FigJam is Figtastic for whiteboarding
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Full-time designer in a product team. Work with a PM and Eng. Manager to figure what's the right thing to build and how we plan to build it right, etc. You know the drill. FigJam is a go-to, daily white board that use primarily for my own notes, sketches and visual thinking. But I also use it several times a week for collaborative purposes, usually for exercises that only last a few minutes. It's been a steady tool for quick, cheap whiteboarding largely becuase we already use Figma, but also because this is simple, low-barrier to entry. You don't want people frustrated with the tools before they even start thinking about contributing feedback to design, etc.
Pros
- quick startup, like walking up to a physical whiteboard
- restrained tools, just enough to not worry too much about style or other choices that don't really matter at this fidelity (all the time)
- excellent integration with Figma itself. Cross-cut and paste, no loss of data, editability, etc.
- dead simple to learn
Cons
- love to see it kept feature light ... already seeing the little creeping features like timing clocks, AI help, etc ...
Return on Investment
- FigJam saves a lot of time ... it's nice to have all my visual notes/sketches within Figma itself where a lot of design work lives
- The project organization and other features contribute to the ease of answering that age old question ... "where can I find that mockup?"
- Dev Mode is pretty cool. Not many use it, so some designers may spend unnecessary time spec'ing out things that no one will appreciate, let alone look at.
Usability
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft 365, Miro and Google Workspace
Other Software Used
Replit, OneNote, Slite
