Why Figma is Our Website Design Tool

In digital marketing and web design, the tools we employ are fundamental to the quality and efficiency of our work. At Platform81, Figma is our primary design tool, a strategic choice that empowers our team to deliver outstanding digital experiences for our clients. This decision isn’t about chasing software trends; it’s about leveraging a robust platform that aligns with our core values of innovation, collaboration, and delivering tangible results.

Let’s explore the key reasons why Figma has become central to our design process and how its features benefit the projects we undertake for you.

Real-Time Collaboration

One of Figma’s most significant advantages is its real-time collaboration. Operating directly in the browser, it allows multiple users—designers, project managers, developers, and clients—to access and work within the same design file simultaneously. This eliminates common frustrations like version control conflicts or the endless back-and-forth of email attachments.

For Platform81, this means our design team can work in concert, refining layouts and elements concurrently. More broadly, it allows stakeholders to view progress and provide feedback directly within the design environment. This transparent, interactive approach streamlines the entire design cycle, fostering agility and ensuring everyone is aligned, which is crucial for meeting project timelines and client expectations.

Cross-Platform Accessibility

Figma’s cloud-based nature removes the barriers often imposed by operating system-specific software. Unlike tools restricted to certain platforms, Figma is accessible via a web browser on any system—Mac, Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS—without requiring software installation or manual file synchronisation.

This universal access provides essential flexibility for our team and simplifies interactions with clients and external partners, regardless of their IT environment. It ensures that anyone involved in a project can view, comment on, and contribute to the design process seamlessly, leading to a more inclusive and efficient workflow.

Integrated Design and Prototyping

Figma effectively combines UI design and interactive prototyping capabilities within a single platform. This integration allows our designers to transition smoothly from creating initial wireframes and static mockups to building clickable prototypes that simulate user flows and application behaviour, all without switching software.

This unified toolkit enhances efficiency significantly. We can rapidly develop interactive prototypes to test design concepts and present a tangible user experience to clients early in the process. This facilitates more insightful feedback and ensures the final product precisely aligns with user needs and strategic objectives, moving beyond static visuals to demonstrable functionality.

Robust Component Systems

Maintaining brand consistency and an intuitive user experience is paramount. Figma excels in this area with its strong support for components, variants, and auto layout. Components are reusable UI elements (like buttons, navigation bars, or forms) that can be instanced across numerous designs. Critically, any modification to a master component automatically propagates across all its instances.

This feature is invaluable for upholding brand integrity across all our clients’ digital assets and dramatically accelerates the design of complex projects. By establishing a comprehensive design system in Figma, we ensure stylistic cohesion and allow for efficient scaling of designs as projects evolve, maintaining quality and consistency without redundant effort.

Streamlined Developer Handoff

The transition from design to development is a critical phase where clarity is essential. Figma simplifies this handoff significantly. Developers can directly inspect designs within the Figma environment, accessing precise specifications for dimensions, colours, typography, and spacing. They can also extract code snippets (CSS, Swift, XML) and download assets in required formats directly from the design file.

This direct access minimises ambiguity and the need for extensive manual documentation, reducing the potential for errors and accelerating the development cycle. It fosters clearer communication between our design team and developers, ensuring the final output faithfully realises the approved design.

Optimal Balance of Speed and Simplicity

Figma offers an intuitive user interface that is relatively easy to learn, yet it possesses the depth and power required for sophisticated, high-fidelity design work. The platform is engineered for speed and responsiveness, even with large, complex files.

Being browser-based, updates are managed automatically, and performance remains consistent. This allows our designers to focus on creative problem-solving and execution rather than grappling with software limitations, contributing to a more productive and enjoyable design process.

Extensive Plugin Ecosystem

Figma’s functionality is further augmented by a rich ecosystem of plugins developed by its community and third-party creators. These plugins address a wide range of needs, from accessibility checkers and icon libraries to content generators and integrations with tools like Jira or Storybook.

At Platform81, we utilise these plugins to automate routine tasks, enhance specific workflows, and integrate Figma more deeply into our broader project management and development pipelines. This extensibility ensures Figma can adapt to our evolving requirements and the unique demands of diverse client projects, solidifying its role as a versatile and powerful hub for our design operations.

In Conclusion

Our adoption of Figma as the primary website design tool for Platform81 is a considered choice, reflecting our commitment to efficiency, collaboration, and the delivery of high-calibre digital solutions. Its comprehensive features—from real-time collaboration and cross-platform access to integrated prototyping and robust design systems—empower our teams to refine our creative processes and produce superior results for our clients.

Figma enables us to tackle complex design challenges with greater agility, foster innovation within our team, and ultimately, help your business achieve its digital objectives through compelling and meticulously crafted designs. It’s a cornerstone of our approach, ensuring we deliver not just aesthetics, but effective, user-centred digital experiences.