User Research | Techlist.io

figmaOct 12, 20203 min readCurated summary

Reflections on Figma’s inaugural Student Fellowship | Figma Blog

Figma’s inaugural Student Fellowship was created in response to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift away from campus-based education. Rather than organizing local meetups, Figma worked with students to build accessible resources, communities, and programs for remote learning and collaboration. Over 10 weeks, the fellowship successfully produced classroom tools, student-focused content, and virtual community experiences while establishing a model for future student programs. ## Rethinking the Student Program - Figma originally planned to make on-campus meetups central to its education efforts. - As students faced remote semesters and uncertain campus plans, the team reconsidered how to support them beyond physical classrooms. - Student conversations focused on: - Recreating classroom and campus collaboration online - Supporting extracurricular projects - Helping educators adapt to new teaching environments - Understanding students’ changing needs - The program centered on classroom resources, student stories, the Virtual Campus Slack Community, and hackathons. ## Setting a Broader Vision - The fellowship aimed not only to ship content but also to establish a foundation for future fellowship programs. - Figma considered how the program could complement: - On-campus student ambassadors - The Friends of Figma community - The broader design ecosystem - The group prioritized resources that were both accessible to students and aspirational. - Although fellows worked across separate workstreams, they operated as a cohesive team and intended their work to reach Figma employees and professional designers as well as students. ## Classroom Resources - The fellows created six classroom templates usable both online and in person. - Examples included: - A research-project toolbox - A playground file for learning Figma’s editor - An assignment-creation template - They also curated a broader collection of community resources to help teachers and students learn, create, and use Figma effectively. ## Student Stories and Career Questions - Conversations with students revealed widespread uncertainty about whether to take a gap year. - Figma responded with a “Back To School?” interview series featuring: - Dylan Field - Marc Andreessen - May-Li Khoe - Karlie Kloss - John Maeda - Laura Deming - The interviews explored gap years, education, and alternative paths through higher education. - Fellow Abigail Africa also published guidance on pitching and presenting, emphasizing audience awareness, confidence, and storytelling. ## Virtual Campus and Camp Figma - More than 1,000 students joined Figma’s Virtual Campus Slack Community during the summer. - The community enabled students to connect, teach, learn, and socialize remotely. - Figma also hosted Camp Figma, a two-day virtual make-a-thon involving hundreds of students across dozens of time zones. - Featured winning projects included FigmAdventure and Slice. ## Overall Impact - The fellowship demonstrated that student programming could extend beyond campus events through digital communities and reusable resources. - Its success gave Figma a practical foundation for developing future fellowships and strengthening its broader education initiatives. - The program also showed the value of involving students directly in designing services intended for their own community.

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User Research Figma Prototyping Collaborative Design+2

figmaMay 5, 20202 min readCurated summary

Inside Figma: the product design team’s process | Figma Blog

Figma’s product design team uses deliberate rituals and meeting cadences to maintain connection, consistency, and a high quality bar across designers embedded in different product areas. The article distinguishes the horizontal design-team culture from the vertical product-team culture, arguing that both require investment. Its processes are intended as adaptable examples rather than prescriptions, especially during the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. ## Two overlapping team cultures - Designers belong to both: - A **horizontal design team**, which supports consistency, craft, and shared quality standards. - A **vertical product team**, which focuses on shipping improvements and building expertise in a product area. - As companies grow, designers tend to move from close collaboration across the whole design team into specialized product-area groups. - Figma, with around 10 product designers, was encouraging designers to prioritize relationships with product teams while relying on design-team processes for alignment and community. ## Process during the pandemic - The article was written during COVID-19, when remote work and personal disruption affected productivity and morale. - Design leadership encouraged people to make space for mental health and acknowledged that output might fall significantly. - Regular collaboration became especially valuable because it helped replace some of the social connection normally created in an office. - The author cautions teams not to adopt new rituals automatically; each organization should decide whether it has the capacity for process changes. ## Weekly processes ### Monday warm-up - **Participants:** Product designers, with optional participation from research and brand team members. - **Schedule:** Mondays, 9:30–10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. - **Purpose:** Start the week with a light, social activity rather than immediately focusing on work. - The 30-minute meeting includes a “weekend update” segment lasting roughly five to ten minutes, along with additional activities designed to help the team reconnect. ## Scope of the article - The post focuses on **design-team processes**, not the broader product-development process. - It covers recurring weekly activities, monthly and quarterly rituals, and practical advice for designing team activities. - Product roadmapping, product-team collaboration, hiring, and design critiques are treated in other Figma resources. Figma’s approach emphasizes creating intentional, repeatable moments for connection while keeping the process flexible. Teams should adapt these rituals to their size, structure, working environment, and the personal needs of their members.

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User Research Figma Product Design Remote Collaboration+1

figmaApr 14, 20202 min readCurated summary

Research, remotely | Figma Blog

Remote research requires more than transferring in-person methods to video calls; it demands empathy, clear guidance, and intentional collaboration. Figma’s research team recommends adapting participant communication, limiting observers, documenting sessions, and using shared virtual boards to synthesize findings. Remote work also creates opportunities to reach people who would otherwise be difficult to interview in person. ## Lead with User Empathy - Recognize that participants may be facing personal or professional difficulties and may not be ready to participate. - Be willing to pause or slow research when the situation calls for it. - Avoid assuming participants are comfortable with video-conferencing tools. - Send preparation materials and detailed instructions explaining how to join the call and what the session will involve. ## Keep the Research Team Involved - Limit live participants to essential roles, such as a facilitator and note-taker, since too many observers can make participants uncomfortable. - Record interviews only after obtaining permission; recordings preserve tone and context that written notes may miss. - Hold post-session debriefs with the full research team, including people who did not attend the interview. - Share recorded status updates in Slack to communicate interview progress, emerging findings, project materials, and outstanding sessions. ## Use a Virtual Research Board Figma’s team uses shared boards to collect and synthesize research remotely. A useful board can include: - **Research questions:** The study’s goals and questions to answer. - **Participants:** Participant profiles, roles, images, and notable quotes. - **Theme board:** Grouped notes showing patterns across interviews. - **Open questions:** Issues requiring further investigation. - **Next steps:** Specific follow-up sessions, analysis, or team discussions. ## Take Advantage of Remote Research - Remote sessions can reach participants who live far from a company’s headquarters or outside typical in-person recruiting areas. - Although remote research introduces technical and interpersonal challenges, it can broaden access to geographically diverse audiences. Remote research works best when teams prioritize participant comfort, provide unusually clear instructions, and maintain shared documentation. Use remote tools not merely as substitutes for in-person work, but as a way to expand who can participate and how findings are shared.

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User Research Figma Slack Usability Testing+2

figmaMar 3, 20202 min readCurated summary

Finding confidence in design decisions | Figma Blog

Design confidence is not an innate quality but something built through reflection, information, practice, and support from others. Designers must balance data, experience, taste, instinct, and stakeholder perspectives, which can create persistent self-doubt. The article argues that confidence grows by gathering relevant evidence and repeatedly confronting difficult situations. ## Reframing Early Fears - Reflecting on childhood or earlier experiences with insecurity can reveal how confidence was developed in the past. - Sharing these stories with peers encourages empathy and helps people see their struggles from a more generous perspective. - The suggested exercise is to: - Recall a skill or activity that once felt intimidating. - Identify the steps, support, or practice that helped build competence. - Discuss the experience in a small group. ## Building Confidence Through Data - A lack of confidence may indicate that there is not yet enough information to make a well-grounded decision. - Designers can gather confidence-building evidence through: - Research and validation - Conversations with peers and experts - Input from people experiencing the problem directly - Feedback from stakeholders - Collecting these perspectives helps designers understand more variables and make solutions feel increasingly clear. ## Building Confidence Through Experience - Confidence also comes from repeatedly practicing the difficult thing until it becomes familiar. - Experience is gradual and nonlinear; designers revisit similar problems over time and apply previous lessons in increasingly nuanced ways. - Both successes and failures create emotional connections that strongly influence future confidence. - Some challenges—such as giving difficult feedback or making decisions in unfamiliar situations—cannot be solved through more research alone and require courage and repetition. ## Applying the Exercises - Identify an area where confidence is currently lacking. - Decide whether the primary need is more data, more experience, or both. - Share the challenge with trusted peers and use their perspectives to clarify the next step. - Treat confidence as an ongoing practice rather than a feeling that must exist before taking action. Confidence grows when designers combine informed investigation with repeated action, supported by a community that can provide perspective and encouragement.

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User Research Product Design Design Thinking Data Driven Design+2

figmaAug 4, 20193 min readCurated summary

How to run a design sprint | Figma Blog

Design sprints help teams solve complex problems quickly by combining alignment, ideation, prototyping, and user testing within a fixed timeframe, typically five business days. The method emphasizes one clearly defined challenge, a small cross-functional team, and rapid validation of ideas. Effective preparation is essential: the better the brief, research, agenda, and logistics, the more productive the sprint will be. ## What a Design Sprint Is - A structured process for solving major problems through: - Designing - Prototyping - User research - User testing - Usually runs for five business days with clear goals and deliverables. - Follows six phases: - **Understand** - **Define** - **Sketch** - **Decide** - **Prototype** - **Validate** - Teams may adapt the framework based on their existing knowledge, timeline, and goals. ## Origins of the Google Design Sprint - The methodology was developed at Google to strengthen UX culture and design leadership. - It draws from: - Traditional UX practices - IDEO - Stanford’s d.school - Business strategy - Psychology - Its modern form is flexible and can be tailored to different organizations and challenges. ## Preparing the Sprint Preparation should take roughly as much effort as the sprint itself; teams should reserve planning time before the workshop begins. ### Write a Focused Brief - Define the problem, goals, deliverables, agenda, and methods. - Include relevant project background and existing research. - Focus on one major challenge and frame it as a specific question. - For example, replace “Make our homepage more shoppable” with “Redesign a user flow to increase conversion.” ### Assemble the Right Team - Keep the group to approximately five to seven people. - Include people responsible for implementing the outcome afterward. - Typical participants include: - UX designers - User researchers - Product managers - Developers - Relevant leaders - Larger organizations can divide participants into smaller teams working on the same problem. ### Create the Agenda - Use the six sprint phases as the basic structure. - Adjust the time allocation according to the team’s knowledge and objectives. - For example, a team familiar with the problem may shorten **Understand** and spend more time prototyping. ### Prepare Visual References - Gather screenshots, competitor or inspirational examples, data, research summaries, and other relevant material. - Make these references easily accessible throughout the sprint, whether in a presentation or another shared format. ### Compile User Research - Existing and exploratory research gives the team evidence to guide ideas. - Research can reveal: - What users want - How they currently use the product - Which behaviors or experiences need to change - This information provides the foundation for the **Understand** phase. ### Schedule Lightning Talks - Invite internal presenters or outside experts to provide focused perspectives. - Talks should generally last 10–15 minutes. - Useful topics include customer-support findings, competitive analysis, and product-performance data. - Presenters can join remotely by audio or video if necessary. ### Set Up the Workspace - Choose a bright, flexible space that supports creativity and collaboration. - Ensure there is room for whiteboards, visual references, and rearranged furniture. - Changing locations during the week—such as working from a café or park—can add variety. ### Plan an Icebreaker and Supplies - Use an icebreaker to help participants become comfortable and encourage creative thinking. - Prepare all necessary workshop supplies before the sprint begins. A successful design sprint depends on disciplined scope, the right cross-functional participants, useful research, and thoughtful facilitation. Teams should treat planning as a core part of the process rather than an administrative task.

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User Research Figma User Experience Prototyping+3

figmaApr 3, 20192 min readCurated summary

We refreshed Figma's UI: An inside look at our process | Figma Blog

Figma’s 2019 UI refresh aimed to modernize the product without disrupting users. Rather than redesigning its structure, the team focused on visual inconsistencies in typography, layout, color, and iconography, using extensive research and internal discussion to guide decisions. The process began by cataloging problems, then organizing them into broader themes. ## Why Figma Needed a Refresh - The interface had evolved piecemeal as the product expanded. - Teams created custom components when existing patterns no longer fit, producing inconsistent: - Tables, buttons, and input controls - Shades of gray, red, and blue - Visual and interaction patterns - The original UI foundation predated major features such as Multiplayer and Components. - Both users and employees increasingly noticed the inconsistencies. ## Step One: Brainstorming the Problems - Figma held a two-hour session with the entire design team. - Designers explored the product firsthand, documenting quirks, shortcomings, and successful patterns with notes and screenshots. - Findings were collected in a shared Figma file and text document. - Strong group reactions—such as an “oh shit, that’s bad” response—helped identify issues likely to have broad impact. - The team deliberately paused for several days afterward, allowing opinions to settle and new insights to emerge. ## Step Two: Organizing and Synthesizing Findings - The team revisited the brainstorm after the reflection period and debated which problems mattered most. - Designers converted detailed observations into broader post-it themes. For example: - Several notification inconsistencies became “We need a system for how we handle notifications.” - Notes were grouped by similarity, such as: - Color - Legibility - White space - Notifications - This clustering reduced noise and revealed larger systemic issues, including typography, icons, dialogs, toolbars, sharing, layers, components, and file browsing. - Figma found that grouping was useful but overly complex classification was not. - The team abandoned an additional “visual to foundational” axis because it made the framework harder to use. ## Lessons from the Process - A visual refresh often becomes necessary gradually rather than because of one decisive moment. - Broad, understandable categories are more useful than abstract or overly narrow ones. - Time between brainstorming and synthesis helps teams reassess initial reactions. - The refresh prioritized surface-level improvements so users could benefit from a more coherent interface without learning an entirely new product.

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User Research Figma Design Systems User Experience+2

figmaApr 1, 20193 min readCurated summary

Pairing is the key to evangelizing your design system | Figma Blog

A successful design system depends on relationships and culture, not just tools, documentation, or component libraries. Robin Rendle argues that pairing directly with designers is the most effective way to build trust, discover system problems, and encourage adoption. Working together turns the system team from a source of criticism into a practical partner that helps teams move faster. ## Treat the Design System as a Cultural Project - Early efforts focused on creating a UI kit and component library, assuming better tools would solve inconsistency. - The author learned that design systems reflect relationships between designers, engineers, product managers, and customers. - Gusto complemented its technical work with: - A Slack channel for questions and feedback - Design system office hours - An introductory UI kit for new employees - These initiatives helped, but pairing proved more effective because it involved working directly with people. ## Pairing Is User Research - Side-by-side collaboration reveals: - Which components and patterns are confusing - Where documentation is incomplete - What feels awkward or works well - Which user needs the design system is failing to address - Pairing replaces assumptions with direct observation of how people actually use the system. - Sessions also help the team evaluate whether: - Designers and engineers know the component library exists - They understand current HTML, CSS, and accessibility practices - Components are being explained in terms of organizational benefits - Useful designs should become official reusable patterns - Unlike office hours, pairing reaches people before they necessarily recognize that they need help. ## Pairing Turns Critique into Collaboration - Design system guidance should feel like accelerating someone’s work, not restricting creativity. - New systems are often complex, poorly documented, and full of hidden constraints: - Limited color choices - Existing components that designers may not know about - Accessibility requirements - Technical limitations embedded in the codebase - Simply imposing these rules can make the design system team seem controlling, causing people to ignore documentation or work around the system. - Pairing creates a more productive conversation where the design system team shares institutional knowledge while learning what product teams need. - Both sides benefit: product teams work faster and learn reusable patterns, while the system team gains insight into real-world requirements. ## Pairing Builds Design System Advocates - Designers and engineers who receive direct, helpful guidance are more likely to understand and support the system. - Personal collaboration builds trust and makes adoption feel like an advantage rather than an obligation. - Each pairing session can turn participants into advocates who carry the system’s practices and rationale back to their teams. Design system teams should prioritize pairing as an ongoing form of user research, education, and relationship-building. The strongest systems are not merely documented and enforced; they are developed collaboratively with the people expected to use them.

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User Research Figma Design Systems Accessibility+4

figmaOct 29, 20183 min readCurated summary

Designers use Figma to bring Uber to the unbanked | Figma Blog

Uber’s expansion into emerging markets required designing for differences in language, literacy, devices, culture, location, and user roles. For its cash-payment initiatives, product designer Femke van Schoonhoven adopted Figma after fragmented tools made collaboration and research iteration difficult. Figma became a shared, web-based source of truth that reduced communication overhead, improved engineer handoff, and enabled distributed teams to work together more effectively. ## Designing for Diverse Markets - Uber serves millions of riders across dozens of countries, requiring experiences that work across very different local contexts. - Designers conduct extensive research, including riding with drivers and testing designs in real-world environments. - Emerging-market design must account for: - Language and literacy - Device limitations - Culture and location - Whether the user is a rider, driver, or another participant - Cash payments were particularly important for reaching users without access to traditional banking. ## Problems with the Previous Workflow - The Cash team used separate tools for design, prototyping, sharing, feedback, and engineering handoff. - Designers had to repeatedly import and export files and communicate project status outside the design tool. - During field research, only one person could edit a design at a time, preventing real-time iteration with teammates. - This made it difficult to respond immediately to feedback from Uber drivers. ## Figma Enables Real-Time Collaboration - Van Schoonhoven moved existing files into Figma through a simple drag-and-drop process. - She could create prototypes using local languages and realistic, in-context materials. - Multiple team members could edit the same design simultaneously, whether working nearby or across countries. - Figma’s file organization made designs easier to locate and maintain. ## A Single Source of Truth - Stakeholders could access the latest designs directly instead of requesting updates by email. - Figma reduced communication overhead by an estimated 75 percent. - Engineers could be invited into design files, view current changes, and comment in context. - Early engineering involvement made handoff faster and less error-prone. - The shared workspace helped replace siloed work with a central design repository. ## Supporting Distributed Projects - Figma provided the collaborative foundation for projects involving designers in Amsterdam, San Francisco, and other locations. - Teams could access shared Uber platform components and work from the same current files. - Because the tool was web-based, stakeholders could share designs and obtain approvals more quickly. Figma helped Uber’s designers adapt payment experiences for unbanked users by combining rapid iteration, shared context, and cross-location collaboration. For distributed product teams working across complex markets, a centralized collaborative design environment can substantially reduce friction from research through engineering handoff.

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User Research Figma Prototyping Product Design+4

figmaAug 8, 20182 min readCurated summary

On the road: How two designers got rid of their hardware baggage | Figma Blog

A simple Samsung-based setup can replace a laptop for user research, design collaboration, and even editing Figma files while traveling. By combining a Samsung phone or tablet with Chrome, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and either a DeX dock or Chromecast, designers can work from almost any monitor or TV. The approach reduces equipment, cost, and barriers to entering the design profession. ## A Lightweight Mobile Figma Setup - Recommended hardware includes: - Samsung Galaxy S8/S9 models or a Samsung Tab 2 - A DeX dock, USB-C-to-HDMI converter, or Chromecast - Bluetooth keyboard and mouse - Designers can open Figma in Chrome on a mobile device and broadcast it to a larger display. - Prototype links can be shared with users or clients, who open them on their own computers or tablets. ## Remote User Research Without a Laptop - Josh Goodwin previously carried multiple laptops and tablets loaded with Sketch or Adobe software for medical user testing. - With Figma, he can connect his phone to an available hospital monitor and let doctors interact with prototypes in their own browsers. - Feedback can be incorporated immediately during testing, allowing development teams to move faster. ## Lowering the Cost of Design Work - The setup can provide a practical alternative for students, designers in emerging markets, or anyone on a limited budget. - A smartphone and inexpensive television may be enough to design and collaborate without a high-end laptop. - Tyrale Bloomfield uses a Samsung tablet alone for creative-direction work, sometimes commenting with his fingers instead of using a mouse. ## Why Hardware Compatibility Matters - Samsung devices performed best in the authors’ testing because they adjust DPI when projecting to a larger screen, providing an appropriate amount of workspace. - The device, browser, and input hardware must correctly distinguish mouse clicks from finger touches. - Some systems interpret all input as touch, preventing essential actions such as resizing objects, using bounding boxes, or clicking and dragging. - The designers tested many phones and roughly 30 browsers before finding a reliable combination. The article’s practical recommendation is to prioritize a compatible Android device, browser, and pointing device rather than assuming any mobile setup will work. With the right combination, a browser and Internet connection can support much of a designer’s full workflow while eliminating substantial hardware baggage.

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User Research Figma User Experience Android+3

figmaAug 6, 20182 min readCurated summary

Master the art of design portfolios with this free online Skillshare class | Figma Blog

The post introduces a free Figma and Skillshare course designed to help aspiring product designers create stronger portfolios and improve their chances of landing a job. It argues that an effective portfolio should present not only polished results, but also the designer’s process, learning, adaptability, and outcomes. The course covers portfolio creation from initial content choices through interviews and peer feedback. ## Why Portfolios Matter - Applying for a first product design role can be difficult because the field includes many specialties and interview expectations. - A portfolio is central to the job search and should represent work both accurately and memorably. - New designers should be deliberate about what they include and how they frame their experience. ## What the Course Covers The free Skillshare class addresses: - Which information belongs in a design portfolio. - How to create a clear and effective visual presentation. - How to structure projects as case studies. - How to maintain a consistent professional story across: - An online presence - Applications - Interviews - How to iterate on portfolio designs and collaborate with peers in Figma. - How to invite mentors into Figma projects for practical feedback. ## Understanding Product Design Roles - Product design can combine: - User research - User experience design - Prototyping - User testing - Visual design - Smaller companies often expect designers to handle several of these responsibilities. - Larger organizations may divide product design into specialized roles. - Designers should identify their strengths and interests while remaining open to adapting as tools, methods, and industry needs change. ## Showcasing Process and Growth - Portfolios should highlight: - The design process - Key decisions - Lessons learned - Project outcomes - A final visual result alone does not demonstrate how a designer thinks or works. - Employers value candidates who show curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to learn. - Sharing projects with classmates and mentors can provide useful critique and improve the portfolio. The practical recommendation is to use the course—or the linked written guidance—to build a portfolio that tells a complete story: what you did, why you did it, what you learned, and what changed as a result.

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User Research Figma User Experience Prototyping+4