What Figma and Canva are and where things live

• Figma is a design tool teams use to design screens for apps and websites. Canva is a design tool for quick graphics, slides and social posts. Both run in your web browser.
• Figma opens on the file browser. Recents shows files you opened lately and Drafts holds your own private files. Inside a file, the big middle area is the canvas, the left sidebar lists pages and layers, and the right sidebar shows the properties of what you select.
• Four words you'll see everywhere: a file holds a design, a page is one canvas inside a file, a frame is a box that holds a screen or section, and a layer is any single object, like a piece of text or a shape.
• In the Canva editor, the side panel has tabs such as Elements (Canva's built-in graphics) and Uploads (your own files). Canva AI, which makes or changes designs from a written request, sits in the homepage side navigation and as a button in the editor.
• Figma's free plan is Starter and Canva's is Free. Your company's paid plan, like Figma Organization or Canva Teams, is the one to use for work, because your company's admins manage it.