Intro section
FigMate
Learning Figma made easy
OVERVIEW
FigMate is a learn-by-doing bot designed to simplify the learning process for Figma users who are trying something on their own and get stuck.
This was a solo project, part of my 16 week Capstone.
ROLE
Product designer
Interaction design, visual design, end-to-end experience, research, prototyping and testing, design system
PLATFORM
Web
PROTOTYPE
ACCOMPLISHMENT
Learning time reduced by over 35%
Users found the learning experience natural and engaging without hassle
After more than 5 user tests
CONTEXT
PROBLEM
Too much time to learn something new - time to find help + learn
Leads to demotivation + affects other work
Users took 28-30mins to learn something new - Derived from contextual inquiries
TARGET USER
Young UX designers familiar with the basics of Figma
Trying something new, but get stuck
Secondary target - novice users learning from scratch
SOLUTION
Tailored for UX designers' needs
AI in the workflow
Visual guidance - expanding triggers an animation to preview end goal. Select how deeply you want to learn Figma’s mechanics and workflows.
Craft specific goals you have in mind - you can even attach images for reference. AI will create animated thumbnails displaying the goal you'll learn in that tutorial.
Intro Scroll section
Tutorials
Step-by-step: Animated/voice directions - simply repeat or follow along to craft your own unique designs.
Spotlight feature: FigMate dims the interface and highlights each tool with animated demos to focus attention.
Control: Playback bar at the top; FigMate access on the bottom tool bar
DESIGN SYSTEM
Created a custom design system from scratch by studying Figma's
Tokens and Variables
Intro Scroll section
Component library
Modes
THE STORY
How did I get here?
CURRENT ONBOARDING
5 step pop-ups dialogues: unclear and doesn't show how a tool works
YouTube: overwhelming amount of videos, tough to find specifics, and jumping platforms breaks the flow
Because of these gaps, users..
Ask a geeky friend
Not always available, limited to their individual knowledge
Figma community
Highly unreliable; Replies can take minutes...or days, and still not resolve
Gen AI
Prompts fail; AI responses are unclear, outdated or irrelevant
USERFLOW
The goal is to target users who are stuck in the loop of seeking help and yet not figuring it out (marked red).
Intro Scroll section
RESEARCH
Important insights that helped shape the final solution
7x Interviews
3x Contextual inquiries
4x Faculty interviews
Secondary research
Learn-by-doing
Best way to learn
Visual guide
Helpful to visualize and remember longer
Muscle memory
Better muscle memory = faster workflow
Individual pace
Everyone learns at their own pace. Flipped classrooms are preferred to teach software
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ITERATIONS
Iteration 1
Instead of users’ picking, Figma picks the tutorial video from it’s YouTube library and displays inside Figma’s workspace.
Pro: Use Figma’s youtube library, and open a window
Con: Too much real-estate; Limited to YouTube content
Got me thinking…
Why can't my solution act like ChatGPT, giving users exactly what they want, rather than acting like Google and relying on external sources?
This led me to have Figma itself craft tutorials and teach the users
Iteration 2
Leveraging Figma’s current onboarding mechanics (popup dialogues) to create meaningful goal-based tutorials
Iteration 3
A bot that shares the workspace to craft step-by-step tutorials.
Pro: Users preferred this solution as they felt this was more natural, as if an instructor was teaching them.
Intro Scroll section
SOLUTION FLOW
End-to-end user experience mapped in low-fi to improve/eliminate content.
SCREEN'S ITERATIONS
Used the component library to quickly craft iterations for final screens
FINAL SOLUTION
All iterations led to this awesome experience!
User flow
Default + AI
FigMate onboarding
Triggers only the first time of using FigMate.
Tutorials
Prototype
The real experience
THANK YOU
Hope you liked it ;)
