One year in Fig. On the pros and cons of a design tool subjectively



    Last year I use Figma. Most likely you already heard about it. In this article, I will describe the disadvantages and advantages, based on personal observations. All that has been said will be subjective. I started using Figma at a time when the logic of working with components was very crude. During the year, evolution almost imperceptibly occurred. Today, elements within a component interact with each other in a more logical and orderly manner. However, there are still flaws ...

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    Evolution is not possible without consumer involvement.


    The Figma team is listening to us users, which means we have faith in the ideal tool that Figma might eventually turn into. Using the example of my own product, I managed to notice how much the productivity of the environment has grown over the past few months.

    They apparently did not expect so many components


    When I developed my first design system at Figma earlier this year, I ran into a performance threshold. “Oops, it seems they didn’t expect so many components,” I thought, after another long wait, until my product resets the primary color for all the templates. It is used in over a hundred components.

    I literally felt performance improvements


    Gradually, in the process of developing my system, I began to notice that many processes in Figma began to occur faster. Since I constantly had to change a million little things for many objects, I immediately recorded the moments when it began to happen faster. Then even faster. Then again. They obviously optimized something, as if there was no reason before. Figma is a cool product, but not without flaws. I will list three main ones, which in my opinion reduce the speed of work:

    Lack of global colors


    Until now, it is necessary to invest color as a component in each module in order to get a design system that is flexible for customization. They are already working on it, but nonetheless. I believe that introducing global colors can greatly improve the performance of a bulk atomic system. Hundreds of components will get rid of an extra nested element that needs to be redrawn whenever you change the color scheme.

    No search on local components


    The search becomes available only after publication in the team library. Let's say this is acceptable for teams. But unacceptable for a freelancer who wants to use his design system for his own clients. He clones it for a new client and quickly customizes it according to his requests. And he, by the way, also needs a search. And the features of the team are absolutely not needed.

    Without searching, working in the 'Components' tab (Alt-2) becomes extremely difficult if you operate among 500+ modules.


    Hard work in Instance if there are many components


    This becomes important when there are many components, and they have many similar duplicates, but with minor changes. For example, a dozen cards, hundreds of icons. You cannot quickly find the desired card module in the drop-down list if they are called Card 1, 2, 3, 4 .... N. And not a very good idea to turn the name of the component into its description.

    Honestly, I would not like to scare you with these shortcomings. I understand perfectly well that the development team has a gigantic to-do list and all customers cannot be satisfied, trying to fulfill everyone’s wishes. After all, the company has to balance between moving along its own business trajectory and between hundreds of new requests, which daily update the Feature request section in the chat. There are a lot of pluses, I note only those that cause delight for me personally.

    Components


    The very principle of the components is amazing. For example, you shift any element inside a component and it shifts in tens or hundreds of subordinates. Mass editing in just 3-5 actions.

    Smart stick


    Snap is so well thought out and sensitive that you can work with many objects at once at a great distance. You will move and move them and not worry that they will not get into the grid.

    Smart highlight


    I highlight a lot of objects and I'm not afraid to miss, because The selection is saved in the action history. And if you combine the selection with the Ctrl / Alt keys, many routine actions go into semi-automatic mode.

    As stated at the very beginning, everything said is subjective. Today we already have a great opportunity to choose a design tool for our soul and preferences! And I am confident in the future of these opportunities will become even greater.

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