Feeling Blue? And Green? And a little FFFFFF?

Welcome to Colours in Figma

I am currently on Module 5 of my Coursera UX Certificate course. So far, there has been a lot of theory, research and learning. And while it’s crucial to understand the basics and lay a strong foundation, we’re all here to play around in Figma.

So far my designs have looked…organic? Let’s go with basic. Creating wireframes and low fidelity prototypes sparked the creative desire, but the sheer amount of gray and black makes it hard to visual the end product.

But you’re not there yet, you first need to understand colour balance, primary colours, structure, and spacing, to name a few. Because as much as you love your lilac base with lime green text, *aesthetics* doesn’t translate to accessibility. But when you lead with accessibility, your designs reach more, and still fit your design grid.

Ever since switching to colour designs my mind has been swirling with all the colour combos so much so that I fell down the beginner colour wheel rabbit hole. No colour seemed good enough, no combo seemed to match. And sure enough, my iterations ended up looking like a 3 year olds rainbow birthday cake. No bad, but not what you want at twenty *rhymes with date.*

Learning about plugins from platforms such as material.io, polaris.shopify.com and the ever reliable Figma, was the helping hand I desperately needed. Not long ago, my mentor told me through fits of laughter that you’re not expected to have it all figured out, and you can go ‘shopping’ and pick what you like. Those words quickly left my mind the second I went from grey and white designs to the never ending colour.

Perhaps, after steadily working in one career for 9 years I had it figured out which makes it so much harder to ‘let go.’

UX is unlike anything I have ever done, but also, so much like my past jobs that I delight in familiarities, only to learn that I have to unlearn to learn.

Confused? Perfect, I will leave you there.