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Many designers – both freelance and in the state of companies – work in the Figma service. However, there is a risk that it may become unavailable to Russian corporate clients. We tell you what to do in this case
About the expert: Nikolai Reutin, art director.
What is Figma and why is it so good
10-15 years ago, designers drew layouts mostly in Photoshop. The advent of the Sketch editor revolutionized their work: this solution was developed specifically for creating layouts and solved most of the daily problems that designers faced. For example, now it was possible to draw several layouts at the same time.
But with the advent of Figma, designers had a universal tool that allowed them to transfer all their work to the cloud and work together with other designers and customers. Subsequently, this idea was adopted by Sketch, and even the creator of Photoshop, Adobe, offered Adobe XD, a solution largely copying Figma.
The advantage of Figma is that this service allows you to conveniently and quickly work with files without the need to save them, for example, to send them to a customer – you can view them in the same cloud in which you are working on them. And it is in this convenience that the problem lies: if access to the service is lost, many specialists will be left without access to the results of their work.
Figma is now the most common work tool for graphic and interface designers. A huge number of companies use corporate solutions, and just with them problems can arise.
Who can lose Figma
First of all, corporate clients are at risk, especially those that may be subject to sanctions.
“Now we have several customers who are directly affected by the sanctions – and we will have to disable the service for them. To the best of our knowledge, we can continue to provide services to all of our other Russian clients at this time. Unfortunately, we cannot help with payment problems – you will have to look for alternatives to your banks and payment methods if your bank is under sanctions, Figma representatives told Trends. “We can give Russian clients this advice: if you are worried that you may be affected by further sanctions, you can move your data to your resources.”
It is impossible to predict which customers will be affected by future export control measures, the company acknowledges. In case customers have any questions about downloading and moving their data, they can contact Figma support by writing to [email protected]
In theory, a regional shutdown is also possible, although, most likely, individual Russian users are unlikely to be banned from using the service. However, in this case, the problem will be solved using a VPN.
On the part of our country, as was the case with LinkedIn, Figma will also most likely not be turned off. Nevertheless, in any case, it makes sense to prepare for the most difficult scenario and make sure that you at least save the files you are working with.
What should be done with the files right now?
If you use corporate access to Figma and are worried that you may be disconnected due to sanctions, you can give access to files to a private account (preferably by registering it via mail on a global server, say, on Gmail, if it is also not available by that time). blocked), which this access will most likely not lose, and transfer the necessary files to Drafts. The nuance is that these files will be public, and with a strong desire, someone from the outside can get access to them: in free accounts, you can only create open files.
Users of both paid and free accounts can now download all FIG files from Figma offline in order to retain the ability to open them through another editor without an Internet connection. You can download files, for example, through the popular plugin for exporting from Figma, Convertify. Through it, they can also be converted into formats that can be worked with in Sketch or Adobe XD. However, this solution has a problem: all downloaded files will break links with other files, design systems and their components.
Another step that can be taken is to save the files as pictures, for example, in PNG format, just in case, so that, if anything, at least recreate them according to the existing sample.
How to replace Figma?
Good options that could come to replace Figma are the aforementioned Sketch and Adobe XD. Theoretically, with access to them, problems may also begin. But all services that have all the necessary and convenient tools for designers to use are foreign. And to replace them in case you fail to work with any of them, it will not work fully.
There are also tools for collaboration not only designers, but also other specialists. They do not currently have many convenient and familiar tools for designers, but in the event of sanctions, they may appear.