Why Figma?

We love Figma as our design, prototype and collaboration tool at my studio Today. It made our transition to fully remote surprisingly smooth.

Since all of the design and prototype flows are already in Figma, and each page in Figma is a giant blank canvas, it feels natural to extend the use of the tool to usability testing as well.

This is not to say you cannot implement what I am about to go through in other tools (e.g. Sketch). I think they might be just as effective, but we will stick with Figma for now.

Step 1: Set up a post-it notes system

Your system should reflect what you want to get out from the usability testing sessions. In the context of my project, I wanted to capture five different types of information:

Like — Things participants reacted well to

— Things participants reacted well to Dislike —Things participants immediately rejected

—Things participants immediately rejected Want — Things participants wanted to introduce to the prototype

— Things participants wanted to introduce to the prototype Comment — Quotes, general thoughts from the participants

— Quotes, general thoughts from the participants Question — Reserved for my own questions, thoughts or ideas on improving the prototype

Step 2: Create virtual post-it notes in Figma

Creating post-it notes in Figma is super simple. Draw a rectangle, add drop shadow and put some text boxes into it.