What’s next for Figma as it joins Adobe?
Before specialized UI design tools like Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD arrived, every seasoned UI designer was using Photoshop to create and deliver their work.
A lot of product / website builders struggled with Photoshop back then, when it was the primary tool for creating UI mockups:
- UI designers — created unrealistic mockups, there were no guidelines on how to create a good UI design, components were hard to reuse;
- Developers — had to install additional applications on their computers, which did not have clear instructions on how to build websites using elements, styles, and components that could be repurposed elsewhere in the project, which significantly increased development time;
- Quality Assurance engineers — had vague understanding of the design standards, measurements, requirements for testing, so UI designers started to be involved in the process doing the design review.
It was quite messy…
Collaboration tools such as Figma revolutionized everything:
- Easy access — every design was viewable online, engineers didn’t need to install unnecessary applications;
- Code oriented design — Figma is built around coding principles that guide not only developers and quality assurance engineers, but designers as well to create more realistic designs;
- Collaboration — it is possible to make changes on the fly, others can simply leave a comment, and technical issues or blockers can now be resolved quickly;
- Prototypes — visualizing interaction, animations, transitions, and user flows is now easier with interactive examples to show how design should work.
In the past few years, Figma has become my one and only tool for product and marketing design, and I have only shifted back to Photoshop or Illustrator in specific cases when I had to edit photos or icons.
Figma’s future is less certain following Adobe’s acquisition. After using Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, and remembering how not frequently updated, complex, buggy, and slow they were in the old days, me and many designers worry that Figma could become the same.
Let’s find out what the future possibly holds for both companies/products:
The future of Figma
Investment potential
As more people build their own products, start ups, and visualize ideas, the need for such an app like Figma will grow. Adobe’s involvement in Figma means we as designers will be able to take advantage of many new features, improvements, and benefits.
Maintain market dominance
Due to its superiority and ownership of a large portion of the market share, Figma is likely to replace Adobe XD in the lineup as the only tool for UI/UX design, ideation and collaboration. This may result in disbanding the Adobe XD team and reassigning them to Figma, increasing the team size, speed of development and bringing in more ideas.
Cloud asset support
Our design workflow can be speed up and our files can be readily accessible with Adobe’s Cloud support. Even though we already can store Figma files, now moving assets between Marketing to Product design team could be more seamless.
Adobe product integrations
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After effects integrations are not likely possible in the near future, because of the nature of Adobe applications (which are not cloud-based like Figma). But we can see some specific feature integrations, plugins that will help solving basic photo editing tasks within or outside Figma.
Price differences
It is possible that Figma might lose its free version. Any product from the Adobe’s lineup, for example, does not offer any free pricing plans, although their products can be used in a free trial period, so it’s extremely likely Figma pricing model could change.
Offline mode
Even without an active internet connection, Adobe products allow you to browse, build, sketch, and design projects. My Figma files are often unavailable when I have an internet outage, but I want to work until it is fixed. The fact that Adobe has a way to access your design files with or without internet, even though it may be technically difficult, gives us hope that it will be applied to Figma.
The future of Adobe
Simplifying the UI
The simplicity over complexity principles, methods, technology, and ideas of Figma’s product, development, and design teams could be applied to Adobe’s products through cross-team collaboration, bringing a new look to Adobe’s outdated and cluttered interfaces.
Collaborative cloud infrastructure
InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and other tools from the Adobe list make online live collaboration nearly impossible. Taking a look at the trends, our work environments are becoming even more collaborative, and it’s easier to give feedback if you can actively participate in the process. Figma collaborative tools have even led some people to become designers. Keeping Adobe’s products in sync and updated to modern needs could be accomplished by implementing collaborative principles that Figma have set across other apps.
New app on the cloud
In the future, Figma can be added to a Creative Cloud subscription plan, which will give us access to all the Adobe tools at a lower price point (hopefully).
Looking forward
There are also other benefits and downsides, I sincerely hope that there’s a bright future for Figma as part of the Adobe lineup, that should bring more good stuff to us, designers.
It’s sad that Adobe does not have any big competitors on the market, meaning it has monopolized the design business with this acquisition, and I expect having moment of stagnation in the field of design tools, until the next “Figma-like” competitor product will arise.
Here is my own take on the current state of the deal, my worries, my concerns, and my hopes, not a definitive list of what will happen to our beloved Figma app in the future.
What are your thoughts about this acquisition, what you think will happen next?