It takes a lot of effort to get a company to switch design platforms. Buy-in is needed from the team, learning curves factored, and expenses analyzed. Last March we switched from Adobe XD to Figma, and we’ve found that the benefits outweighed these potential roadblocks. We are loving Figma—and here are some of the reasons we haven’t looked back:

1.It’s an essential tool for teamwork and remote design

With a pandemic that doesn’t seem to end, the notion of a platform that is available online as well as on a desktop app is a no-brainer. But this has been Figma’s model since before the worldwide shift to remote work. Clients and teammates can make comments inside the file in real-time. A developer and a designer can be working on one file at the same time. With files that can be updated instantaneously and worked on by multiple people no matter where they are located. Design platforms are starting to shift to this mindset (XD changed to cloud-based along with its desktop platform this year) but Figma is the company that formed with this in mind from the start, and every facet is built around this need.

2.The array of plugins makes (almost) anything you want to do possible

Want to automatically add measurement notations to a frame? Or bulk change styles? Or find one particular word hidden in your document? There’s a plug-in for that! Plugins make work faster and more efficient. If you want to know more, check out our blog article on just this topic.

3.Auto layout makes iteration and changes so much faster

This Figma feature takes a little practice, but once you know it, this feature will be your best friend. Auto layout can create responsive layouts within your design. You can make it so two components or elements respond to each other, so, say if you remove a component, the one beside it will take its place. You can remove or replace differently-sized icons inside a component without tweaking all the text around it. There’s always more to learn and practice within Auto Layout, but it makes changes and updates a lot faster.

4.Simple experience improvements

Out of everything I need to view as a designer, I need to see layers clearly. Layers are what create the elements that become the components that combine to make a design. Instead of highlighting these all-important building blocks, XD shows Assets instead of Layers by default. In addition, Figma reveals the layer in the design when you hover over it in the panel. In XD you have to keep clicking to find what you need. These small changes add up to fewer headaches all around.

Overall, switching from XD to Figma has been nothing but positive to our whole team. Having files on the cloud makes collaborating with our team more seamless. In addition, we found that Figma pays better attention to the smallest of product details which goes a long way, and makes our process easier. Figma is a platform we recommend because it is one that has definitely been designed for designers.