A Beginner’s Guide To Figma Testing

User Experience Design Process

Before we move further in this Figma testing tutorial, let us elaborate on the different phases that help to improve and make your design better continuously. The various steps are:

• Understand design requirements: Understand your design requirements and create different user personas. Then, based on the user personas, you can also define use cases.
• Research: This phase is about analyzing competitors, discovering different UX trends, and keeping a close eye on new design guidelines.
• Sketch: This phase allows you to gather ideas and draw illustrations to get more clarity on the design requirements.
• Design: You can design images and create prototypes.
• Implementation: You can implement functionality and build a user experience.
• Evaluation: You can perform usability testing and evaluate improvements that can be made in your designs.

You can provide a great user experience by following an iterative design process. It is not the responsibility of only the design team to finalize design requirements. All major stakeholders in the company contribute to the operation of improving it every day. This is the only way to retain your existing customers and attract new ones.

Top Features of Figma

Shown below are some of the great features offered by Figma –

• Cross-platform compatibility: Figma is compatible with any operating system on a web browser. You can use Windows, Mac, and Linux machines seamlessly with Figma. Despite being supported by multiple operating systems, users can still share, open, and edit Figma files without any hassles. In many organizations, Figma helps to bring great collaboration between design and development teams so that design requirements can be easily accessible to all the required team groups.
• Great and easy collaboration: Since Figma is also a browser-based tool, teams can easily collaborate as they would do in Google Docs. It helps to track the people that are viewing and editing a file which is displayed right at the top.   When you click on the corresponding user avatar, it is easier to track the user activity. This comes in handy during the review of design prototypes. The design lead can keep track of the changes done by the design team in real-time by simply opening the shared file. It all comes down to providing constructive feedback to the groups you work with rather than keeping a close eye on their design activities.
• Slack for team communication: Figma uses Slack as its communication channel. When you create a Figma channel in Slack, any comments or design-related edits done in Figma are readily available on Slack. So, when making iterative changes to your design with multiple designers involved, Slack can easily manage and track all the user activities performed.
• Sharing is simple and flexible: Figma allows permissions-based sharing on any file, page, or frame. When a shared link is created, the person that is accessing that link will open a browser version of Figma if the required permissions are assigned.
• Great for design review feedback: Figma has simplified how design reviews are handled in different organizations. Gone are those traditional days when multiple review comments were provided on the mockups designed using pen and paper, and it took a long time to close design changes. Figma supports in-app commenting functionality in both design and prototyping modes. These comments can be tracked easily using Slack or email. You are not required to publish PNG files, so the design changes are closed quickly.
• Improvise existing design processes: A great design tool like Figma helps identify existing gaps in the existing design process and brings about improvements you can implement.

How Figma Transformed the Entire UX Design Process?

Figma has changed the way we review and deliver design requirements. Before Figma, the teams used to follow the below steps where design requirements took a lot of time to be finalized:

• The pencil sketches of concepts were created based on the discussions with different stakeholders.
• The mockups were created and updated using available design tools.
• You could also create a prototype based on the finalized mockups.
• The draft changes were published, and the design changes were reviewed with the teams.
• The final changes were published and uploaded on the file server.
• After multiple iterations and reviews with the teams, it was delivered to the developer.

Once you use Figma to finalize your design requirements, the feedback and iterations are shortened with quick delivery cycles. This includes

• Creation of pencil sketches of concepts based on the initial discussions.
• Creating and updating mockups.
• Prototype creation.
• Review and edit the changes in real-time.
• The changes are being delivered to the developer quicker.

Creating Different Components in Figma

In design, components are elements that can be reused across multiple designs. Creating and managing consistent designs across projects is easier with them. You can create components from any objects or layers you create. A whole range of things can be included, such as buttons, icons, layouts, etc. Figma interface encompasses three main parts:

• The Middle portion is where the design canvas is located.
• The Left side is the sidebar that contains the layers, assets, and page of a file.
• Finally, the right toolbar contains all the required information about elements in the file.

You can create different components, from frames to shapes to assets. First, you must create an account on the Figma website or access Figma.com. You can also sign up using your email for free. Then, you can start by creating your first default page. Next, select the + sign, or create a new design page on the right-hand side. Some critical components that can be created in Figma are explained below:

• Frame Creation in Figma
  You can start by creating a frame in Figma. This is the same as a page where the design will show. You can size an edge depending on your project requirements. You can either create custom frames or mobile application-specific frames. Select the frame tool from the top menu and the required frame size on the right panel.
• Adding Grids in Figma
  Before you start with the design, you should add grids that allow you to keep the consistent alignment of content suitable for the page. The grids can be added to the frames and then customized. For example, ensure that you select a layout grid for consistency and usability after selecting the frame.
• Using Shapes in Figma
  You can use shapes and elements in Figma to create squares, circles, lines, and a lot more that helps to make your design more appealing and user-friendly. You can select and resize the desired shapes using the shape tool.
• Adding Images in Figma
  Images always add significant value to our design requirements. Figma provides an option to add pictures from an online source or perform drag and drop locally to your page. In addition, you can resize the image as and when required.

Figma vs. Sketch

There has been a constant debate about Figma and Sketch. However, there are some reasons why design teams are switching to Figma rather than Sketch:

• Figma is an All-in-one design tool that provides all the required functionalities to design and collaborate. Sketch uses plugins such as Zeplin, InVision, and Abstract to provide the desired functionalities related to prototyping and developer handoff.
• Figma is also a browser-based app that allows you to handle your design requirements on the web. While on Sketch, you have to create and manage design on a Mac app that requires frequent version updates. This is not great from the usability perspective.

There are no surprises that Figma is a preferred choice over Sketch for most design-centric organizations because it is a complete tool and allows great collaboration between design teams.

Note: Test your Figma-designed web apps on over 3000+ browsers. Try TestMu AI Now!

Pros and Cons of Figma Prototype Testing

The following benefits are involved when you are doing Figma testing of its prototypes that include both high-fidelity and low-fidelity prototypes:

• Cost-effectiveness: Solving usability problems for your existing design will cost a couple of times more than you can ever imagine. So, when testing for Figma prototypes, you save time and effort in retaining your existing customers.
• Identification of potential issues: The potential issues are identified and fixed before the final product is rolled out to the end-users or customers.
• Improvement in the end-user experience: When you are performing Figma testing of its prototypes with real users, it helps to improve the overall user experience, which is excellent for your product’s success in the long run.
• Incorporate feedback from different stakeholders: Constructive feedback helps improve the teams’ overall performance. The design teams can incorporate that feedback to improve the general design processes.
• Helps to eliminate your doubts: Testing Figma prototypes provide a clear picture of your design requirements. It helps to answer all the confusing questions, making sure you can take an informed decision on rolling out your new website or app.
• Discover new ideas: The user feedback improves your current design and uncovers countless opportunities for future design development. Getting in touch with real users can provide insights we are unaware of, and this is where you lay a solid foundation for your future releases.

So, if you want to provide a great user experience with Figma prototypes, you should run a usability test. By finding potential issues, the designs will only get better and more usable from an end-user perspective.

In addition to Figma’s benefits, it also has some limitations:

• Figma provides excellent collaboration between different design teams, but you must always be online to perform seamless partnership.
• There is a version control functionality in Figma, but tracking the last edits performed is essential because a small change can impact the entire existing version. You may need to revert the changes if design updates are not done correctly.
• When the design file is in draft state, there is no owner assigned to it, so there can always be ownership issues that they crop up.
• There are cache issues specific to a browser in Figma where the design updates done by fellow team members might not even reflect. Therefore, you need to perform a refresh on your Figma files to view the updated changes.

When Should you Perform Figma Testing?

It becomes essential to evaluate when you want to perform Figma testing of its prototypes. There is no fixed answer that depends entirely on the project requirements. But it is always a great practice to set aside some guidelines that design teams can follow every time for consistency. When working on a new product or trying to improvise the existing one, it is always a good practice to run a usability test early in the design process. It allows you to have early feedback on your designs before too much development work has been done.

Implementing a full usability test may not be a good idea when you make minor improvements to an existing product. Instead, you can have quick feedback to ensure that your design requirements align with the project goals.

To sum up, when introducing a new product with new features and enhancements, it is always advisable to perform comprehensive Figma testing to evaluate the quality of your designs. On the other hand, when an existing product is already available to the customers and you are making new enhancements, it is not required to run a complete usability test.

Prerequisites to Perform Figma Testing

Here are some tips to help you perform Figma testing of its prototypes:

• Choose the participants carefully. When you are testing high-fidelity Figma prototypes, choosing the group of participants who are familiar with Figma and have experience using similar software is essential. The participants new to Figma can be used for testing a low-fidelity Figma prototype.
• You can execute a pilot run before the actual implementation of Figma testing. This ensures that there will be no blockers or issues when Figma testing is performed with potential users.
• You can schedule a walkthrough of the design prototypes with relevant stakeholders.
• It is great to ask questions during the testing and get feedback from participants. In addition, you can collect feedback from a design and end-user experience perspective.
• Analyzing the feedback results and improving the designs going forward is essential.
• Ensure you have the right testing strategy to achieve the desired outcome.

Common Mistakes during Figma Testing

Do not commit the following mistakes if trying to make a strategy related to Figma testing:

• You do not allow your users to complete the entire set of tasks. Therefore, giving them time to experiment with the prototype and answer their questions is vital. This is when you will get great feedback on your design requirements.
• When you do not provide a clear set of instructions for users to perform the required tasks, if they are not aware of what they are supposed to do, they cannot even provide the accurate feedback you are looking for.
• You ask for early feedback even before the testing is completed. Unfortunately, this causes much-needed frustration to the participants invited to this testing activity. Instead, give them the required time to explore different features and functionalities.

Conclusion

Prototyping plays a vital role in the design process. But that does not mean that you will focus only on the creation part, and your job is done. You must perform Figma testing to identify and fix potential issues impacting the end-user experience.

There are some of the questions you must answer during the Figma testing phase:

• When should you run a usability test on Figma Prototypes?
• How can you run these tests with real users, and who should be the users in that case?
• What are the common mistakes that happen during Figma testing?

When you get a clear answer to the above questions, you can create a strategy to perform Figma testing with the required tools to help you achieve the desired outcomes.