With the rise of social media and online platforms, the design community has witnessed the emergence of numerous influencers who constantly recommend new plugins for popular design tools like Figma. While such an abundance of suggestions may seem helpful at first, it can actually lead to certain confusion, especially among junior designers who are still learning the ropes of the trade.

In the current state, the volume of plugins available for Figma can be overwhelming, each coming with the promise to revolutionise the way designers work with Figma and respectively increase your efficiency. However, such abundance of options often leaves designers in an uncomfortable state of analysis paralysis, uncertain of which plugins to integrate into their workflow. What was meant to be a solution for automating and easing design processes can quickly become a burden, as designers find themselves spending more time researching and testing with the new plugins that are “hot” right now rather than actually designing.

Having said that, it is essential to take a step back and look at a different, more simple approach. As someone who already fell into this trap having more than 50 plugins installed, I believe that honing your design skills is predominant to success. What I’m trying to say is instead of relying on a multitude of plugins, it is more beneficial to focus on mastering the fundamentals of design and understanding design systems. Investing time and effort into learning core design principles, you can streamline your design process with the help of a handful of plugins.

You don’t need 50+ plugins in order to create amazing designs or fully functioning design system

To help designers navigate this confusing landscape, I’d like to share the plugins that I’m using in my everyday workflow that can genuinely help in streamlining the work process. These resources emphasise on tackling the repetitive, redundant and “boring” task that require tons of manual labour.

Batch Styler by Jan Six

Batch Styler is a Figma plugin that can make multiple changes on text and colour styles simultaneously. Having to manually change several styles in your design system can lead to frustrations. Batch styler can aid you switching between different typography styles, while keeping the rest of the styling intact. Additionally, it can help you change the rest of the font styling such as Font weight, Line height, Letter spacing. Another great feature of this plugin is changing the colour styles of your design system with just a few clicks.

Just a side note, Batch Styler can also delete styles in batch, but luckily for me, I’ve never had to do.

Similayer by Dave Williames

Similayer is probably my personal favourite plugin in Figma by far. This plugin takes Figma’s native built-in “Select all with…” to another level. You just have to select a component, text style, elements etc. , run the plugin and it will automatically select all of the available elements with similar properties. The supported properties by this plugin are endless so I’d highly recommend going through its description to get a feel of how powerful it can be. Just to name a few, Similayer supports properties such as Components, Text, Fills, Strokes, Auto Layout and many more.

This plugin helps me go through design systems with ease and make the necessary changes.

Design System Organizer by Floweare

Design System Organizer can help with components and styles management. This plugin can aid you in transferring and relinking files, updating components and their instances in bulk, and copy styles between files. It can work on both local and external libraries, but be aware that it has a slightly steep learning curve as it has its own set of shortcuts which can be intimidating at the beginning. Personally, I don’t use it that often, but that is a personal preference as I like to play around with components and their variants.

EightShapes Specs by Nathan Curtis

My second favourite plugin in Figma. EightShapes Specs makes the communication between design and development smooth and easy. Just select the component, instance or frame, run the plugin and it will automatically create very extensive documentation. Just be aware that it also adds styles to your design systems, so a good word of advice is always to double check and delete the excessive additions. Specifications that are currently included are Anatomy, Props, and Layout and Spacing. The outputs can be used for Design Handoffs, Audit or Critique sessions.

EightShape Specs is truly a blessing when it comes to “dissecting” your designs, making them easy to read and be understood by your colleagues within the organisation.

Tokens Studio for Figma (Figma Tokens) by Hyma, Jax Six, Abdul Sial, Esther Cheran

Tokens Studio is another great plugin with Jan Six’ involvement (I’m a huge fan of his work). While Design Tokens may not be the top priority for junior designers, it’s a concept that is undeniably poised to endure in the design landscape. I’m planning on writing a separate article on how to approach, create and manage design tokens. For now, I’ll stick to “praising” this Figma plugin. Tokens Studio gives you the ability to utilise design tokens by covering a broad palette of options, from spacing units to semantic colours and/or typography styles that reference other tokens. The plugin is genuinely easy to use, making it easy to change tokens and see how those changes are applied on your designs. All of the information is stored on its own JSON file, which makes it easier to be taken from developers and applied on your product. You don’t have to bother your colleagues every time you make a minor change in your designs.

Remember, the design process is a journey of continuous improvement. While plugins can certainly offer time-saving benefits, they should not overshadow the importance of developing your own design skills. Rather than cracking under the overwhelming number of plugins available, I encourage you to explore these resources and invest your time in refining your craft. With dedication and practice, you will find that you can achieve remarkable results with a select few plugins, harnessing their power effectively and efficiently.