Capabilities

Figma is a collaborative interface design tool that’s taking the design world by storm. Unlike Sketch, which runs as a standalone MacOS app, Figma is entirely browser-based, and therefore works not only on Macs, but also on PCs running Windows or Linux, and even on Chromebooks. It also offers a web API, and it’s free! Another big advantage of Figma is that it allows real-time collaboration on the same file. When using conventional “offline” apps like Sketch and Photoshop, if designers want to share their work, they typically have to export it to an image file, then send it via email or instant message. In Figma, instead of exporting static images, we can simply share a link to the Figma file for clients and colleagues to open in their browser. This in itself saves significant time and inconvenience in a designer’s workflow. But more importantly, it means that clients and colleagues can interact more richly with the work, and review the latest version of the file.