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What is special about Figma? Collaboration. Community. Nothing more. They started as an Illustrator clone, than moved to copy Sketch functionality. Then COVID

by nbzso 4y ago

What is special about Figma? Collaboration. Community. Nothing more. They started as an Illustrator clone, than moved to copy Sketch functionality. Then COVID happened. Check the stats. A lot of teams before that used it because it was free. My company workflow used a mix of Sketch and our own DS/Library management solution. Sketch literally committed a suicide by not providing collaboration functionality. Browser hype is all good, but you have a memory limitation. And nothing beats a native app responsiveness. I skipped Figma for another reason: It is cloud only app. Yes you can save a file for backup, but you cannot edit or view your work. I have witnessed the demise of my favorite tool Fireworks in the hands of Adobe. In one point in time we used Inkscape which is working with SVG by default. I can open my designs from 2008 without any problem. UI/UX designers are waiting for a tool like Blender to emerge and liberate them for falling again into another trap. Let's hope that after this fiasco the solution will finally emerge.

samstave 4y ago
YO I did some of my best fn work in inkscape.... Fuck adobe (and the fact they are on WOZ WAY, ironically) but if blender (community) set out to make a dope ass SVG illustrator clone with the good tooling that Blender is... Adobe would be fucked. GIMPs cool - but inkscape needs the UI/UX folks of blender to put their lens on it. I love inkscape - but their UX needs some love I cannot give it, but the blender community can...
kehrin 4y ago
> What is special about Figma? Collaboration. Community. Nothing more. Wrong: UX. Figma is way more intuitive to use because they had a blank slate when it came to the UI. The competition is stuck with gluing on new features, on an already multi-decade old tool.
- nbzso 4y ago
  >The competition is stuck with gluing on new features, on an already multi-decade old tool. Wrong: 1000 + Figma plugins add functionality/new features for free. The Sketch UX is not so different.
  - kehrin 4y ago
    And? Those are additional features. The core is still light, easy and discoverable. All words that can't be said about Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
skhameneh 4y ago
> What is special about Figma? Collaboration. Community. Nothing more. I disagree, I first heard about figma while browsing cutting edge WASM/WebGL work, not through any product channels. I found Figma through discovering their CTO's impressive work. Some of this work dates back nearly a decade. https://github.com/evanw?tab=repositories https://github.com/evanw?tab=repositories https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-by-3x/ https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-...
- nbzso 4y ago
  I don't comment on the technical implementation. I comment on primary UX objectives of the product. Obviously they pushed hard and have the monetary "award". But from a performance point of view you cannot compete with a native app. To quote Figma support: This is a browser limitation - every browser has its own active memory limit, but in general, it’s around 2 GB. Figma serves both the web app and the desktop app via a browser, so these limitations apply when using the Figma desktop app too.
mvladic 4y ago
> Browser hype is all good, but you have a memory limitation. And nothing beats a native app responsiveness. I learned from the other HN comment that Figma is faster then Adobe XD (probably written in C++ as other Adobe software). Actually, Figma is also written in C++ then compiled with Emscripten to WASM, so it can run in the browser. Also, they skip DOM/SVG/Canvas 2D and use WebGL for fast rendering.
manmal 4y ago
The only real limitation I see for Figma (4GB memory Limit due to 32bit address space in WASM) will go away eventually.
- nbzso 4y ago
  Yep. I am sure about this. But I like something that is fast and responsive and can use my extreme amount of RAM available. But we know how things are. The designer rage will fade away eventually and things will be the same.:) Designers are an emotional bunch, but they have a habit to forget quickly.

by nbzso 4y ago

samstave 4y ago

YO I did some of my best fn work in inkscape.... Fuck adobe (and the fact they are on WOZ WAY, ironically) but if blender (community) set out to make a dope ass SVG illustrator clone with the good tooling that Blender is... Adobe would be fucked. GIMPs cool - but inkscape needs the UI/UX folks of blender to put their lens on it. I love inkscape - but their UX needs some love I cannot give it, but the blender community can...

kehrin 4y ago

> What is special about Figma? Collaboration. Community. Nothing more. Wrong: UX. Figma is way more intuitive to use because they had a blank slate when it came to the UI. The competition is stuck with gluing on new features, on an already multi-decade old tool.

nbzso 4y ago
>The competition is stuck with gluing on new features, on an already multi-decade old tool. Wrong: 1000 + Figma plugins add functionality/new features for free. The Sketch UX is not so different.
- kehrin 4y ago
  And? Those are additional features. The core is still light, easy and discoverable. All words that can't be said about Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

skhameneh 4y ago

> What is special about Figma? Collaboration. Community. Nothing more. I disagree, I first heard about figma while browsing cutting edge WASM/WebGL work, not through any product channels. I found Figma through discovering their CTO's impressive work. Some of this work dates back nearly a decade. https://github.com/evanw?tab=repositories https://github.com/evanw?tab=repositories https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-by-3x/ https://www.figma.com/blog/webassembly-cut-figmas-load-time-...

nbzso 4y ago
I don't comment on the technical implementation. I comment on primary UX objectives of the product. Obviously they pushed hard and have the monetary "award". But from a performance point of view you cannot compete with a native app. To quote Figma support: This is a browser limitation - every browser has its own active memory limit, but in general, it’s around 2 GB. Figma serves both the web app and the desktop app via a browser, so these limitations apply when using the Figma desktop app too.

mvladic 4y ago

> Browser hype is all good, but you have a memory limitation. And nothing beats a native app responsiveness. I learned from the other HN comment that Figma is faster then Adobe XD (probably written in C++ as other Adobe software). Actually, Figma is also written in C++ then compiled with Emscripten to WASM, so it can run in the browser. Also, they skip DOM/SVG/Canvas 2D and use WebGL for fast rendering.

manmal 4y ago

The only real limitation I see for Figma (4GB memory Limit due to 32bit address space in WASM) will go away eventually.

nbzso 4y ago
Yep. I am sure about this. But I like something that is fast and responsive and can use my extreme amount of RAM available. But we know how things are. The designer rage will fade away eventually and things will be the same.:) Designers are an emotional bunch, but they have a habit to forget quickly.