Imagine: you open an app to order coffee, and the "Pay" button slides off the edge of the screen on a small iPhone. Or the registration form asks you to create a password but doesn't say which characters are allowed — you poke at it at random, get frustrated, and close the tab. Sound familiar? These aren't just bugs — they're the result of mistakes in interface design. UI/UX design is exactly about making sure such situations don't happen.
Many people think UI/UX is "drawing pretty little buttons." In reality, it's a combination of psychology, logic, and engineering. A good interface designer first figures out what task the user is solving, then designs the scenario, and only at the end — the visual appearance. And Figma here isn't just a tool, but an environment where a mockup turns into a prototype, and the prototype turns into a design system ready to hand off to developers.
The "UI/UX Design with Figma" course on asibiont.com is exactly about this: not about memorizing buttons, but about how to design interfaces that work. But before talking about the course, let's break down the field itself — with examples, mistakes, and pitfalls.
Why UI/UX Is About Mechanics, Not Beauty
UX (user experience) is responsible for how the user travels the path to their goal: finds what they need, understands what to do, and doesn't stumble. UI (user interface) is responsible for how it looks and feels: colors, fonts, spacing, button states. Together they create the experience.
The key mistake beginners make is starting with drawing. An experienced designer first builds the information architecture (the structure of screens), then wireframes (schematic layouts without details), and only after that — the visual design. Skipping stages leads to rework: you drew a beautiful screen, and then it turns out the user needed a completely different action.
Another important principle: interface design is about constraints. A phone screen is small, the user's attention is limited, and business and development requirements often contradict each other. A good designer knows how to find a compromise between the client's wishes, technical feasibility, and usability.
Breaking Down a Task: How to Design a Payment Screen Without Losing Customers
Let's take a typical task: an online store asks you to design the order payment screen. A beginner will draw a form with the fields "Card number," "Expiration date," "CVV," and a "Pay" button. An experienced designer will do it differently.
Step 1. Understand the context. Who is paying? From a phone or a laptop? Which payment methods are available? What happens if the payment fails? Without answers to these questions, any mockup is guesswork.
Step 2. Design the scenario. The user taps "Pay" → sees a screen with the amount and payment methods → selects a card → enters the details → confirms → gets the result. At every step there must be a way to go back and a clear error message.
Step 3. Think through the states. The "Pay" button can be active, inactive (while the fields aren't filled in), in a loading state (a spinner is spinning), in an error state (red text). If you only draw the active button, the developer won't understand what to do in the other cases.
Step 4. Account for constraints. On a small screen, the fields must not shrink to an unreadable state. Card number input should be split into groups of 4 digits — that makes it easier to check. Error messages must be specific: not "Error," but "Your card has expired."
Step 5. Test on a prototype. In Figma you can assemble a clickable prototype and give it to a couple of acquaintances. If they try to tap a non-clickable element or don't understand where to go, the scenario needs fixing.
What happens if you skip these steps? For example, you didn't think through the loading state — the user taps the button, nothing happens, they tap again and pay twice. Or you didn't add validation — the person enters the card number with a mistake, the form is submitted, the money isn't charged, but the order isn't placed either. At best — a lost customer, at worst — refunds and complaints.
Where the Mechanism Breaks: 4 Failure Scenarios
Even experienced designers sometimes fall into traps. Here are typical situations where the scheme fails.
1. Business Requirements Changed
You designed the interface for one business model, and a month later the client decided to add a subscription. If the mockup wasn't assembled as a design system (components and styles), you'll have to redraw everything by hand. How to spot it in advance: ask the client whether changes are planned in the next six months. If yes — build a flexible system with room to spare right away.
2. The Rule Doesn't Apply
You read that "the button should be high-contrast" and made a bright red button on every screen. But in the donations section, red is associated with danger. How to spot it: test on real users, not just colleagues. Context decides.
3. The Deadline Passed
You spent a week drawing the perfect screen, and development had already started without a mockup. In the end, the front-end developer did it their own way, and your work went unused. What to do: agree on deadlines and interim results in advance. A rough prototype in 2 days is better than a perfect one in a week.
4. The Tool Stopped Working
Figma can freeze, update its interface, or become paid for your team. If you don't have local copies or don't know how to work with other editors, you're stuck. Solution: keep backups in the cloud (e.g., export to .fig), and master at least one alternative tool (Penpot, Sketch).
Paths to Mastery: Self-Study, Practice, or a Course
There are three main paths into UI/UX.
Self-study (books, videos, articles). Pros: free or cheap, flexible schedule. Cons: no feedback, easy to reinforce mistakes, information is scattered. You can spend months drawing buttons without understanding why they don't work. Time to your first order — from six months to infinity.
Practice at a company or freelancing. Pros: real tasks, feedback from developers and users, a portfolio. Cons: without basic knowledge you're unlikely to be hired, and freelance clients aren't always ready to explain. The risk is picking up bad habits.
A structured course. Pros: a system, proven methodologies, feedback from an instructor, error analysis. Cons: costs money, requires setting aside time. But if a course is built around practice rather than just theory, it saves you months of trial and error.
The UI/UX Design with Figma course on asibiont.com is one of those: it covers not only Figma tools but also design logic — from prototyping to design systems. Learning is personalized: lessons adapt to your level, and complex topics can be worked through in an AI chat.
Who This Path Suits and Who It Doesn't
UI/UX design suits people who like solving problems with people at the center, who are ready to communicate a lot, analyze, and test. If you're an introvert who just wants to draw in silence, you'll most likely be disappointed. Interface design requires empathy and a willingness to defend decisions before the client and the team.
It's also worth honestly assessing your time: the first months will require a lot of learning and redoing. If you need a quick result without deep immersion, it's better to choose an adjacent field — for example, front-end layout or graphic design.
In the End
UI/UX design is a profession about logic and people, and Figma is a tool that helps bring decisions to life. Mistakes here are costly: lost customers, rework, missed deadlines. To avoid them, you need a system and feedback.
The "UI/UX Design with Figma" course gives exactly that: a structured path from fundamentals to design systems with personalized lessons and analysis in an AI chat. If you're ready to invest in practice, you can start on the course page: UI/UX Design with Figma.