A few days ago, Sonar Group's UI UX designer, Leo spent a full day at an in-person Framer workshop run by the team at Insert Frame. Iwent in curious not just about the tool itself, but about whether Framer genuinely fits the way we work at Sonar.
The short version: Framer feels like a strong addition to Sonar toolkit, particularly for smaller, faster-moving projects where clarity and speed matter.
Here’s what stood out.
A Familiar Way to Design With Fewer Handovers
One of the biggest surprises was how natural Framer felt to use. Coming from a Figma background, the learning curve was relatively light, which made it easy to focus on building rather than fighting the tool.
The workshop covered the essentials: layout building blocks, components, CMS, interactions, and publishing, but what really stood out was the idea of reducing handovers. Designing and building in the same environment changes how quickly ideas can move from concept to live.
The CMS in particular shows a lot of promise. It’s flexible, visual, and clearly designed with designers in mind. It’s an area I’m keen to spend more time with, but even at a foundational level, it opens up new ways to think about dynamic content without heavy setup.
Learning in a Supportive, Hands-On Environment
The workshop itself was well run and very human. Ryan, Georgia, and Monique created a space where everyone could keep up, ask questions, and experiment without pressure.
Given it was a full-day session, the content naturally felt like a starting point rather than a deep dive. There’s clearly a lot more depth to Framer, particularly on the technical side but the structure made it easy to see what’s possible and where further exploration is needed.
Rather than feeling limited, the session felt like an invitation to keep learning through real projects.
Where Framer Fits at Sonar (and Where It Doesn’t)
From a Sonar perspective, Framer feels best suited for small to medium projects where speed, ownership, and iteration are key:
- Landing pages
- Campaign microsites
- MVPs
- CRO experiments
- Small brochure sites
The real value is the ability to manage the journey from design to live in a single workflow, without unnecessary complexity.
That said, Framer isn’t a replacement for everything. For large, enterprise-level websites or highly complex platforms, our existing approaches still make more sense. Used intentionally, Framer becomes a powerful complement rather than a silver bullet.
Final Thoughts
Framer won’t replace how we build everything at Sonar, and it doesn’t need to. What it offers is speed, clarity, and a more direct path from idea to execution for the right kinds of projects.
For me, this workshop was a strong starting point. The real value will come from applying Framer in real scenarios, testing its limits, and learning where it delivers the most impact.
