap, and alignment in the right panel.

Step 3: Create a component

Select a button or card you want to reuse, then press Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + K to create a component. Drag copies from the assets panel. Edit the main component and all instances update. This is the foundation of scalable design.

Figma in Your Design Workflow

Figma rarely works in isolation. Here’s how it connects to the tools designers use before, during, and after the UI design phase.

• Before Figma: Whiteboarding in FigJam, user research in Dovetail or Notion, wireframing in Whimsical or on paper
• During design: Figma for UI, pulling stock photos from Unsplash, icons from Iconify plugins, and illustrations from community files
• After Figma: Handoff via Dev Mode, exporting assets, syncing to Storybook, or handing specs to Zeplin for teams not on Figma

Common tool pairings:

• Figma + FigJam for ideation workshops before diving into detailed UI
• Figma + Notion for design documentation and specs that live alongside product docs
• Figma + Storybook for connecting design components to coded component libraries
• Figma + Maze for running usability tests directly on Figma prototypes

Common Problems (and How to Fix Them)

These issues come up regularly in design communities. Here’s how to solve them.

“Figma is slow with large files”

Figma runs in a browser tab limited to 2GB of memory. When your file approaches this limit, performance degrades. Fix it by breaking large projects into multiple linked files, reducing image sizes before import, deleting hidden layers you don’t need, and minimizing component variants. Check file size in the Figma menu. Anything over 100MB will likely have issues.

“I can’t work offline”

Figma requires an internet connection. There’s no true offline mode. If you lose connection while editing, changes queue up and sync when you reconnect, but you can’t open new files. If offline work is critical, consider Sketch or keep exported copies for reference.

“My components are a mess”

Start with a clear naming convention: Category/Type/Variant (e.g., Button/Primary/Default). Use component properties instead of creating separate components for each state. Keep your main components in a dedicated “Components” page, not scattered across design files.

“Dev handoff is confusing”

Enable Dev Mode for developers. It’s a separate view that shows code snippets and measurements without the editing interface. Use sections to organize handoff areas, and leave design specs as comments on the canvas. Link to specific frames rather than entire files.