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My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the though

My heart plummeted when I read this headline. I've done UI design work in some capacity for 18 years, and have always dreamed of design software with the thoughtful UI and features of Figma. When I realized Figma was that software, it was like experiencing a miracle. Software like this doesn't exist. It was the first design software I paid for (yes, in 18 years). And now it's going to die. I almost feel like crying.

Kelteseth 4y ago
You should try out Affinity Designer, the one time fee of 40 euros is a no brainer. I use it since 2017 for my UI designs.
- pier25 4y ago
  I've tried Designer and I just hate how it handles groups. Illustrator seems to be the only vector software that does groups right these days.
roflyear 4y ago
Adobe is a shit company. It is criminal how hard it is to cancel a subscription.
jansan 4y ago
What is the great feature of Figma? I tried to use it for illustration and it did not feel great at all compared to software like Affinity Designer. How were you using it that it feels like such a great loss to you?
- ryanSrich 4y ago
  Product (software specifically) design is where Figma shines. Auto layout, prototyping, etc. are second to none. Sketch had all of these features for years, but Figma’s implementation and depth of execution is unrivaled.
- nobleach 4y ago
  Figma's biggest strength is in UI design. Open illustration, while possible is not so great. (I still love Illustrator for this purpose, others may disagree or have other favorite tools). Figma allows UX/UI designers to speak a congruent language with UI developers. A design system or component library can be mutually understood. Things like, "we're using our 80% gray button here" can be very easily communicated. That's not at all impossible in other tools, Figma just takes it to a very nice level.
- happytoexplain 4y ago
  Not illustration - design (UI design, specifically). It's fantastic for maintaining styles/themes, collaborating, iconographic design, flows, and especially composable/configurable/modular UI components. The components are one of the standouts for me, as compared to other software. They are more powerful, and yet somehow less confusing/complex than in other software. In general, I always run into some kind of limitation or bug or confusing behavior in other software - Figma has by far given me the least trouble. They obviously have both enormously talented designers and enormously talented engineers in charge. Also, they appear to actually think about what the team-based UI design pipeline looks like in practice. Edit: As others have pointed out, it's not so much the existence of a feature that's missing from other software - it's the design and implementation of features. Edit: Their autolayout implementation is incredible. And their tutorial videos! My god, they're incredibly discoverable and informative and SHORT. I'm going to stop because I could keep coming back and adding edits to this comment all day.
  - jansan 4y ago
    Thank you (and the others). I seem to have completely missed the whole purpose of Figma.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Figma is mostly used for website and app prototyping. It's very popular because it allows for multi-user collaboration, like a Google doc. Older prototyping tools like Invision or Sketch did not have this, and it was a major differentiator. You can create different screens and set up click points, such as a button. Clicking the button navigates you to another screen in your design. This is called "interactive prototyping". Figma puts these interactive prototypes on the web, so designers can create a visual prototype that can be tested on mobile and desktop devices. It's more realistic than simply looking at pictures of mockups. The biggest advantage is that it does not require developers to write working code and deploy a whole app just to click around and test it out.
- digitalengineer 4y ago
  Things like this make us SUPER valuable and fast: https://www.uiprep.com/ https://www.uiprep.com/
apozem 4y ago
I don't think Figma is going to die. It'll be bundled as part of the Creative Suite. It'll add buttons to quickly export your designs to PhotoShop or Illustrator or whatever. It'll probably get slower and clunkier. Not death, just... Adobe.
- afavour 4y ago
  So a slow death, then. I'm old enough to remember when Adobe acquired Macromedia. They slapped some new icons on Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash etc. then completely neglected them until people abandoned them. I pray Figma fares better.
  - apocalyptic0n3 4y ago
    In this case, I think it will. Adobe has been trying to build their own version of Figma for like 5 years. If anything, this probably means the end of XD and maybe their web versions of Photoshop. The Macromedia acquisition was a little different – Fireworks was an inferior Photoshop competitor, Freehand an inferior Illustrator competitor, Dreamweaver was outside of their core business, Flash actually got decent support until the world itself moved on from it (and Adobe mistakenly believed it could survive as closed source), and the rest of the portfolio didn't have much value. In Figma's case, it's actually a superior competitor to XD and even Photoshop in a lot of use cases, and it's figured out the web-based design environment that Adobe has tried repeatedly to do with mixed results. I'd be surprised if they decided to shutter Figma. Now... ruin it by adding a bunch of crap nobody wants like Adobe does with every other product? Pretty likely. But I don't think they'll do what they did to Macromedia. I could be wrong, though.
    - geerlingguy 4y ago
      Fireworks was completely focused on web graphics, and Photoshop couldn't hold a candle to it for that use case. I used photoshop for touching up photos and generating things, then fireworks for cutting up and exporting the graphics, in a time before browsers could take practically anything and CMSes would autogenerate versions for different uses. Also, Dreamweaver was heads and shoulders above GoLive or whatever that app was Adobe was pedaling for web page design at the time. It lost its edge once Adobe adopted it as their main web page editing app.
apollokami 4y ago
Figma was really one of a kind. Back to Sketch I suppose.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Yep. Sketch can feel limited compared to Figma (I hate that they need iOS Mirror app instead of being able to access interactive prototypes on the web), but I love that they are a desktop app and you don't have to keep paying forever.
  - Wintamute 4y ago
    You've been able to play Sketch prototypes on the web for a few years already, also they just released a new iPhone app that lets you preview prototypes and docs. Their iOS Mirror app is pretty much deprecated now I think
    - rchaud 4y ago
      Last I checked, I couldn't access the prototypes on a mobile device that wasn't iOS. I just need Sketch to publish the prototype to a publicly accessible web URL like Figma does. When I needed to do usability testing, I had to use a third party service called Marvel that imports the mockups and publishes them to a web page on their domain.
rchaud 4y ago
See, if this was local software that you could buy once and keep forever, an event like this would not have felt so full of foreboding. On cloud-based web apps, there is no opt-out short of ceasing use of the program entirely. Don't want their new features? Too bad, we're going to roll them out anyway, and there is no turning back after that. I'm still puttering along just fine on a copy of Office 2010, so my opinions may not be representative of the majority.
- tstrimple 4y ago
  If this was local software, you'd lose out on most of the collaborative benefits that Figma provides. That collaboration, especially with guest accounts is one of the reasons for the explosive growth and popularity. If this was a buy it once tool that required IT support for collaboration it wouldn't have nearly this growth trajectory or industry adoption.
  - shaan7 4y ago
    You can make local software with collaboration support. It is possible to make Figma so that you can do your design locally even if your Internet is kaput.
    - hk__2 4y ago
      > You can make local software with collaboration support You still need to have someone maintain the central server that serves as the single source of truth.
      - badsectoracula 4y ago
        The central server only needs to handle shared data - and we already have plenty of protocols for that so that there can be multiple companies that provide that service or, if you prefer, allow you to self host. URLs can handle the rest, this is why they exist after all.
- tgv 4y ago
itronitron 4y ago
I never understood the appeal of Figma, or even it's use case. Can someone explain it to me?
- nlh 4y ago
  If you're a UI designer and you work on a remote team, Figma makes it incredibly easy to both build and share your designs with your teammates. It runs entirely in a browser and was built from the start for sharing, so you can jump into a design file and see and share the latest work in real time. It is to design as Google Docs or Sheets was to Word or Excel. No more passing around files - everything just works in the browser.
  - smilespray 4y ago
    And it's fast and doesn't come with 30 000 features you don't need, like support for print design.
- elliekelly 4y ago
  Yes, Figma’s appeal is that it was not owned by Adobe.
cush 4y ago
Looks like Adobe is getting you back for pirating their software for 18 years

Kelteseth 4y ago

You should try out Affinity Designer, the one time fee of 40 euros is a no brainer. I use it since 2017 for my UI designs.

pier25 4y ago
I've tried Designer and I just hate how it handles groups. Illustrator seems to be the only vector software that does groups right these days.

roflyear 4y ago

Adobe is a shit company. It is criminal how hard it is to cancel a subscription.

jansan 4y ago

What is the great feature of Figma? I tried to use it for illustration and it did not feel great at all compared to software like Affinity Designer. How were you using it that it feels like such a great loss to you?

ryanSrich 4y ago
Product (software specifically) design is where Figma shines. Auto layout, prototyping, etc. are second to none. Sketch had all of these features for years, but Figma’s implementation and depth of execution is unrivaled.
nobleach 4y ago
Figma's biggest strength is in UI design. Open illustration, while possible is not so great. (I still love Illustrator for this purpose, others may disagree or have other favorite tools). Figma allows UX/UI designers to speak a congruent language with UI developers. A design system or component library can be mutually understood. Things like, "we're using our 80% gray button here" can be very easily communicated. That's not at all impossible in other tools, Figma just takes it to a very nice level.
happytoexplain 4y ago
Not illustration - design (UI design, specifically). It's fantastic for maintaining styles/themes, collaborating, iconographic design, flows, and especially composable/configurable/modular UI components. The components are one of the standouts for me, as compared to other software. They are more powerful, and yet somehow less confusing/complex than in other software. In general, I always run into some kind of limitation or bug or confusing behavior in other software - Figma has by far given me the least trouble. They obviously have both enormously talented designers and enormously talented engineers in charge. Also, they appear to actually think about what the team-based UI design pipeline looks like in practice. Edit: As others have pointed out, it's not so much the existence of a feature that's missing from other software - it's the design and implementation of features. Edit: Their autolayout implementation is incredible. And their tutorial videos! My god, they're incredibly discoverable and informative and SHORT. I'm going to stop because I could keep coming back and adding edits to this comment all day.
- jansan 4y ago
  Thank you (and the others). I seem to have completely missed the whole purpose of Figma.
rchaud 4y ago
Figma is mostly used for website and app prototyping. It's very popular because it allows for multi-user collaboration, like a Google doc. Older prototyping tools like Invision or Sketch did not have this, and it was a major differentiator. You can create different screens and set up click points, such as a button. Clicking the button navigates you to another screen in your design. This is called "interactive prototyping". Figma puts these interactive prototypes on the web, so designers can create a visual prototype that can be tested on mobile and desktop devices. It's more realistic than simply looking at pictures of mockups. The biggest advantage is that it does not require developers to write working code and deploy a whole app just to click around and test it out.
digitalengineer 4y ago
Things like this make us SUPER valuable and fast: https://www.uiprep.com/ https://www.uiprep.com/

apozem 4y ago

I don't think Figma is going to die. It'll be bundled as part of the Creative Suite. It'll add buttons to quickly export your designs to PhotoShop or Illustrator or whatever. It'll probably get slower and clunkier. Not death, just... Adobe.

afavour 4y ago
So a slow death, then. I'm old enough to remember when Adobe acquired Macromedia. They slapped some new icons on Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash etc. then completely neglected them until people abandoned them. I pray Figma fares better.
- apocalyptic0n3 4y ago
  In this case, I think it will. Adobe has been trying to build their own version of Figma for like 5 years. If anything, this probably means the end of XD and maybe their web versions of Photoshop. The Macromedia acquisition was a little different – Fireworks was an inferior Photoshop competitor, Freehand an inferior Illustrator competitor, Dreamweaver was outside of their core business, Flash actually got decent support until the world itself moved on from it (and Adobe mistakenly believed it could survive as closed source), and the rest of the portfolio didn't have much value. In Figma's case, it's actually a superior competitor to XD and even Photoshop in a lot of use cases, and it's figured out the web-based design environment that Adobe has tried repeatedly to do with mixed results. I'd be surprised if they decided to shutter Figma. Now... ruin it by adding a bunch of crap nobody wants like Adobe does with every other product? Pretty likely. But I don't think they'll do what they did to Macromedia. I could be wrong, though.
  - geerlingguy 4y ago
    Fireworks was completely focused on web graphics, and Photoshop couldn't hold a candle to it for that use case. I used photoshop for touching up photos and generating things, then fireworks for cutting up and exporting the graphics, in a time before browsers could take practically anything and CMSes would autogenerate versions for different uses. Also, Dreamweaver was heads and shoulders above GoLive or whatever that app was Adobe was pedaling for web page design at the time. It lost its edge once Adobe adopted it as their main web page editing app.

apollokami 4y ago

Figma was really one of a kind. Back to Sketch I suppose.

rchaud 4y ago
Yep. Sketch can feel limited compared to Figma (I hate that they need iOS Mirror app instead of being able to access interactive prototypes on the web), but I love that they are a desktop app and you don't have to keep paying forever.
- Wintamute 4y ago
  You've been able to play Sketch prototypes on the web for a few years already, also they just released a new iPhone app that lets you preview prototypes and docs. Their iOS Mirror app is pretty much deprecated now I think
  - rchaud 4y ago
    Last I checked, I couldn't access the prototypes on a mobile device that wasn't iOS. I just need Sketch to publish the prototype to a publicly accessible web URL like Figma does. When I needed to do usability testing, I had to use a third party service called Marvel that imports the mockups and publishes them to a web page on their domain.

rchaud 4y ago

See, if this was local software that you could buy once and keep forever, an event like this would not have felt so full of foreboding. On cloud-based web apps, there is no opt-out short of ceasing use of the program entirely. Don't want their new features? Too bad, we're going to roll them out anyway, and there is no turning back after that. I'm still puttering along just fine on a copy of Office 2010, so my opinions may not be representative of the majority.

tstrimple 4y ago
If this was local software, you'd lose out on most of the collaborative benefits that Figma provides. That collaboration, especially with guest accounts is one of the reasons for the explosive growth and popularity. If this was a buy it once tool that required IT support for collaboration it wouldn't have nearly this growth trajectory or industry adoption.
- shaan7 4y ago
  You can make local software with collaboration support. It is possible to make Figma so that you can do your design locally even if your Internet is kaput.
  - hk__2 4y ago
    > You can make local software with collaboration support You still need to have someone maintain the central server that serves as the single source of truth.
    - badsectoracula 4y ago
      The central server only needs to handle shared data - and we already have plenty of protocols for that so that there can be multiple companies that provide that service or, if you prefer, allow you to self host. URLs can handle the rest, this is why they exist after all.
tgv 4y ago

itronitron 4y ago

I never understood the appeal of Figma, or even it's use case. Can someone explain it to me?

nlh 4y ago
If you're a UI designer and you work on a remote team, Figma makes it incredibly easy to both build and share your designs with your teammates. It runs entirely in a browser and was built from the start for sharing, so you can jump into a design file and see and share the latest work in real time. It is to design as Google Docs or Sheets was to Word or Excel. No more passing around files - everything just works in the browser.
- smilespray 4y ago
  And it's fast and doesn't come with 30 000 features you don't need, like support for print design.
elliekelly 4y ago
Yes, Figma’s appeal is that it was not owned by Adobe.

cush 4y ago

Looks like Adobe is getting you back for pirating their software for 18 years