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What I am working on as a Digital Developer Intern (Figma)
In March, I started my internship as a Digital Developer within the Website and Communications team. My internship focuses on exploring Figma, the industry-leading digital design tool, and the user interface (UI) component library that the University has been developing within it.
First impressions as an intern
On my first day – somewhere between onboarding, learning a whole new set of acronyms, and unexpectedly getting free pizza – I began to get a sense of what the next few weeks might look like. I also met with colleagues I’d be working with closely on the project: Sonia Virdi (Human Centred Specialist in Web Strategy and Governance) and Mel Batcharj (Content Designer in UX and Digital Consultancy).
Looking back, that first week was a bit of a whirlwind. From getting to grips with the University’s structure, to navigating room bookings in the Edinburgh Futures Institute, to settling into the Forrest Hill office (and quickly becoming a fan of the huge monitors), it took some time to find my rhythm.
Attending my first stand-up and adjusting to a new way of working was all part of that process. At the same time, I began exploration and research, which quickly became central to my day-to-day work. What stood out most was how quickly the experience shifted from unfamiliar to genuinely engaging, especially as I explored the problem space in more depth.
The platforms and tools behind this project
Several platforms and tools underpin this work, helping us design, document and maintain digital components while ensuring consistency between design and development.
EdGEL (the University’s coded component pattern library)
EdGEL is the University’s coded component pattern library. For those unfamiliar, a pattern library contains all the digital assets that are required when building and creating digital products and services. EdGEL’s underlying design framework is Bootstrap, which provides the starting point when developing coded components.
EdGEL is widely used across websites and web applications. It acts as a central source of truth for how interfaces should be branded, structured and implemented at the University. It was developed in 2015 when the first Drupal installation of the University’s central web platform, EdWeb, was launched.
Documenting EdGEL components (Pattern Lab and Storybook)
The assets contained within EdGEL are currently documented within Pattern Lab, which is being replaced by the tool Storybook. Both tools provide a practical way for developers to explore the available EdGEL components and understand how and when they should be used.
Storybook implementation of EdGEL pattern library
Figma Design
Figma Design is an industry-standard tool used to create user interface designs (UI), prototypes and support teams through its collaborative features. It’s widely adopted by organisations (from startups to large enterprises ) because it brings design and development workflows closer together, reducing inefficiencies in how digital products are created and iterated on.
More recently, Figma has introduced AI-powered features for prototyping and layout generation, making it an exciting tool in the current digital software landscape.
What is Figma? (Figma article)
Building a University UI component library in Figma
In 2021, as part of the University of Edinburgh’s design system project, Figma was adopted to develop a library of digital UI components.
Blog on the University’s design system project
The goal was to make the University’s branded EdGEL components more accessible to a wider range of colleagues, align the two libraries and streamline digital development workflows. Additionally, the project’s aim was to simplify the process of making design changes and improvements to the EdGEL components, ensuring they are fit for purpose across a broad range of University environments. The work to create the Figma UI component resource would support a variety of roles involved in designing and developing digital platforms.
The University of Edinburgh’s User Interface Library of components.
Why Figma was chosen
Figma was selected for several reasons:
- Its functionality outweighed any other digital tool in respect to component development.
- It helped bring design and development practices closer together, creating a more efficient workflow.
- It enabled component and resource sharing across the University, reducing duplication of effort.
- It supported more consistent use of the University’s branded components across digital products and services.
- The strong user community provided a rich resource for learning best practices and obtaining support.
My internship has two key aims
The two aims of my internship both focus on Figma, however, they approach the challenge from different angles. The first is about understanding how staff across the University currently design and deliver digital work, and where Figma fits within that landscape. The second is about improving the University’s existing Figma component library to better support its users.
Understanding how Figma fits in at the University
The primary aim of my internship is to learn more about how Figma supports digital development processes across the University. This involves assessing Figma alongside the other tools teams use every day and understanding where it could add value.
We focused on understanding how people work
As a second-year computer science student, I was keen to move away from a purely engineering perspective and instead immerse myself in the user side – exploring not just Figma as a tool, but the people using it.
Understanding how staff design, collaborate, and deliver digital work is central to this. Importantly, we’re not just interested in Figma itself, but in the wider workflows and tools that people rely on.
To guide this work, we focused on a few key questions:
- What tools are people using day-to-day?
- How do these tools support their work?
- What works well and what does not?
- How does or could Figma improve their workflow process?
A survey helped us reach staff across the University
To help us understand how people work, we created a survey to reach a large proportion of internal staff across a range of roles. These included:
- marketing and communications staff producing high volumes of digital content
- visual designers working on platforms and services
- developers building and maintaining applications and systems
- user experience (UX) professionals carrying out human-centred research and design
- academic staff designing and prototyping their own tools
- others (such as project managers working with product teams)
A key decision we made from the start of my work was not to focus solely on “designers.” Through discussions, we recognised that design isn’t confined to traditional visual design roles. People across the University make design decisions about layout, content, structure, and user experience, often using whatever tools are easiest to access within the University.
Working with This Is Milk to enhance and improve the existing Figma UI library
Our work is being supported by the design agency This Is Milk, who are helping us make better use of Figma’s newer features while improving the University’s UI component library.
This will involve:
- making the library easier to access and integrates into users’ workflows
- improving synchronisation between the EdGEL codebase and the Figma UI library to reduce maintenance effort
- developing training resources to help colleagues get started with Figma
What I’ve learned so far
Developing my own understanding of design systems and Figma
Alongside our research, I’ve been developing my understanding of both design systems and Figma.
The internship has given me the opportunity to build on concepts I was already familiar with, like components and variant properties, while exploring newer ideas, including design tokens and more scalable system structures.
Adopting a user-first mindset
So far, the experience has shown me that designing digital systems isn’t just about creating components or choosing the “best” tools. It’s about understanding people, workflows, and the small details that make something either frictionless or frustrating to use.
Importantly, the internship has pushed me to think more from a user-first perspective, grounding decisions in usability, accessibility, and real user needs rather than focusing only on the tehcnical or visual aspects of a solution.
Looking ahead
As my internship continues, I’m particularly looking forward to getting more hands-on with improving the design system and component library, as well as continuing to engage with staff to better understand how these tools can support their work.
Myself, Sonia and Mel will continue to blog about the project as it progresses. Our next post will explore the survey research in more detail, including how we carried it out, who took part and our initial findings.
