A Beginners Guide To Prototyping In Figma

Sshekhar Jha
April 25, 2022

Any professional that’s involved in UI design development or graphical editing of any sort may have heard of a popular web-based app dedicated to this purpose called Figma. 

A free-to-use app, Figma has enabled a host of freelance designers, boutique design firms, and UI/UX development agencies to leverage its capabilities and create visually appealing easy-to-use interfaces/ graphics.

Prototyping is the process of curating flows to explore how users may be able to interact with your app. They’re an amazing way to:

  1. Preview iterations of user flows
  2. Test iterations and interactions
  3. Share, present and gather feedback on what you’ve created from different stakeholders.

In this article, we shall touch upon a few points that you could keep in mind the next time you’re prototyping a design flow in Figma:

Initial Flow Layout

Figma allows you to design a variety of iterations of a users journey and experience on your app simultaneously and judge which one would suit best in terms of ease of use and aesthetics.

A flow layout is basically a network of different frames in a single page. Prototyping can help you expand on individual elements of said flow layout. For instance: If you’re designing an app to sell shoes online, a prototype can help you work on individual elements such as sign-up, checkout, items on wishlist etc. 

A flow is created when you establish a connection between two frames.

Use Master Components

You can take individual elements that you want in your app and turn those elements into components. Post that, all you need to do is link each sub-element of that element to the requisite frame. Doing this will allow you to automate the connection process anytime you create an instance of that element. 

For this, all you have to keep in mind is that you’ll need to create a new master component from your library.

Simulate Your Interactions

An understated yet important factor to consider while prototyping is to create simulated interactions so that the UX doesn’t feel abrupt. Adding elements that are realistic, for instance, a loading screen, can really help bridge that gap and make the experience feel seamless, even with delays. 

One such hack is to use an after-delay trigger. This trigger ensures that specific interactions take place after a set duration. An addition of this deliberate delay is useful when they’re paired with overlays.

These are a few handy tricks that you can leverage to make the process just a little bit simpler, but highly effective. Try to apply these the next time you’re about to set up a fresh prototype. You may just discover something that was previously oblivious to you.

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