The journey from an initial design concept to a fully functioning website is long and arduous. Designers create mockups and prototypes in design tools like Figma, then hand off specs to developers who have to painstakingly recreate them in code. This fragmented process often results in miscommunication, unmet expectations, and wasted time. 

Traditional design to dev workflow

Traditionally, the workflow from design to development looks something like this:

1. UX/UI designers create wireframes and mockups in design tools like Sketch, Adobe XD, or figma to webflow. It represents how they envision the site layout, content, features, etc.
2. Designers may generate redlines, style guides, and design specs to document details like colors, fonts, spacing, etc. It helps guide the development work.
3. Design files get handed off to front-end developers who now have to manually recreate the designs in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is extremely time-consuming and prone to misinterpretation.
4. Lots of back-and-forth communication ensues as developers have questions about design implementation, or designers see their vision executed incorrectly. This slows things down.
5. After lots of iteration and tweaking, the developer’s code finally recreates the designer’s vision, and a functioning site is born!

The traditional tools like Photoshop and Sketch got the job done, this clunky cross-discipline process often created frustration on all sides. Next-generation tools like Figma and Webflow aim to streamline the handoff process dramatically.

Introducing figma

Figma is a cloud-based design platform built for the modern era. Designers collaborate in real-time on a shared canvas to create responsive website and app designs.  

Here are some key features that make Figma an ideal design tool:

• Multiplayer workflow – See collaborators’ cursors in real-time for seamless teamwork
• Design systems – Maintain consistency with shared fonts, colors, components
• Prototyping – Link screens together to simulate user journeys 
• Platform agnostic – Export production-ready files for any platform 
• Inspect mode – Allow developers to inspect designs right inside Figma
• Built-in version control – Track changes and revert to earlier design stages
• Figma Plugins – Extend functionality via a robust plugins ecosystem

Figma’s multiplayer workflow is a game-changer for streamlined collaboration. Product managers, UX researchers, visual designers, and developers simultaneously work together in a shared workspace. The inspect mode allows developers to view typographic styles, colors, spacing, assets, and more as they bring designs to life. Components empower designers to create reusable UI elements that stay in sync across multiple screens. 

Powerful prototyping tools allow designers to simulate website functionality, user interactions, and micro animations. This gives crucial context to developers implementing the production site. Overall, Figma provides all the features needed for designers to create fully-fledged interactive prototypes. This sets up perfectly for handing off to a code-based web development platform.

According to namu designer Bryan jeon

“I was able to throw away 3-4 weeks of development timeframe and fully focus on bringing the visual design to life in the browser using Webflow.” The site launched with pixel-perfect accuracy to the Figma designs on both desktop and mobile. Had they stuck to traditional workflows, the redesign likely would have taken 6+ weeks. This massive speed increase demonstrates the incredible power of integrating Figma and Webflow to streamline design to development.