I appreciate the technical achievement of "multiplayer," and it does work impressively well.
However, no one one my design team likes it. I certainly don't. It's akin to having someone breathing over your shoulder as you're trying to work. And with design, especially, I tend to create a bunch of nonsense and "bad" designs before getting anywhere near a level worthy of sharing or even a team critique. Even if I don't care what others think of me or my skills, it's very disruptive to the creative process to know that someone is watching you.
In my experience, at least, there do not seem to be very many use cases for "multiplayer." I mean, even using Google Docs at the same time as someone else is jarring and disruptive in most cases.
Perhaps the only use case where we've actually liked having it is for a critique (especially when a teammate is remote) or a demo.
Personal preference aside, I think Figma is great. I still miss some things from Sketch, but overall Figma is a great tool. My team recently transitioned/is still transitioning from Sketch to Figma, and I can imagine that many other design teams will be making the same move too.
As a designer who has been part of small and large teams there is a critical problem is solves which makes it worth it: Versioning.
Versioning is hell, there are git-like solutions like Abstract or Cactus but aside from those solutions being half-baked, the need for versioning at all disappears with multiuser/multiplayer. You have one doc, one source of truth. When I work with other designers, PMs, copywriters, etc. Who all need to make edits for one reason or another, it because a nightmare really quickly.
The fact is 99% of the time, you'll be in the file alone. Just like Google Docs. But when you need it, it saves you a lot of time.
I have the exact opposite feeling towards this feature. It's completely changed the game at my design studio, made me a better designer, and makes us all more productive. We've gotten to the point where we'd probably turn down work if it meant we couldn't use Figma to do it.
That said, we are all producers at my studio and we also respect each other's space. Everyone designs in some capacity and we're all very comfortable in our skin. We don't really "snoop" on each others work if we know it's not time for feedback or we're not co-designing. The only time I'd pop into someones file or artboard I know they are actively working in is if I need to quickly copy/paste something I know they have (little things like this are amazing). Speaking of co-design, this is my favorite part of Figma. A few days per week we dedicate time to co-design with another person, kind of like pair-programming. Generally we both already have a base level of work complete and we talk through it, then riff on each others ideas and work to come up with something new or solve problems in different ways. Working this way at least a few days per week has really paid off for us and it's quite fun. I also feel like I learn new design tricks or skills I wouldn't have if I wasn't working this way.
I feel like between using this feature in a pre-planned way and also having some unspoken rules/constraints around how we review each others work is all you need to do to make this less of an issue. Honestly I look at it the same as literally standing over someones shoulder. I would never do that unless invited, and even then I'd prefer to sit next to them and it be more collaborative. There is also the trick, which some people do at our studio, of simply working in a private file until you're ready to paste everything into the collaborate projects. It's as simple as a copy/paste and you have complete privacy if that's what you want. We purposely do this with most of our clients so they are not tempted to leave feedback before we're ready.
> My team recently transitioned/is still transitioning from Sketch to Figma, and I can imagine that many other design teams will be making the same move too.
I'm curious why. I would've thought that the main advantage of Figma is the "online collaboration" aspect, but if you don't like that part, what is it that makes Figma better than Sketch?
In that case, why switch from Sketch to Figma and not to, say, XD? I feel like "multi-platform" was not _the_ reason people like Figma better than Sketch (maybe it's part of it, but not all).
As a counterexample I work with one other designer on my team and we have a really trusting relationship. We treat the product and marketing we design for as something we both steward rather than something either one of us exclusively owns. Being able to say "Hey can you take a look at this and help me figure out why it doesn't feel right?" and then have them copy the artboard and tweak it with me while we're on a video call is fantastic. (We both keep pages full of garbage designs while we're teasing things out too.)
Also since you can see the other person's cursor on your screen, you know when they're "watching" you. But in our case we don't really spend time scoping what each other is doing until one of us asks for help.
To echo what other commentators are saying regarding versioning, as someone who used to do Git, Plant.io, and Abstract to sync Sketch files, Figma removes this huge painful time-wasting part of our workflow.
FWIW, I felt the same way transitioning to working within a software development team coming from a world in which my work was done much less tracked while still in progress, however I eventually realized that 1. typically no one is watching because they are aware of the structure of the workflow and that doing so would be inefficient, and that 2. when they do, there's little reason to be shy about it since anyone paying attention understands it's a draft and all that encompasses.
Maybe consider labeling the files that are in progress as such?
I've now gone fully the other direction and will open draft pull requests as soon as I start committing code, knowing that I have nothing to lose from doing so and often end up being saved time and with a better finished product sooner when someone whose intuition probably told them to peek at this particular piece of work for a reason.
TL;DR - You can get used to this and even grow to prefer it. That said, design is not engineering and I may simply have Stockholm Syndrome.
I’m afraid I have to agree. Cool technology, but it seems like the sort of thing that would keep you second guessing yourself and promote the mediocrities of bikeshedding and design by committee.
However, no one one my design team likes it. I certainly don't. It's akin to having someone breathing over your shoulder as you're trying to work. And with design, especially, I tend to create a bunch of nonsense and "bad" designs before getting anywhere near a level worthy of sharing or even a team critique. Even if I don't care what others think of me or my skills, it's very disruptive to the creative process to know that someone is watching you.
In my experience, at least, there do not seem to be very many use cases for "multiplayer." I mean, even using Google Docs at the same time as someone else is jarring and disruptive in most cases.
Perhaps the only use case where we've actually liked having it is for a critique (especially when a teammate is remote) or a demo.
Personal preference aside, I think Figma is great. I still miss some things from Sketch, but overall Figma is a great tool. My team recently transitioned/is still transitioning from Sketch to Figma, and I can imagine that many other design teams will be making the same move too.