Why Figma Wins • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Figma Wins

#121

Post by uxcolumbo » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 12:18 AM UTC

httpsterio wrote: post #117

uxcolumbo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible solution to that problem: Have a plugin which could turn the unfinished modal for example into a wireframe look & feel and then when you have the right icon, turn it off again. I remember back in the days Expression Blend had some functionality to apply sketchy lines style (based on Bill Buxton's book - Sketching User Experiences). Also, the prototyping functionality is still rather basic. Axure is much more…

What does RP exactly do that you can't do in Figma? With the right plugins and component libraries, I dare say that Figma is definitely more powerful than Axure's offering.

I use Axure to prototype enterprise apps, i.e. lots of forms and data grids.

Last time I checked, Figma didn’t support interactive form elements or prototyping conditional branching based on what you type in a form field.

Being able to prototype business logic without having to get developers having to develop something, saves a lot time at early stages when you explore new features with business users and you can also iterate faster and it’s better for user testing as well, as it’s more than just clickable hotmapped images.

I know you could achieve the same with Framer, since you get access to the code, so that’s useful for designers who can code.

Axure is great for designers or product folks who can’t code.

Is the above possible in Figma now?

Re: Why Figma Wins

#122

Post by 627467 » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 12:20 AM UTC

Figma is great. The single biggest feature from figma is that it's shared/collaboration oriented by default. This is due to its online nature (compared to installable apps such as sketch, incision and xd).

Not all designers like this, but I love how figma makes work available across design teams, and how components becomes easily usable. I discovered my colleagues work by accident all the time.

Now, all this creates other problems, obviously: now designers also need to maintain interdependent assets just like software dependencies.

Re: Why Figma Wins

#123

Post by jbreiding » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 12:43 AM UTC

nailer wrote: post #45

Figma users: can it export CSS grid? Would love to start using autogenerated HTML/CSS but don't want to go back to 'display: block' and the hacks that invariably come with it.

I think the terminal output is the figma viewer. I have a hard time seeing the point of the role and software if a front end developer has to hand translate the design to actual code or styling.

Re: Why Figma Wins

#124

Post by m4rtink » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:05 AM UTC

Thats simple - they are cute, reasonably expensive and widely posable, opening many photography options. Their equipment is also largely unterchangeable, so the more you have, the more combinations you can get - often definitely unexpected by their authors. And lastly, they cover most of poular anime and games, so there is a good chance you can get your favorite character in a cute poseable form. :)

Oh, you didn't mean the poseable japanese action figures[0] made by the Good Smile Company ?

[0] https://www.goodsmile.info/en/products/category/figma

Re: Why Figma Wins

#125

Post by wyxuan » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:06 AM UTC

coderintherye wrote: post #77

Could any designers here explain why they use Figma instead of Invision? I used Invision before and loved it (as a developer) for collaborating on creating mockups and putting them into reality. Now working with a team that uses Figma and helping them create prototypes is...painful. It seems great for creating the design itself but prototyping has been way harder with it than in Invision. I'm wondering if maybe we're…

InVision has its share of problems.

I'm disappointed in the lack of ability to easily control vectors using the alt key that all the other programs have

plugins are rather lacking, wish they had more plugins in their library.

design to code would routinely lop off things like gradients

lacking in feature parity with figma, sketch Animation features are def a strong point but these and a few other gripes are why I use Figma.

Re: Why Figma Wins

#126

Post by taharvey » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:09 AM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #42

Figma approaches design from an engineer's perspective. They have features like auto layout [0], swapping elements in a list, scaling multiple elements at once while preserving each aspect ratio, and so on. Can you imagine that if designers before this wanted to move an element in a list, they would have to move every single one instead of having some drag and drop swap functionality? That if they wanted to dynamical…

Figma approaches design from an investors point of view.

Like most other web-SaaS tools, they aren't browser based because its better for the user. They sacrifice speed, native functionality, and usability for owning via server-side control over your wallet on a subscription plan.

The startup market in no-longer customer driven. It is investor thesis driven.

Re: Why Figma Wins

#127

Post by greyswan » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:10 AM UTC

httpsterio wrote: post #117

uxcolumbo wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible solution to that problem: Have a plugin which could turn the unfinished modal for example into a wireframe look & feel and then when you have the right icon, turn it off again. I remember back in the days Expression Blend had some functionality to apply sketchy lines style (based on Bill Buxton's book - Sketching User Experiences). Also, the prototyping functionality is still rather basic. Axure is much more…

What does RP exactly do that you can't do in Figma? With the right plugins and component libraries, I dare say that Figma is definitely more powerful than Axure's offering.

Are there powerful prototyping plugins for Figma? I'd love it if the answer is yes.

Axure is horrible for wireframing and a non-starter for visual design, but it has the most powerful prototyping features I've seen by a long shot. Framer is straight up writing React code, so I don't count that as an option for the vast majority of designers.

Re: Why Figma Wins

#128

Post by docuru » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:20 AM UTC

corytheboyd wrote: post #59

vosper wrote: post #31

We use Figma at work, and while it’s a nice tool I think it’s easy to fall (or maybe we just fell) into a kind of uncanny valley. The designs we get are close to realistic mockups of our actual UI, but are often not 100% there, and it’s the little deviations that can be quite distracting. Engineer: So are we changing the nav icons as part of this story, too? Designer: Oh, no, ignore that. I didn’t have our real icon…

I've encountered this as well. I am a proponent of just using low fidelity shapes for mocks instead of high fidelity renderings of what it should actually look like. If you put enough work into the design system, and implemented it well for use in code, all you should NEED is a low fidelity shape telling you where to put existing components, and how to string them together. Everyone already knows what a modal looks l…

This is true.

It makes it really easy to first building a design system (like Bootstrap, Material Designs, Antd,etc). Which are a bunch of components, from basics like headers, list, to modal, message, cards, etc.

Then just place those components into the wireframe.

If anything need to update, it will be updated from the design system, then sync to the project

Re: Why Figma Wins

#129

Post by softwarejosh » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:25 AM UTC

greyswan wrote: post #39

corytheboyd wrote: post #12

Not a comment about Figma really, but it has unfortunately become a trigger word for me. These are my observations from working with tech startup companies as a software engineer. Software solutions will never fix problems that are caused by people. Sketch, Figma, whatever the next design tool is. Google Docs, Quip, Notion. Trello, Pivotal Tracker, GitHub/ZenHub, Jira. I've gone through tool-switching fatigue with al…

My uncle had a successful career in advertising. He would always say to me, "don't be just a wrist." He meant participate in guiding the concept and strategy instead of just being an execution person. I've been in the design industry for 15 years now. When I was starting out, there was a flurry of philosophizing about design. There was a belief that designers should focus on solving problems instead of just making sl…

Anecdotes like this are rarely widely seen, maybe its your companies hiring or your location?

Re: Why Figma Wins

#130

Post by sizzle » Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 1:34 AM UTC

Can anyone explain why adobe XD's platform isn't dominating the design tools discussion?

They keep improving it with the backing of Adobe (army of devs) and the expertise of creative cloud, along with their community design plugins and remote collab features they just added to the platform. I'm able to quickly mock up designs with ease.