59 comments

  • Chris CampbellChris Campbell, 8 years ago

    If this is the future of design, I'm changing careers.

    45 points
  • Jorge MartinsJorge Martins, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

    Tried the collaborative feature, and it's similar to atomic (not like google docs as it sounds from the video). You save -> your colleague gets it in the last state or seek trough the history -> open and continue from there. It looks more useful for tracking 'who did what' in the history of the file.

    the performance seems great (made a lot of layers and worked really smooth), the UI it's pretty similar to sketch, so the learning curve is very low.

    for a web-based tool, looks promising.

    PS: at least the line-height works as expected (yes, I'm looking at you Sketch)

    21 points
  • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 8 years ago

    Hey all — I'm Dylan Field, the CEO and co-founder of Figma. It's really great to see this discussion happening; the reason we launched today is because we want to engage the design community and make sure we're solving the right problems. If you have any questions, just ask — we're excited to answer!

    15 points
    • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

      What kind of data sources Figma will support in 1.0? Given the fact it's a web tool that works only online I'd expect something to take advantage of it otherwise it would be kinda dumb online vector editor for making nice Facebook cover images.

      My other questions would be how are you going to convince me that designing in browser is better than a native desktop app?

      1 point
      • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 8 years ago

        Hi, Robin!

        Not exactly sure what you mean by "data sources."

        If you mean file formats, you can import / export JPG, PNG and SVG files. We also support import of Sketch files.

        If you mean connecting with APIs and designing with data, that's something we're thinking a lot about right now. (But this isn't in the product yet.)

        The only way I can convince you is by giving you access to Figma :) Just followed you on Twitter; DM me your email and I'll send you an invite to check it out!

        0 points
    • Calvin WilsonCalvin Wilson, 8 years ago

      Hi Dylan, Thanks for taking the time :) I noticed a glimpse of adaptive design layouts within the product. After reading Josh Puckett's articles on modern design tools, it's refreshing to see some of this modern applications in a real product. Looking forward to trying it out.

      My only question is, aside from the collaborative aspects, how does Figma intend to contribute to the progress of modern design? What does it bring to the table that we don't already have?

      Cheers!

      1 point
      • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 8 years ago

        Calvin, great question. We have so many ideas, some of which we've already implemented, others of which are in concept phase.

        The two things I'll talk about here shouldn't be too surprising; basically, it's what you've read about in Josh's articles. We're big fans of Josh Puckett.

        One feature we're really excited about (and have built) is constraints. Constraints allows you to define relationships between objects and their containing frame. (Frames are similar to artboards, except they can nest and rotate.) In addition to constraining objects to the edges of a frame, you can also constrain objects to the columns of a flexible grid that changes size responsively.

        Another feature we're thinking about — but haven't built yet — is a way to link data to your design. A lot of big companies (Facebook, YouTube, etc) already have plugins which let designers test out different strings, images, etc in their designs. We see this as something we can make way easier for all designers.

        While I wouldn't consider this "modern," we've also made foundational improvements to vector editing. The Path model hasn't changed in over 25 years, and we think we've figured out a better way to draw vector shapes.

        What would you like to see?

        1 point
        • Calvin WilsonCalvin Wilson, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

          Excellent! I can def see the value there. With regard to using data, you're probably more than familar with Framer. Using data in a code based environment seems pretty natural. I'm curious to see how you all approach utilizing data in a heavy GUI environment.

          And, yes I'd love to check it out! I requested an invite already if that helps

          EDIT:

          As an aside, I'd also note that collaboration is a huge deal, whether it's collaborative design or just getting feedback, I find anything that helps this process greatly beneficial. The only concerns I'd have is adoption. I can only use so many tools.

          0 points
    • Nye YarringtonNye Yarrington, 8 years ago

      As a developer on the backed of a Sketch > Zeplin.io flow, what will FIgma do to help me? Biggest issue with Zeplin is that it's conceived as one-way flow of info, with no way to question the design comp itself. Are you providing more than Hex colors, Font specs & block dimensions? If so, how can we use Figma to converge faster on the correct implementation? Thanks.

      1 point
      • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 8 years ago

        Hi, Nye! In addition to inspecting hex colors / fonts / spacing, you can also leave comments in Figma and have conversations about the design in real time. Is this useful for your workflow? Or are you getting at something else with your question?

        0 points
        • Nye YarringtonNye Yarrington, 8 years ago

          Biggest time waste has been getting responsive design elements implemented correctly from Sketch/Zeplin, so the "auto-layout" features you mention in a subsequent comment below need to be visible and actionable to developers. Second biggest time waste has been around dynamic aspects of the design; perhaps this is out of scope of Figma (you're working from 2D Sketch files...) but something like the InVision screen transition mark-up would be nice to include in any spec to developers.

          For what it's worth, the other biggest time wasters have been implementing custom dialog behavior, and dynamic table layout. I'd be keen to learn more about how you help with those specific design elements. Thanks!

          0 points
      • Harish KumarHarish Kumar, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

        nye, you can also leave comments in zeplin..

        1 point
    • Ivan UvarovIvan Uvarov, 8 years ago

      Hey! This looks really exciting! Would you mind sharing an invite so I could try it out?

      0 points
    • Marcus ZanonaMarcus Zanona, 8 years ago

      Hey Dylan, what an awesome idea you guys had. I have been using Sketch for quite a while now and it's always an issue when I want to work on the responsive side because it somehow makes me feel I am losing more time than I should have to re-create another Artboard and duplicating the elements. Symbols on sketch are not perfect yet, so it won't allow too many customisations there. Not to mention the friction between Avocode or Zeplin.

      Are you guys also thinking about implementing prototyping features such as Adobe Atomic project?

      Anyway, congrats again for the great job; I have signed up for the preview release and am really looking forward to get to try Figma as soon as possible :)

      0 points
      • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 8 years ago

        Thank you, Marcus! Just added you to the Preview Release.

        Right now we're focusing on the very large surface area we've already committed to covering and we're hoping to integrate tightly with applications like Flinto and Framer.

        2 points
        • Marcus ZanonaMarcus Zanona, 8 years ago

          Thanks Dylan, I will give it a try right away. For prototyping I meant that instead of integrating with apps such as Flinto or Frame, that would be nice to have those features built-in into the app so you can also prototype straight from Figma, just like Adobe Comet is planning to do. Thanks again.

          0 points
    • Jamie LovelaceJamie Lovelace, 8 years ago

      We're currently redesigning our whole UI, would love to give this a go!

      0 points
  • Josh LeeJosh Lee, 8 years ago

    Collaborative design sounds awful.

    The only, I mean the only, reason I would want to try this is making it easier for engineers to get at the assets and constraints.

    15 points
    • Jonathan SimcoeJonathan Simcoe, 8 years ago

      You know, now that you mention it. The video of that lady pwning the other girl's work real-time is kinda weird.

      Maybe this isn't such a good idea. Atomic has the ability for multiple designers to be in at the same time but they don't really pitch it in the same way as a collaborative environment.

      7 points
    • Gabe WillGabe Will, 8 years ago

      That was the first thought that occurred to me, too. I mean, I don't even want others watching me type within Google Docs.

      7 points
    • Account deleted 8 years ago

      "Designing with client" would be "awesome" ;) lol

      Nice product, but I always choose native app over browser based (more performance/accessibility).

      0 points
  • Vlad Danilov, 8 years ago

    Figma expectations

    13 points
  • Christian BehrensChristian Behrens, 8 years ago

    This sounds like my very worst nightmare.

    Can’t wait for version 2.0: "Now you can invite your clients to make changes on your design files – in real time!"

    7 points
  • Callil CapuozzoCallil Capuozzo, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

    I've started using it and it's really impressive so far. I fully believe the web is the future and figma embodies it.

    7 points
  • Jonathan SimcoeJonathan Simcoe, 8 years ago

    This tool looks amazing. Thanks for sharing!

    7 points
  • Jonathan ShariatJonathan Shariat, 8 years ago

    Looking forward to trying it out. Collaborative editing looks interesting.

    6 points
  • Tyson KingsburyTyson Kingsbury, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

    to me, the colab aspect of this is only interesting in that all stake holders have access to the original work....it's a pain when you're working in photoshop and have to deal with a) marketing folks that don't know how to use it, and b) developers who don't use it at all.... would be pretty excellent to be able to do all your design work in a tool like this, and have it shared equally with everyone, so the marketing team could have their input (ie branding etc) and the dev team can see it for accurate measurements and elements etc.... I'd be down with using this....big time....

    edit.

    just sent the link to our Product Manager and lead developer... waiting to see what their interest is... as for me, I'm thinking this looks great :)

    5 points
  • Kris KimKris Kim, 8 years ago

    So many collaboration tools are popping up everyday. Now I just need a fellow designer to collaborate with :(

    4 points
  • Abhijeet WankhadeAbhijeet Wankhade, 8 years ago

    Do I need internet to run this?

    3 points
  • Mark Louie Espedido, 8 years ago

    Looking forward to this collaborative tool. But I was wondering if there is a way to prevent Tina from tightening a titch (account permissions or spectator-mode)?

    0 points
  • Account deleted 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

    Looks cool. But, do we really more design tools?

    0 points
  • Rick LanceeRick Lancee, 8 years ago

    Finally you can do design work online, the way it should have been all along.

    It should have been, why? I do alot of stuff offline while traveling. Does this mean you have to be online???

    Work on any operating system. [Icon of mac and windows]

    Where is linux then?

    0 points
  • Alexander Adam, 8 years ago

    This looks really nice, looking forward to try it out. I am really happy that there's another vendor on this field of browser based design tools as I think that this is definitely the future. We've been working on Gravit (http://www.gravit.io) since roughly about one year and its already very powerful considering its based on pure web technology so I am excited to see how this compares.

    0 points
  • Michael CookMichael Cook, 8 years ago

    Really excited about this, especially the constraint system. I've been using Antetype because of how amazing it is to design with flexible objects but the software is moving so slowly and outdated in so many ways.

    I'm teach design stuff part time at a small highschool. They running on chromebooks so there hasn't been any good way to explore vector design stuff, but this could be what I've been waiting for. Very much looking forward to trying it out.

    0 points
    • Dylan FieldDylan Field, 8 years ago

      That's awesome, Michael — just added you to the Preview Release. If you want more invites for your students, ping us over Intercom; we would love to help!

      0 points
  • Mathieu MayerMathieu Mayer, 8 years ago

    Signed up to get access.

    Not so sure about the collaborative aspect; I mean, could be useful but I'm not missing it too much in the current state of my workflow.

    Now, the auto-layout feature is something I'm super interested about. Always wondered why Sketch hasn't done it yet.

    Congrats to the team working on this. Looking forward to trying it out!

    0 points