Designing a demo was difficult as it needed to be sufficiently simple such that first-time Figma users would be able to follow along, but also complex enough that it gave them the tools they needed to finish their prototype by the end of the day.

The morning workshops focused on teaching UX fundamentals, so students could conduct mock user interviews and gather requirements for their app. We discussed usability testing, designing for accessibility, and the prototyping process. We then jumped into Figma — where we went from how to create a project, to how to create static interfaces with shapes and text. I focused on showing them what was possible with shapes and text, and that they could make pretty much anything they wanted if they understood how to manipulate a shape. I also showed them the community projects website, where they could grab elements from other designer’s projects to include in their mock app.

The afternoon workshops had a short introduction, then we went straight into Figma to talk about more advanced topics while leaving time to get one-on-one help on their projects. We talked about variables, components, connections, scroll behavior, and exporting projects for their presentation.