Figma is a graphics editing and UI design app that is primarily web-based. It is used to do any type of graphic design work from making design prototypes, wireframing websites and apps, creating social media posts, designing brand visual assets and more. As a cloud-based design tool, Figma proves to be the most effective tool to boost productivity.
Being able to work as a team, albeit remotely, is one of the best things that modern innovations have done for the design industry. Since Figma works directly from any browser, there is no need to buy multiple licenses or have dedicated computers to install the software. The vast variety of plugins for various applications help designers become more efficient, provide access to many design resources and make designing a fun and easy process.
Figma allows real-time collaboration between team members who are working from different time-zones. Designers get to enjoy doing and honing their craft without losing too many resources, like time.
It is actually difficult to pinpoint what makes Figma important to designers because it literally does everything!
Top Figma Plugins You Have To Try Today
It can be pretty exciting to know that there are literally thousands of Figma productivity plugins that will help you in all your design projects. In order to avoid giving you a bad headache while choosing, we have scouted that most useful ones to help you improve productivity by streamlining your design workflow:
1. Drawkit 3D Builder
3D illustrations have that professional charisma that demands attention. This is why there are designers who really like to hone their craft in 3D design. The Drawkit 3D Builder Figma plugin lets you mix and max 3D icons and illustrations so you can play with them in your design. You can use them as inspirations or you can customize them to fit an existing design theme.
2. Unsplash
Stock photographs are quite handy if you want to start designing in an instant. The Unsplash Figma plugin gives you access to stunning and royalty-free images submitted by the community. You can use the images as mockups or placeholders for your next design project - all for free.
3. Pexels
An access to thousands of high-quality photos and videos will definitely give you more creative ideas that will fit your design. Pexels is a growing community of more than 100,000 photographers worldwide. This makes this plugin an ultimate resource for all kinds of images that you would need for any design.
4. Background Remover
Removing backgrounds from images is one of the most basic steps in the design process. It also tends to be one of the most tedious tasks and would require a lot of time to finish. Removal.AI is a nifty tool to cut the time in more than half of what is usually spent to remove backgrounds. This tool gets rid of backgrounds in seconds so you can jump right ahead to the next process and add the image into your design.
5. Palette
What makes the design process tiresome is that you are given millions of color possibilities to add in your design. The Palette Figma plugin helps by trimming down your choices to a palette of colors that perfectly complements with your design. The AI function can also automatically generate color schemes that can help fine-tune the color theme of your design.
6. Mockuuups Studio
A mockup generator is what you need to see how incredible design would look in a variety of scenes. With over 1000 scenes to choose from, Mockuuups Studio is all that you need to showcase your product mock-ups, marketing materials, and even social media content before they get released to the public.
7. Lorem Ipsum
Sometimes, a dummy text is all that is missing to see how your design would look in the app. The Lorem Ipsum Figma plugin easily lets you fill the text layers with just the right amount of unique dummy texts to use as your content placeholder.
8. Font Preview
It can be difficult to picture out how the fonts would match with the rest of your design. The Font Preview Figma plugin generates a live preview in a window so you can instantly see whether the font looks good or not. You can use it to search for the most appropriate fonts without leaving the plugin.
9. Iconify
Icons are integral in completing any design. Iconify gives you more or less 40,000 icons to choose from, all of which look professionally-designed. With over 800K installs, this plugin has proven to be helpful to many designers.
10. Design Lint
Being consistent with your design is very important, especially if you are trying to build up a brand. Design Lint fixes design inconsistencies by automatically fixing errors. There is a layer list that will be generated for the errors found and you can manually choose which errors to fix or simply choose “Select All” to fix everything at once.
11. Brands Colors
Both personal and commercial projects can benefit from the Brands Colors Figma plugins. What it does is to let you use color palettes used by your favorite brands and incorporate them in your own design.
12. Content Reel
Finding and adding text strings, icons, and images can be time-consuming. Content Reel is a huge time-saver in the sense that it organizes published text strings and image content in one place. This would allow you to pull them out faster anytime you need them in your design. You can optimize your workflow even faster by using it to add your most-used content into the home screen.
13. Figmotion
Switching into animation does not mean having to use another tool aside from Figma. With the Figmotion plugin, you can directly work with your animation project and use its built-in tools for designing animations.
14. Logo Creator
There is no need to log out of Figma and find other resources to look for logo inspirations for your next project. Just run the Logo Creator plugin and you will find over 300 logos in a variety of sizes and shapes.
15. Product Planner
It can be taxing to plan out a project and still do all the tasks that are needed to be done before launching. The Product Planner plugin is one of the most efficient plugins that can help streamline the process to ensure that everything is done in the correct timeline.
Some designers find it frustrating if they get held up during the design process because of a missing element. Be it a picture that needs to have its background removed, or a font that does not match with the design, any roadblock, big and small, disrupts the momentum and might significantly affect the end-design. These Figma plugins are considered to be life-savers by many designers because they effectively help in every step of the design process.
Advantages of Using Plugins
As you can see from the descriptions of the best Figma plugins above, plugins are simple tools that are packed with powerful features. They are meant to simplify complex processes in the design realm while still assuring you of stunning results. By streamlining and automating repetitive tasks, designers are able to develop their designs better. They can afford to add new features, add special functions, or simply have more time to test out their designs before they are presented to others.
Figma plugins enhance performance and increase efficiency but you will be more convinced to use it if you are aware of its specific features and benefits, such as:
1. Cross-Platform Functionality
It does not matter what your preferences are for the browser or operating system that you use to design. Figma can work with any computer so that everyone can work comfortably in the OS and platform that they like.
2. Quick and Simple Collaboration
Collaborating with Figma is like working with Google Drive. It is straightforward and fast. It is easy to track whatever anyone is doing so mistakes and miscommunications are effectively avoided. Although the collaborative features are great for the designers, the clients can also benefit as they can be added to the group. They can easily monitor the team at work and see the progress of the project with ease.
3. Easy and Flexible Sharing
Still on the subject of effective collaboration, Figma also lets the users share files, pages, and frames or “artboards”. An easy way to share these files gives designers, product owners, and developers the chance to put incredible ideas into action right away.
4. Improving UX Design
Multiples tools are usually used to test out design mockups. Not with Figma. With its plugins, Figma efficiently handles all the tasks that used to be taken care of by third-party tools. By limiting design handoffs, designers get to have first-hand experience of the UX and have more time to improve the design.
5. Speed
What makes the design process challenging is that not all tools can accommodate the fast exchange of ideas that are happening inside the designer’s head. Figma plugins are lightning fast so they can render their features in a jiffy. By being substantially fast, there is less friction in between stages of the design process and no time is wasted from the time the idea is thought up until launching the actual design or end product.
6. Obtaining Feedback
Reviews and in-app comments are crucial in the design process and in prototyping. Figma has plugins that are intended to make sure that everyone in the team can see and track comments with regards to the review process of the design. This would allow the team to brainstorm and fix any issues even without leaving the Figma app.
To sum up all of its benefits, Figma plugins assures that every task gets to be done with its collaborative and productivity tools. There is no better way to manage the design operations and make better collaborations than using Figma and its powerful plugins.
Downloading Figma Plugins
By now you might be fully convinced to try out Figma Plugins. So the next question that must be answered is how to download, install, and use it. For starters, you need to understand that Figma has a lot of plugins. Every designer’s need is covered, from wireframes, illustrations, icons in design systems, etc. The first step in using Figma plugins is to identify what plugin you need.
You can always try out the ones mentioned above by clicking the links, or you may navigate to the Figma Community page after logging in to your account. The Community page has a vast array of resources where you can browse featured plugins by name, developers, or by using keywords.
Once you find a plugin, you can read all about it on its individual resource page. You will find there the Install button to add the plugin in your account.
Now, “installing” the plugin is not literal in the sense that it will be installed on the device that you are using.
It merely adds the plugin into your Figma account so that you can easily access it across any browser.
Your Turn…
In this article, we have explored the myriad of possibilities that Figma plugins can offer to the design community. It is quite amazing to note that it is possible to have a solution to every slowdown that affects your productivity as a designer. There are literally thousands of useful plugins that can change your game and improve your workflow.
We can go on and on and talk about its benefits but one thing is for sure, Figma plugins can speed up and improve the design process further. Figma makes designing more fun and exciting to explore. Empower yourself and get creative with Figma, today!
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