The two companies hope the program, which will be free of charge for schools, will help make software engineering and design more accessible to younger students. \u201cComputer science has not been the most accessible field over the years,\u201d says Andy Russell, who leads product for Chrome OS Education. Russell hopes that Figma\u2019s software will flatten the learning curve for students interested in trying the disciplines out while also giving them advanced tools to work with down the line. \u201cFigma enables students to get in at the ground level with a low floor, but then gives them this extraordinarily high ceiling,\u201d Russell says. He hopes the program will help to \u201cgraduate them into the next generation of software designers and software engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even outside of those niches, Russell hopes that students can use the software for projects across disciplines. \u201cWe all grew up with the five-paragraph essay,\u201d Russell says. But, \u201cstudents today have so many other options: they can create timelines, they can create infographics, they can create storyboards for documentary film, they can create 3D models of architecture, an application to solve a problem, they can create a website.\u201d He added, \u201cFigma is an amazing tool that\u2019s open-ended for students to be able to create any of those assets.\u201d<\/p>\n