With websites, what comes first: The copy or design? | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Website projects often become slow, repetitive exchanges between copywriters, designers, and stakeholders. The post argues that copy and design should be developed together rather than sequentially, using a shared, cloud-based workspace like Figma. Real-time collaboration reduces revisions, meetings, delays, and confusion while producing better web assets.

The Problems with Separate Copy and Design Workflows

• Copywriters may work in Google Docs while designers work in Sketch or another separate tool.
• Teams repeatedly exchange drafts after discovering that text does not fit the design.
• Design critiques, copy reviews, and stakeholder feedback can force additional redesigns.
• Remote collaboration makes the process even more cumbersome; the author describes printing designs, writing edits by hand, scanning them, and sending them back.
• Siloed tools make the project difficult to track, even for project managers.

Developing Copy and Design Together in Figma

• The author outlined the main copy points for each page in a Google Doc.
• Designers created Figma frames representing the website pages.
• Marketing and design worked simultaneously, progressing from high-fidelity wireframes to final designs.
• Copy could be edited directly while viewing it in its intended visual context.
• Designers spent less time handling communication and more time focusing on the design itself.

A Shared Source of Truth

• Stakeholders could access the latest copy and designs through a single project URL.
• Team members could leave comments and review version history without exporting or emailing files.
• The same designs could be used for user testing, allowing everyone to connect feedback with the current work.
• Fewer meetings were needed, and the remaining meetings became more efficient.
• Last-minute updates no longer required a separate scramble before milestone reviews.

The practical recommendation is to replace sequential, tool-separated workflows with real-time collaboration between writers, designers, and stakeholders. Treating copy and design as interconnected parts of one process can make website projects faster, clearer, and less frustrating.