Figma to Framer: My 5 Stages of Acceptance

Like all things new, it started with anxiety.

I was asked to learn Framer. Not just fiddle with it but actually build a site end-to-end, alone. It wasn’t just about upskilling. I was also meant to lead this change within the team.

Luckily, I was given a full week at work with zero distractions. No Slack pings, no status meetings. Just me and Framer.

And in that week, I had a realization: 1 week of learning something new feels nothing like 1 week of doing the work. Work has become second nature. I can do it on autopilot. Learning? That requires deliberate effort. Focus. Humility. Breaks. So many breaks.

The Wrong Start

I began by trying to recreate older websites I’d designed: copy-pasting Figma files into Framer. But I quickly realized this wasn’t Figma with a ‘publish’ button. It was it’s own beast.

So I stopped copying and decided to build from scratch. Using Framer’s building blocks. Leaning into how it thinks.

Only then did things click.

Geography doesn’t matter anymore

Framer Academy was great, genuinely one of the better tool tutorials I’ve seen. But what really helped? The internet’s unofficial teaching staff.

For every small bug, every “why won’t this align,” there was a YouTuber with a neon thumbnail and a 3-minute fix. We live in an incredible time to be a beginner.

You don’t need a design school, a big city job, or even a mentor. You just need curiosity and Wi-Fi. If I’d had access to this growing up, I would’ve learned design a decade earlier.

Today, someone sitting in a Tier 3 town can pick up Framer or Webflow, learn from the best, and launch a career.

The Liberation of Going Live

There’s a special kind of joy in hitting Publish on something you built yourself. As a brand designer, I’ve always handed off final files to a dev. But this time, I was the dev.

I’m still discovering what Framer can’t do and that’s okay. For 80% of basic marketing sites? It’s more than enough.

And the way it handles responsiveness? Honestly magical. You see your grid adapt across breakpoints. It teaches you something Figma never could. It’s fast. Forgiving. Fun.

Silicon Valley behemoths like Facebook, LinkedIn andUber figured this out, and put out a lighter version of their apps to run on low-end mobile phones. Indian companies like Ola, Gaana and DailyHunt soon followed suit.‍

The 5 Emotional Stages of Learning Framer

As I experienced them all:

1. Denial - Why am I doing this? Isn’t that what developers are for?
2. Anger - Why can’t I figure out this simple layout?!
3. Bargaining - Okay… maybe I’ll do the basics and get dev help for the rest.
4. Depression - I just learned all this - why can’t I remember anything?
5. Acceptance - This is hard. But it’s good for me. Life (and design) gets better after this.

Why I Chose This as My First Blog

Because this is what growth looks like. Uncomfortable. Frustrating. But worth it.

Designers need to tinker with dev tools especially if you’re working with external teams. You stop treating development like a black box. You understand what’s a quick fix vs. a rewrite. You stop saying ‘just one small change’ - because you know it’s not.

You become a better designer. One who thinks in systems, not just pixels.

Tech is evolving faster than any of us can keep up with. There’s no finish line to this learning curve. But there’s community. Humor. Tools. And neon thumbnails pointing you to the answers.

Take it from me - a 35-year-old brand designer trying to learn new tech: It starts with anxiety. But it almost always ends in joy.