India, 4thDecember: The Friends of Figma (FOF) Mumbai x f1Studioz Wireframed Designathon in Mumbai drew an impressive footfall of 250 young creators, early-career designers, and industry leaders, transforming the 24-hour offline event at Atlas Skill Tech University ISDI into a vibrant hub of collaboration, problem-solving, and rapid prototyping.
Bringing together mentors, practitioners, and top design minds on one platform, the designathons showcased breakthrough thinking and set the stage for the next year of product and experience design in India. The event featured real-world challenges across domains such as elderly care, financial literacy, nutrition accessibility, and civic participation for the professional track.
A dedicated student track ran in parallel, with 50 ISDI students participating in a focused design sprint evaluated by an independent jury. Their challenges spanned public policy documents, women safety, government service experience, and financial awareness for students.
Based on the solutions and patterns emerging over the 24 hours, f1Studioz identified key trends shaping the evolution of the industry:
1. Systems-First Thinking Becomes the Baseline.
Designers are increasingly moving away from isolated features to designing connected, scalable ecosystems — a reflection of the maturity of India’s digital-first economy. The shift from “pixels on a screen” to full systems, flows, and operational realities was clearly visible throughout the event.
2. Don’t Stop at Product Design — Build and Ship.
Young designers are embracing a culture where design is inseparable from creation. The mindset is shifting towards building, testing, breaking, and shipping fast — mirroring product cultures of leading global tech hubs. This energy signals a future where designers move beyond static prototypes to functional, iterative builds across mobility, finance, health, and assistive experiences.
3. Design for Everyone, Not the Average User.
As India becomes one of the world’s largest digital economies, designing for the “average user” is no longer relevant. The focus has shifted to products that feel universal, adaptable, and personal across abilities, contexts, and languages. Accessibility, inclusivity, and multimodal interfaces (voice, haptics, local languages) are becoming foundational rather than optional.
4. A New Culture of Design Community-Led Learning.
The event reinforced how India’s design talent prefers collaborative, mentor-driven, real-world problem solving over isolated online learning. This signals the rise of community-powered design ecosystems where learning flows through designathons, meetups, rapid sprints, and open collaboration networks.
The Designathon awarded ₹1,00,000 in cash prizes to the top three winners along with additional perks in the form of subscriptions.
Speaking on the momentum created at Wireframed 2025, Dhayan Kumar, Founder and CEO of f1Studioz, said: “The event not only produced strong prototypes but also surfaced clear directional insights on where India’s design industry is headed. What we witnessed at Wireframed went far beyond talent, encapsulating intent, ambition and the willingness to solve real problems with real impact. With this collaboration, we aim to nurture a culture of speed, experimentation, and community — creating a space where ideas move boldly, prototypes evolve intelligently, and meaningful, accessible products take shape for the world.”
Sooraj Nair, Community Lead at Friends of Figma Mumbai said, “Wireframed wasn’t just an event – it was a milestone in Mumbai’s design history. Seeing teams travel from across India to build together under one roof felt like the start of a new era. This is just the beginning; 2026 is going to be even bigger for designers in this country.”
The Wireframed Designathon marks the beginning of a year-long partnership between Friends of Figma Mumbai and f1Studioz, focused on cultivating India’s next generation of product thinkers and experience designers through events, masterclasses, mentorship programs, and industry-led challenges.
