Intro to Figma FAQ

Application: bit.ly/figmadecal-applysp23

Infosession: lu.ma/figmadecal

Website: bit.ly/figmadecal

Slack: bit.ly/figmadecal-slack

Table of Contents

Lectures: Mondays, 5:30-7:00 PM in Jacobs 310
- Attendance is mandatory, but we can work out alternatives if you aren’t able to attend for
Labs: Wednesdays at 10AM, 11AM, or 6PM (one hour sections)
- Locations vary by TA
- Small groups of 6 or less students
- Options for in person or online
Weekly homework
- Time spent varies topic to topic + based on your own experience, but we aim for ~2 hour assignments
- Technical/creative assignments to practice skills demonstrated in that week’s lecture
Midterm + final projects
- Open-ended projects (midterm has prompt, final is entirely proposal-based)
- No homeworks on those weeks
- Final is due in the last week of class (before dead week)

In a sentence: Intro to Figma Decal is a 2-unit course where you learn the mechanics of Figma, basic design theory, and unconventional ways to apply the skills you pick up during the semester.
Our main learning objectives:
- Become comfortable using Figma to pursue your ideas. This doesn't mean knowing every little trick, but rather being able to personally leverage Figma as a tool for whatever you want to do.
  - Highlight comfort rather than mastery — goal is that students can use Figma in whatever way they see fit
- Create a community and improve collaboration skills. Develop the hard skills to use Figma for collaboration as well as the soft skills to navigate varied and virtual team environments.
- Develop a sense for design with a critical lens. Be able to give and receive critique and feedback and maintain confidence in the work you create.

Figma is a collaborative design tool. It's primarily used for prototyping (think UI/UX work like app and web design) and vector graphics.
It's also a tool made for teams, collaboration, and community. Figma's realtime Multiplayer editing and viewing makes it easy to work on files and projects with others without having to send files over or wait for delayed updates. It also has a Community feature, where creators everywhere can share their work with others.

Nope! In fact, this course is designed for students with little to no prior design experience. If you're already familiar with Figma, we encourage you to consider auditing the course instead — following along with our lectures and activities through the semester.

Not really. While Figma is primarily used as a UIUX tool, it's incredibly versatile. Our primary course goal is for you to become comfortable using Figma to pursue your ideas.
We cover UI/UX principles, but we also spend time with other concepts like illustration, animation, and creative use cases.