Figma: The cloud-base design software predicted to be the next big name in interface design
By: Helen Wallace
Tags: Collaboration, Startup, Interface Design, Design, Figma

Chairman of global design company IDEO, Tim Brown, did a recent interview with Fast Company where he said that we can no longer talk about innovation without design being one of the key elements when it comes to transformation. The late, great Steve Jobs himself even said: ‘Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.’ Very deep, but also very accurate!

When it comes to design programs, Adobe has dominated the market for many years. The problem is that their software was essentially built for desktop use by individuals. This means that files have to be uploaded, emailed or sent and downloaded, with limited options for collaborative input. It was this frustration that led Dylan Field and Evan Wallace to launch their startup, Figma, which is now one of the most popular and fastest-growing cloud-based design platforms in the world.

Founding Figma

CEO of Figma, Dyan Field, is experienced in computer science, product design and software engineering and has, for a long time, understood how important cloud computing is when it comes to how we do business, both now and in the future. ‘Design is undergoing a monumental shift — going from when design was at the very end of the product cycle where people would just make things prettier, to now where it runs through the entire process,’ he told Tech Crunch. Growing up using cloud-based productivity tools such as Google Docs is what inspired him to create a similar tool with a focus on interface design. When he was at Brown University he met someone who would be able to bring his vision to life, software engineer Evan Wallace, and they officially founded Figma in 2012.

But getting Figma to market would be a long process. Four years, to be exact. They knew that developing and building an application to rival Adobe would be no easy feat. Another major focus was creating something that allowed for more effective collaboration and enhanced not just a designers’ productivity but an entire team. The fact that it is cloud-based eliminates the need for sending large files via email or internal messaging systems, and the inclusion of a comments tab makes it easy for co-workers to be involved and provide feedback throughout the design process.

Figma figures

The investors clearly saw Figma’s potential, as they received initial funding to the amount of $18 million from various sources, including LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner, White House Chief Data Scientist, DJ Patil and former Head of Design at Dropbox, Soleio Cuervo. After two more rounds, in 2018 and 2019, both supplying an increased amount of funding, they received their biggest number yet in early 2020 — a staggering $50 million — with said funding valuing Figma at an impressive $2 billion.

what are they planning to do with this capital? They claim to be considering acquisitions as their next phase of expansion but want to purchase startups based on talent rather than intellectual property. In terms of the application’s functionality, they want to expand its suite of tools for designers with a special focus on design systems.

The future of Figma

Not only do we, at The Delta, use Figma for our collaborative design efforts. It is a popular choice with interface designer teams at corporations such as Airbnb, Slack and Twitter, and is also utilised by media companies and financial institutions. The CEO wants to really tap into the visual communication aspect of the application so that Figma becomes ‘a collaborative meeting space for visual projects, not just the place where the visuals get made.’

The once-small startup, which is based in San Francisco, now employs over 300 people and Figma has over one million users worldwide, with numbers growing at a rapid speed. Principal Analyst at American market research company, Forrester, Andrew Hogan, has noticed more and more people moving away from other design programs towards Figma. ‘There’s a certain kind of designer that has a real love for Figma that they don’t have for Adobe,’ he told Business Insider. ‘Those folks are saying, maybe Adobe isn’t the right fit for what I’m trying to do, but maybe Figma feels the correct fit. Figma has a love for interaction product design folks.’ Who knows? Market domination for this successful startup might be just a few upgrades away.