Figma & Worköholics, the perfect tandem of collaborative design

At Worköholics we use multiple tools in our day to day: AB Tasty, Mattermost, Visual Studio Code, Trello, numerous Google applications, Metricool... But Figma takes the cake. For this reason, all the people on the team know and use, to a greater or lesser extent, this vector graphics editor focused mainly on product, UX and UI designers.

Why Figma and not another collaborative design tool?

There was a time when we needed to have an operating system or a specific application to view some files. And this was a problem for us.

However, Figma is a primarily web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool, with additional offline features enabled by desktop applications on macOS and Windows. This means that we can use it from the application and from any web browser, regardless of the system. In fact, we consider this to be one of its greatest advantages over the competitors, since *it is the most accessible+.

And that is precisely what we are dedicated to at Worköholics, +to designing easy-to-use digital products that are accessible to everyone*. So, how could we not then bet on a tool in tune with our way of understanding the world?

And that's why we decided to migrate to Figma.

Collaborative work is in our blood

On the other hand, like Worköholics does, Figma understands design as a collaborative process that must be agile and productive, something that it has successfully transferred to the experience of its product. How?

• People can simultaneously work on the same file, see what they are doing, comment, etc.

• It works in the cloud, in the same way that it happens for example with Google Docs, the files are synchronized in real time and there is no risk of “stepping on” other file versions.

• Provides the ability to read drawable properties in CSS, iOS, and Android code, improving workflow with developers.

• Anyone with access to the file is able to export resources in different formats and sizes.

And if that wasn't enough, there are component and style libraries to fall back on when needed, making design and development work even easier.

Regarding the learning curve of Figma, we can say that compared to other applications, it has an exponential growth. In other words, you can learn the basic concepts of the tool and expand your knowledge as new needs arise in your day-to-day life. In addition, Figma has a guide on its website -in text and video format- where you can find tutorials and understand all its features.

Figma & Worköholics, why do we form a perfect tandem?

The Worköholics design team has been using Figma as a collaborative work tool for about 4 years. Throughout this time, the rest of the teams -communication, marketing and development, mainly- have been using the tool together with the design team, in a very different way, depending on the needs of each one:

• The commentators: the communication and marketing team, in charge of proposing the copies, reviewing the content and carrying out the UX Writing. They usually use the comments to request or suggest modifications that the design team then transfers to the screens.

• The observers: the development team, because they do not go beyond the role of "viewer", they are dedicated to navigating between the layers of the files to extract the properties and resources that they must transfer to the code.

• The editors: the design team, who are the people in charge of doing the “wireframing”, the prototyping, the adaptations, the changes, etc.

In addition, we usually provide internal training so that the entire team is as qualified as possible and because knowledge always tastes better when it is shared.

Recently, for example, we detected the need to provide basic Figma training for the entire agency, where doubts were resolved and the following aspects were explained at an initiation level:

• The interface: Figma and Figjam, the panels, commands, views...
• The different modes or permissions on the files and their possibilities.
• How to share the files.
• Possible alerts or errors.
• The objects.
• The options when exporting and how to do it correctly.

In certain cases we put it into practice with exercises to better internalize its use and some basic concepts.

And as icing on the cake, we cannot leave without mentioning one of the most advanced aspects: the Figma community and the plugins. The Figma community is a space where any user can post their files so that the rest can see, download, edit them... And the plugins, add-ons also developed by the community so that anyone who wishes can install them in their application; its purpose is none other than to improve the experience, the workflow, etc.

Hands to Figma, we continue working.