What is Figma for & does it do the coding?

All right, let's talk about what Figma is for, and what it's not for. It is amazing at rapid prototyping of things like websites and apps. It does do other things, which we'll cover a little bit, but it is the main tool of a UX or UI designer, and their role in the creation of either wireframes, which we'll do in this course, really quick, kind of look and feel for an app or website through, to kind of like, really, like it looks exactly like a website, high fidelity mockups of this website, with interactivity as well, and this kind of leads me to what it doesn't do. 

You can make something that looks very like a website , enough so that you can go out to testing, and that's probably the best bit about Figma and UX in general, is that we'll create something, and then we'll actually be able to get in the hands of the client, the intended audience, our customers, and they can-- it's not going to be complete, but they'll be able to use it enough, that we can make some observations and actually test some theories, about what they think, and what the users want, and if things need to be changed, we can change them really quickly in Figma, and then get them back to like why they're sitting there. 

So it is about rapid prototyping, quick, you know, changes, and get to a point where you're like satisfied with the website or the app, and you're like, this has gone through a bit of user testing, client's happy with it, now this is where Figma doesn't do anything else. It's just the prototype, it's not going to code the website for you, or the app, it hands over little pieces to the developer to use, CSS and SVGs, and graphics and stuff, but not a lot that the developer can use. 

They'll end up kind of starting from scratch using your mock-ups, and they'll use a lot of things, like spacing, and they'll make it look like your app, but that's what Figma doesn't do, it doesn't do the coding side. So what you do is you get it kind of signed off, with a client, and then you either work with a developer, if you're a developer yourself, you start coding it, or you might start, like if you're-- you might get into HTML and CSS, I've got a course on that, if you want to start doing your own stuff, or you might be using something like WordPress or Web Flow, I've got courses on the horizon for both of those two, or Wix, or something more drag and drop, you then have to build it, based on your Figma mockup that you've-- It's a lot faster to do, then go and build it, either in one of those tools or code it. 

So that's what it is, rapid prototyping, and what it's not is, you're not going to have a complete site at the end, that's a question I get asked a lot, so next video. Actually, I forgot one thing, don't go away, editor, don't cut it. What else is it getting used for? Figma is getting used a lot for, like just regular graphic design, mainly in the digital space, so, like social media campaigns, there's some amazing things you'll, you'll see it as you go through the course, you'll be like, this would be really handy for doing, Instagram story posts, or carousels, or a bunch of different sizes for ads. 

 It is getting really good at it, it doesn't do a very good print stuff, you can put a normal page into it, you can say A4 or US Letter. So our people are using it as an alternative for something, like maybe Illustrator, and a bit of Photoshop, Photoshop's still required, but you'll see, it's made for designing websites and apps, but people are using it for all sorts of other stuff, now, it's coming, not a general design tool, but know that you will find some people using it a lot more, for things that it's not meant to, but it does it just perfect. All right, so that's what it is, that's what it isn't, now this is the end, cut.