Figma is a powerful tool that completely changed how UI UX design teams collaborate, design, prototype, and ship world-class products. It is one of the most powerful and popular UI design tools available today.
Whether you’re a total beginner to UX design or a senior UX UI designer or web designer, there’s never been a better time to learn Figma or take your Figma skills to the next level. No matter your skill or experience, mastering Figma is perhaps the single most high-leverage skill you can add to your toolkit as a designer.
Regardless of whether you're just starting out or have previous experience, following an online course might be the best way to learn Figma and level up your UX and UI design skills. But where do you begin? There are hundreds of online Figma courses, bootcamps, web design courses, YouTube channels, and "best courses" lists, but they're not all created equal. The design industry moves fast and many of these courses are already outdated.
We know it can be overwhelming so we’ve compiled this list of the absolute best online courses for Figma available today that will set you well on your way toward becoming a Figma expert in no time.
Before reviewing each course that made our list, let’s start by explaining how to learn Figma.
How to learn Figma
Figma is the most popular design and prototyping tool in the world. It's a powerful tool that can handle everything from simple web design projects, all the way up to high-fidelity designs and interactive prototypes of complex user interfaces and mobile apps. The demand for Figma skills isn't slowing down:
While it is generally very intuitive and easy to learn, it does have some more advanced features such as auto layout and interactive prototype tools that can be hard to wrap your head around.
The best way to learn how to use Figma requires spending some time reading about these features and the basics of visual design before diving in to get a basic theoretical understanding of how things work. The official Figma Learn Design series is perfect for this!
Is it easy to learn Figma?
Figma is not particularly hard for beginners to grasp. However, if you’d like to hit the ground running, there are some things that you can check out even before starting an online course.
We suggest you try the following:
1. Learn the basics of the design process
Before diving into a Figma course, you'll benefit from learning about design in general. Figma’s short brief might be useful for anyone who wants to learn more about principal design definitions.
2. Explore UI kits and design systems
If you're a hands-on learner, a good way to speed up your learning experience and learn Figma best practices is by exploring and reverse-engineering how professional Figma design projects have been built. Check out the 100% free version of Untitled UI as a start.
Untitled UI has a large component library of UI components and styles, website examples, and application examples where you can explore how various UI design components have been built and have been used to create web designs, mobile apps, and other user interfaces design essentials.
3. Understand design thinking and ethics
Often overlooks, learning more about design ethics, empathy, inclusiveness, and unconscious bias is a must for anyone who’s just getting into the design field, particularly UX design.
With that out of the way, let’s explore our list of the best online courses for Figma.
The best Figma courses in 2023
As we've mentioned, there are hundreds of online courses for Figma available today, but they're not always worth the investment and are often outdated. If you're looking to truly invest in your future, here's our list of the best quality online courses to learn Figma in 2023.
All the courses we included in this list are available online, and you can start learning Figma anywhere in the world and at your own pace.
1. Figma for Beginners by Figma
Length of course: 6 lessons totaling ~1 hour
Instructor: Figma
Figma’s official YouTube channel is packed full of resources and free courses to learn design, best practices, and everything Figma. This is one resource you’ll want to check out, regardless of your skill level. Best of all, it's 100% free!
We suggest starting with the short playlist Figma For Beginners as a primer on Figma and Figma UI UX design essentials. The course takes less than 1 hour, and its syllabus consists of the following 6 videos:
- What's Figma?
- Figma For Beginners: Explore ideas (1/4)
- Figma For Beginners: Create designs (2/4)
- Figma For Beginners: Build prototypes (3/4)
- Figma For Beginners: Prepare for Handoff (4/4)
- Welcome to FigJam
We love Figma's free courses and video tutorials because they're simple and easy to follow, even if you don't have previous experience.
2. Learn Figma
Length of course: 47 lessons totaling 3 hours and 40 minutes
Instructor: Caleb Kingston
You've probably heard of Udemy before. A quick search of design returns an incredible 10,000+ results for online video courses on everything from motion design to complete web design and creative web development, mobile app design, and hundreds of courses on prototyping tools like Adobe XD and Figma. It's easy to get overwhelmed by choice...
Learn Figma is one of the more popular Udemy courses on Figma by Caleb Kingston, founder of App Design Tips. The course includes 3.5 hours of video and additional resources and articles to dive deeper into Figma, user interface design, and mobile app design.
We've included Learn Figma on this list because it's a simple and short learn-by-doing intro to learning Figma that is suitable for students transitioning from web design and graphic design into a UI UX designer career, as well as absolute beginners.
The course content covers all the basics of Figma tools and features, as well as design processes, and even touches on more advanced features like auto layout. It packs a lot into the short videos with Figma project files to follow along.
3. Figma UI UX Design Essentials
Length of course: 111 lessons totaling 11 hours and 32 minutes
Instructor: Daniel Walter Scott
Created by digital designer Daniel Walter Scott, Figma UI UX Design Essentials is a beginners' course that’s available on both Skillshare and Udemy. If you've used Adobe products before or started out with Adobe XD, you may recognize Daniel from his Bring Your Own Laptop courses.
Overall, this is an incredibly useful course for beginners who want to gain in-depth knowledge of using Figma. It contains 111 lessons of theoretical teaching and practical Figma project exercises, starting from the very basics of UX and UI definitions, all the way up to high-fidelity designs in Figma, and advanced interactive prototypes.
The usual price of this course on Udemy is $84.99, but right now, there’s an 88% sale, so you can purchase it for $19.99. Skillshare offers a 7-day free trial, and once the trial’s over, the course will cost you $17.99 monthly.
4. Figma Academy
Length of course: 6 modules (self-paced)
Instructor: Michael "Ridd" Riddering
Figma Academy is a comprehensive and hands-on course created and hosted by Michael "Ridd" Riddering. If you're looking for the most complete and extensive "masterclass" course on Figma, this is it.
While it covers everything for beginners, it's generally geared towards UX designers and product designers with some understanding and experience with Figma looking to "sharpen the skills you use daily".
This course doesn't just cover how to learn Figma, but it is packed with practical skills, design tactics, and mental models that will make you more valuable to your team and help you take the next step (or first step) in your UX design career. Each "module" includes lessons that are paired with corresponding Figma files and resources.
Some of the most important aspects that this course covers are:
- Design process
- Design systems
- Style systems
- Prototyping
- Responsive design
- Workflows
- Handoff
Enrolment to Figma Academy fills up quickly. There are two types of enrollment for Figma Academy:
- Team License: This license costs $299 per seat and is available for three or more users.
- Individual License: This license costs $499 and is limited to one user. Right now, Figma Academy only offers the team license option, but this might change again in the future when they re-open enrollment in early 2023.
Check out this demo video by Figma Academy if you want to learn more about the course’s syllabus.
"Ready to become a better product designer? Learn advanced design tactics with hands-on lessons delivered directly inside of Figma."
5. Design System Bootcamp
Length of course: 4-week bootcamp (4-6 hours per week)
Instructor: Molly Helmuth
Created by Molly Helmuth, Design System Bootcamp is a four-week Figma course suitable for beginners, intermediate designers, and design teams that want to gain extensive knowledge of design systems in Figma and master advanced Figma features. In Molly's own words:
"Whether you build a design system for your product or just for practice. You'll become an expert in Figma's most advanced features and workflows."
The syllabus contains four modules, starting with introductory lessons on how to set up a design system, how to create responsive design methods, and how to design UI components.
After covering the design basics, the course offers lessons on building advanced UI elements and creating a responsive design project. Bootcamp’s syllabus also contains practical tasks, such as building components from scratch. In the last module, Molly gives feedback to each student about their project activities.
The course is very hands-on and teaches practical and real-life design skills. Design System Bootcamp only launched recently and the course has already sold out, but if you’re interested in staying in the loop and participating in the following course sessions, you can sign up for Bootcamp’s mailing list via their site.
6. Shift Nudge
Length of course: 85 lessons totaling 30+ hours
Instructor: Matt D. Smith
Developed by product designer and instructor Matt D. Smith, Shift Nudge is a brilliant Figma course that offers 85 lessons of practical content on user experience design and Figma, separated into eight learning modules. In total, the course contains more than 1,000 videos and lasts approximately 30 hours.
These are the main design topics covered by Shift Nudge are broken up into the following:
- Start: introduction to design, mindset, Figma, and design projects organization
- Typography: sizing, hierarchy, fonts, best practices
- Layout: CSS and the box model, negative space, alignment, and advanced layout techniques
- Color: contrast and accessibility, strategic definitions, gradients, and dark UI
- Style: design direction, borders, shadow, and effects styles, form vs function
- Imagery: types of images and best practices, blend modes, manipulation, icons
- Element: UI components, navigations, tables, and design systems
- Tactics: low-fidelity vs high-fidelity designs, mobile app designs, design reviews, prototyping, handoff, and more advanced Figma techniques
- Critique vault: real-world reviews of design projects
"This course is absolutely jam-packed with all the best information for creating great visual design for interfaces. No fluff, just practical content tailored specifically for interfaces."
At the moment, Shift Nudge enrolment is full and closed for individuals but you can subscribe for updates via their website. When enrolment is open, the Core Plan (individuals) starts from $1,194.
7. Figmaster
Length of course: 42 lessons (self-paced)
Instructor: Mateusz Wierzbicki
This addition is a little bit different. Figmaster isn't a course, per se, but a "learn by doing" intermediate design systems workbook plugin specifically designed for Figma. Figmaster was created by the product designer and design system expert Mateusz Wierzbicki, who also created the Ant Design System for Figma. An individual license for Figmaser costs $99.
Figmaster is an excellent asset for UX and UI designers to learn and create modern design systems and Figma components from scratch, including more advanced topics such as auto layout, design tokens, grid layouts, and typography.
"By doing exercises in Figma, you learn and create your guide style and component library simultaneously. It is a format that will help you get the most out of each lesson. By learning - you create, and by the way, you get to know keyboard shortcuts, plugins, and techniques of working in Figma that will speed up your workflow. Everything happens in Figma - no distractions."
Figmaster is split up into four modules that contain various practical exercises that will help you master the process of creating a design system and various UI components:
- Module 1: Style guide; Figmaster Design System
- Module 2: Components
- Module 3: Documentation
- Module 4: Use it
After finishing the course, you’ll also get a certificate of completion.
8. Complete Web & Mobile Designer in 2023
Length of course: 300+ lessons totaling 30+ hours
Instructors: Andrei Neagoie & Daniel Schifano
Zero To Mastery's Complete Web & Mobile Designer in 2023 is another great Figma course that’s specifically created for beginners who’d like to learn more about the process of designing mobile and web apps. In their own words, this course will help you "go from complete beginner to getting hired as a Designer in 2023!" This course covers everything and is a complete Figma UX UI app design course.
This Figma course is taught by Andrei Neagoie, the founder of Zero To Mastery, and Daniel Schifano, Lead Product Designer at Up&Up and a product design educator.
This course offers access to Zero To Mastery’s community, more than 100+ templates and design elements, complete access to various workshops, lectures, design resources, and 29 hours of video materials. After finishing the course, you’ll get a certificate of completion.
The course’s lessons focus on covering the following:
- Introduction to the principles of graphic design
- Recent mobile app and web design practices
- The fundamentals of UX and UI
- Introduction to HTML/CSS for UX and UI designers
- Sketching
- Shapes and tools
- Wireframes and prototypes
- Visual design (grids, typography, color schemes, UI elements, etc.)
- Design systems and application design
Pricing starts at $39 per month. The annual license costs $279 per year, and the lifetime license costs $999.
"Go from complete beginner to getting hired as a Designer in 2023! This is the only design bootcamp you need to learn and master web design, mobile design, Figma, UI & UX, and HTML + CSS."
9. Learn Figma: User Interface Design Essentials
Length of course: 151 lessons totaling 10 hours and 9 minutes
Instructors: Arash Ahadzadeh
Learn Figma Interface Design Essentials - UI/UX Design is another Udemy course that was created by Arash Ahadzadeh, a UI/UX designer and iOS developer. The course’s workload contains 150 lectures packed in 10 hours of video materials, 29 resources and learning articles, and an eBook of 200+ pages.
Once you complete it, you’ll get a certificate. The course costs $84.99 and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, but Udemy often offers sales and discounts on these prices.
The Learn Figma course is perfect both for beginners and intermediate Figma users, with 150 well-structured lecturers focusing on:
- Creating a UI design from scratch
- Creating and testing a mobile app
- Creating and testing a landing page
- Creating an interactive prototype
- Building a 3D model and designing 3D scenes
- Learning Figma shortcuts and techniques
Recap
Regardless if you're a beginner UI UX designer or an experienced professional, there's always room to learn and improve your design process and design skills.
If you're reading this list, you're already investing your time upskilling for future projects which is the right mindset for success. If you practice daily and are persistent, you'll master Figma and other design tools in no time.
Remember that not everyone learns the same way and there are tons of resources and courses to learn Figma. Some may find it easier to "learn by doing" in a hands-on workshop environment, while others prefer self-paced online courses. We've put together this of the best online courses for Figma with that in mind and you may have to experiment to see what works best for you.
Looking to check out a great free course for Figma? We also have a post on the best Figma tutorials that are 100% free.
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