How Figma Transformed This Berkeley Design Class | Figma Blog

UC Berkeley’s CS 160 course used Figma to make digital product design more accessible to computer science students. The cloud-based tool solved problems involving incompatible devices, steep software learning curves, and limited collaboration. As a result, students spent more time applying usability principles and less time learning complicated design software.

Challenges in Teaching Digital Design

• CS 160 teaches human-computer interaction through 3–4-person teams building Android apps around themes such as healthcare and elections.
• The course struggled with:
  • Students using Linux, Windows, Macs, or no personal computer.
  • Limited computer-lab solutions for incompatible software.
  • Adobe tools requiring substantial training.
• Students with prior design experience often handled wireframing and prototyping, while others focused on coding or user testing.
• Enrollment demand was high enough that the course’s original 100-student limit had to be doubled.

Figma Made Design More Accessible

• Figma was free for students and worked across different operating systems.
• Its simple interface allowed students without design backgrounds to learn the basics quickly—one student reported becoming productive in about an hour.
• Built-in features supported teaching:
  • In-context comments for instructor feedback.
  • Version history for reviewing progress.
  • Simultaneous editing by multiple students.
  • Integrated prototyping for presentations.
• Students could focus on concepts such as Nielsen’s usability heuristics instead of spending most of their time learning Photoshop.

More Effective Project-Based Learning

• Students applied classroom lessons directly to their projects, reinforcing the concepts through practice.
• One healthcare-themed team designed an app helping people with alcoholism locate nearby Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
• Figma’s quick prototyping was especially useful because teams had only about an hour of face-to-face collaboration each week.
• Teachers and TAs could comment directly on relevant parts of a design rather than sending unclear, broad feedback by email.

Collaboration Across Disciplines

• Real-time editing enabled students to brainstorm, observe one another’s work, and contribute regardless of their design background.
• Teams could work outside class without worrying about conflicting file versions or accidentally overwriting one another’s work.
• The course used Figma to bring coding and design together, giving computer science students a more collaborative introduction to product design.

Figma’s main contribution was reducing technical and logistical barriers so students could concentrate on design thinking, usability, and teamwork. For similar project-based courses, accessible cross-platform tools with real-time collaboration and contextual feedback can make design education more inclusive and effective.