Am I learning design or Figma?

I recently decided to start learning web design. I think the best way to learn anything is to try to do it a lot, gather feedback and repeat. With web design is a bit easier as I can try to recreate a design and then try to compare what I did with the original.

I started with implementing parts of GitHub UI in Figma. In the beginning, it was hard but I found out that a few concepts are common between Figma and web word:

• Autolayout. It seems like a combination of paddings, margins, and flexbox
• Components and variants - the nice thing to build a design system with the same naming of component properties in Figma and e.g in React components

I also took a shortcut and used an already-made TailwindCSS kit with all properties like spacings or colors already set up for me so I can just do designs.

I also found out about those cool resources:

• Refactoring UI book. Packed with awesome advice I go chapter by chapter and I try to implement those UI fragments in Figma
• Mobbin website. A website with resources that shows how the other apps/websites are doing their look & feel
• Figma Youtube. I like their quick tutorials about different parts of Figma.

I also have one more thought: Am I learning design or Figma? Is knowing the tool enough to be a designer? I don’t think so. Can I learn design and at the same time learn tools in the process? I hope so.