Design System in Figma
Design systems are crucial for maintaining consistency and scalability in a project. They help streamline the design process, keep things organized, and ensure a unified look and feel. While Figma already offers some great tools for building design systems, the right plugins can supercharge your workflow and efficiency. Here are the top 10 Figma plugins I use to level up my design systems:
What it does:
EightShapes Space helps you create, manage, and apply consistent spacing across your designs. It calculates spacing values for you based on a defined scale, ensuring your layout follows the right proportions every time.
Why it’s important:
Consistency in spacing can make or break a design system. This plugin takes the guesswork out of managing spacing, helping you focus on the bigger picture while ensuring pixel-perfect designs.
What it does:
Design System Hub provides a centralized place to manage components, styles, and tokens. It connects Figma with your design system documentation, making it easier to reference components and design guidelines directly within the design tool.
Why it’s important:
For large projects or teams, keeping everything documented and accessible is key. Design System Hub bridges the gap between designers and developers, keeping everyone aligned on the same design system.
What it does:
Roller Design Linter scans your Figma files to identify inconsistencies, such as unaligned elements, incorrect text styles, or missing components. It acts as a quality check for your designs.
Why it’s important:
Maintaining consistency is critical in a design system, and mistakes can easily creep in over time. Roller helps ensure that your designs stay clean and follow your established design rules.
What it does:
This plugin generates a style guide for all the typography used in your design, making it easier to document and reference text styles throughout your design system.
Why it’s important:
Typography is a core element of any design system. This plugin helps keep your font styles organized, ensures that you’re using them consistently, and allows for quick documentation when handing off to developers.
"A well-crafted universal design system is the backbone of any successful mobile app, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and scalability across platforms. By building a design system in Figma, you not only streamline the design process but also create a foundation that allows for future growth and adaptability."
What it does:
Batch Styler allows you to update multiple text, fill, or effect styles at once. Instead of manually adjusting each instance of a style, you can make batch updates in just a few clicks.
Why it’s important:
When managing a large design system, making style changes can be tedious. Batch Styler saves you time by automating these updates, making it easier to maintain and iterate on your system.
What it does:
This plugin organizes your Figma file’s styles and variables into neatly categorized groups. It gives you an overview of all the styles in your project, making it easier to manage and update them as your design system evolves.
Why it’s important:
As your design system grows, so do your styles and variables. Having them organized is crucial for efficiency and avoiding chaos in large projects. This plugin keeps everything in check, ensuring your design files remain tidy and manageable.
What it does:
Propstar is a Figma plugin that helps you manage and maintain properties for components in your design system. It simplifies the process of assigning and updating component properties, ensuring consistency across your design system.
Why it’s important:
Components are the backbone of any design system, and Propstar makes sure they’re used properly and consistently. It’s especially useful when you’re dealing with complex components that have multiple states and properties.
What it does:
Tokens Studio lets you manage design tokens like color, spacing, typography, and more directly within Figma. It also syncs with external platforms, allowing for a more seamless handoff to developers.
Why it’s important:
Design tokens help bridge the gap between design and development. This plugin allows you to manage them in one place and ensure that your design and code are speaking the same language.
What it does:
Colorsinspo provides you with an extensive library of color palettes and inspiration. You can easily apply these color combinations to your design system and test how they work across various components.
Why it’s important:
Choosing the right colors is vital for creating a cohesive and visually appealing design system. Colorsinspo speeds up the process by offering pre-curated color schemes that you can quickly adapt to your project.
What it does:
Story.to.design imports design components from Storybook into Figma. It allows for seamless collaboration between designers and developers by syncing the latest components used in production directly into your Figma file.
Why it’s important:
When developers create components in Storybook, it’s essential to keep them in sync with your Figma design files. This plugin helps maintain alignment between design and code, ensuring your design system remains up-to-date.
These plugins have been a game changer for me when building and maintaining design systems in Figma. They not only save time but also help ensure consistency, scalability, and collaboration between designers and developers. If you’re serious about creating a strong design system, give these plugins a try!
