Davo Galavotti’s talk at last year’s The Future of Design Systems Conference. He shows how to use Figma and a few plugins like Automator and Scripter to automate repetitive tasks and streamline the design process to improve efficiency and productivity. (Disclaimer: The Future of Design Systems Conference sponsors this issue, but this link is not sponsored.)

Tutorial Tim shows how to use the AI plugin Wireframe Designer.

Mal with a quick demo of Shaper, Magic Marker, and A Selector plugins.

Include is a tool built by eBay to make annotating for accessibility easier — easier for designers to spec and easier for developers to understand what is required. The intent is to have accessibility considerations included during the design phase of any project and to help with the designer-developer collaboration.

Fascinating comments from Sho Kuwamoto, Figma’s VP of Product, on how plugins are implemented. Each plugin runs in a security sandbox — ​“We actually took a JavaScript VM, compiled it down to WebAssembly, and then we run that VM inside of the browser. So it’s a completely separate engine than the native JS engine. For security reasons, we don’t want two scripts running inside that VM, because then the two scripts could potentially have access to each other. And we don’t want to run two instances of this VM, for memory reasons.” 🤯

Great examples of automating grunt work with the Automator plugin.

I mentioned the FigGPT plugin in the last issue, and now Edward Chechique wrote a detailed walkthrough of using this plugin. It requires an OpenAI API key but then provides direct access to ChatGPT prompts and tools for UX writing directly from the Figma document.

Denislav Jeliazkov tested more than 500 plugins and collected a list of 102 that he keeps coming back to.

A new plugin from Angelo Libero, creator of Supa Palette: ​“The ultimate tool for creating stunning snapshots instantly within Figma. Simply select one or more layers, and watch as the plugin quickly generates a high-quality snapshot.”

A demo of a really smart FigJam widget that lets you collect data onto the canvas, fine-tune a model, and keep that tuned model directly on the canvas to generate new images: ​“With a few simple API endpoints (/​train, /​status, /​imagine), I made a multiplayer-enabled (!) canvas that had live-trained ML models living in it. Many people can come together and try out the model, you can alt-drag trained models to try out explorations without losing your history, you can mark it up with pencil drawings and stickies and do anything else you’ve gotten used to in FigJam and Figma.”

Speaking of sections in Figma, here is a plugin for you: ​“Wrap a new section around layers you’ve selected, or adjust the size of an existing section. Customize the spacing around selected layers, change the color of the section, and add additional titles and subtitles.”

From the author of the new EightShapes Specs documentation plugin: ​“This post describes how the plugin works, what it outputs, how teams adjust and style based on their preferences, and a bit of the background of how I got here. As you read, keep in mind: the plugin is great for specs but also proved unexpectedly useful for designers to audit in-progress Figma work for quality and completeness and critique their component with teammates.”

A preview of a new Figma plugin that offers Paper-like paint mixing. That demo brought so many memories! Paper used to be my go-to drawing app on the iPad a decade ago. Love to see some of its smart UI elements getting a second life as Figma plugins.

If introducing Genius wasn’t enough, here is another upcoming AI tool for creating editable UI designs from a simple text description. As Vitaly Friedman rightfully put, ​“It’s about time to get used to websites looking exactly the same everywhere.”

Jordan Singer and the Diagram team share the preview of Genius, their new tool for generating user interfaces with AI. ​“It understands what you’re designing and makes suggestions that autocomplete your design using components from your design system. It’s important to explore lots of ideas and iterate in the design process, and Genius ideates and iterates alongside you as you design.”

Thalion played with Figma to Webflow plugin and came up with the video tutorial and a summary of what you can do with it.

Sara Brunettini shows how AI-powered Figma plugins can be used to streamline your workflow and make the design process a breeze. ​“Imagine AI assisting with repetitive tasks like naming layers, designing light/​dark modes or even generating micro-copy for you. And the best part is these plugins integrate seamlessly with Figma.”

“A magical AI-powered design tool for Figma” is now available to the public with a 7‑day trial.

Rogie’s plugin for generating tiling noise and textures for fills and strokes is finally out of beta and publicly available. It’s essential for any illustration or art work. Check out a video walkthrough and upvote it on ProductHunt.

An interview with Jordan Singer from Diagram, who built Magician and participated in the text review API beta, exploring what this API enables and sharing tips on navigating the ​“untapped intersection of product design and AI.”

I shared Magician before, but in Jordan’s own words it’s ​“a design tool for Figma made by Diagram that introduces AI into designer workflows to expand your creativity and imagination as you design. It’s a magical utility that works alongside you to help ideate and inspire you with new ideas, whether it’s generating never-before-seen icons, imagery to use in your designs, or help with writer’s block.”