Recently there has been an upcoming rise of collaboration within design tools, with the user experience becoming more of a collaborative task. Collaborative UX design means treating all users, whether they are a developer, designer, project manager or any role for that matter, as partners in the creative process. This ends up leading to solutions that address real user needs more effectively. (1.)
Historically, Design tools didn’t offer much in terms of collaboration. It was done by one person and was mainly manual, with the occasional pitch to a client or a meeting with a project manager. Designers relied on physical drawing boards, pencils, tracing paper and other traditional methods. Every change was manual. (2.) But as technology improved and more services like cloud saving became easily accessible, it allowed for design software to adapt and expand into real-time, multi-user, cloud-based tools which could be used remotely and could be accessed by anyone, so long as they had an invite or were a part of a team. Tools like Figma and Miro offer these services and are often used in the design industry for collaboration. As of right now over 10 million individual users use Figma, more than doubling from 2022. (3.) Miro reported having over 60 million users as of September 2023. (4.)
Covid-19 helped to spark the remote/hybrid work practices that are now common in design. As workplaces were forced to adapt, that is when collaborative design tools like Figma and Miro saw a significant rise in users. In fact, nearly 80% of workers were using digital collaboration tools in 2021, up from 44% at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. (5.)
This report will cover the trends with the user experience side of collaboration and the implications it has for designers
I identified five main trends that are emerging within collaborative design tools. The following trends reflect how the user experience is becoming more connected, accessible and spread across systems.
Design tools like Figma allow anyone to edit together. With cross functional collaboration it allows for Designers, Developers and Project managers to use the same file to view, edit and comment. When multiple people are working on one product, there's more room for innovation, this means there is more creativity and originality. This also helps to improve the user experience by getting feedback at each key stage. You're able to avoid making unnecessary changes further down the process. It helps to reduce any miscommunication within a team. It also allows for different perspectives to improve not only the product, but the experience as well. Figma’s impact is visible, with 84% of designers now collaborating weekly with developers inside the platform (6.) This demonstrates how real-time co-creation has become a core part of the design process.
The ability to work on a project from anywhere is advancing with collaborative design tools, These tools have helped to bring workers together, to communicate, collaborate and accomplish work in the absence of face-to-face meetings and on-site working. With remote work companies adopting these design tools with Miro reporting that it served 95% of Fortune 100 companies in 2020. (7.) Remote work is improved with these design tools, as even teams are spread out in the world, these platforms help maintain communication and alignment which creates a stronger foundation for the design process.
This means that anyone can work on a design tool, whether you are a stakeholder, engineer or a user. Tools like Miro can be easily accessed and don’t require an advanced level of knowledge to use it. There are resources like templates, guided flows, sticky notes, etc. that allow for anyone to use it and contribute to a project. The accessibility of design helps to strengthen the user experience, this is because non-designers can point out insights that designers may have overlooked. It also promotes participation. Including others and ensuring solutions reflect a wider range of user and client perspectives. However, accessibility in terms of disabilities remains inconsistent. For example, Miro lacks full screen-reader support and offers limited keyboard navigation which contradicts modern UX accessibility expectations. (8.)
With cloud saving, it means you can access your or someone else’s work easily, with designs updating immediately as soon as a change is done. It also means that you can view work on a browser, removing the need for installations and allowing for instant access. This helps to simplify the process and to allow anyone to view work easily, it improves consistency across screens and components. Another point to mention is the collaboration of design systems, for UX teams, this helps to reduce friction and also ensures that people working on the project are working with the recently updated version of a project to prevent any setbacks or mistakes.
Design tools like Miro and Figma have payment plans for companies and enterprises. Looking at Figma’s pricing they offer three different roles: Collab Seat, Dev Seat and Full Seat with each seat giving access to a Figma product, where Figma shines however is it’s free education plan not only for students but for educators as well. (9.) Canva, although simpler compared to other design tools, also supports collaborative editing, which can be used for presentations, wireframes and communication for free. Canva’s 240 million monthly users (10.) and free collaborative editing mean organisations can participate in UX processes without enterprise-level tools. These accessible tools enable more people to engage in UX processes, supporting inclusivity while sticking to a budget.
With real-time, cloud-based collaborative design tools rising, there is a shift in software preferences, this is causing a transformation of the idea, expectations and strategy of UX work, The trends I’ve mentioned are not only changing how designers produce work, but what it means to be apart of a current UX practice. In this section I will talk about the implications design tools bring and how it alters the designer’s role, responsibility and maturity within a team