Streamlining Design-to-Development with Custom Tools

In the fast-paced world of software development, the journey from design to code is often fraught with challenges. Designers meticulously craft user interfaces, carefully selecting colors, typography, and spacing, yet translating these into code can be time-consuming and error-prone. Our team, developed a custom Figma plugin and Python script, K-Design Wizard, to streamline the design-to-development workflow and harness the power of automation.

Maintaining Consistency with the Design System

K-Design Wizard simplifies the process of maintaining the design system, addressing small but crucial details like text sizes, letter spacing, and color opacity adjustments. Changes, such as letter spacing adjustments from 2.5% to 2% or color opacity tweaks by 0.2%, are seamlessly incorporated without designers or developers having to sift through the details. Designers simply run the plugin, applying the changes instantly. This direct approach helps our team avoid lengthy discussions on minor design tweaks and reduces the chance of manual errors.

The Challenge: Bridging Design and Development

Designers work tirelessly in Figma to create pixel-perfect interfaces, but translating these designs into code often involves tedious, manual adjustments. Maintaining design consistency across platforms and screen sizes further complicates the process, as minor discrepancies, like a color or font size mismatch, can alter the intended user experience.

This is where our plugin shines, particularly when faced with maintaining the design system at scale. As our Product Designer, Marium Nour noted, even small updates should feel lightweight and non-intrusive for designers, allowing a natural design flow without a heavy, disruptive impact.

Custom Figma Plugin: Exporting Design Tokens

To address these challenges, we developed a custom Figma plugin that exports design tokens. Design tokens are the atomic elements of a design system – colors, typography, spacing, and other visual properties that define the look and feel of an interface.

Our plugin extracts this crucial information directly from Figma, ensuring that every design decision is captured accurately. It generates JSON files containing:

• Color palettes for both light and dark modes

• Typography styles, including font sizes, line heights, and weights

• Measurements for spacing and component sizes

Here's a snippet of what the exported JSON might look like for color tokens:

{
  "color": {
    "primary": {
      "base": { "$value": "#0077C2" },
      "light": { "$value": "#4DA3E5" },
      "dark": { "$value": "#005691" }
    },
    "background": {
      "light": { "$value": "#FFFFFF" },
      "dark": { "$value": "#121212" }
    }
  }
}

By using design tokens, we create a single source of truth that both designers and developers can reference. This approach not only improves consistency but also facilitates easier updates and maintenance of the design system.

K-Design Wizard: Automating Token Translation

While exporting design tokens improves design consistency, K-Design Wizard, our Python script, takes it a step further by transforming these JSON files into ready-to-use Swift code. This step eliminates the need for manual code writing, reducing the chance of human error and enhancing the speed of design implementation.

Key features of K-Design Wizard include:

1. Generating Swift enums for colors, measurements, and typography styles

2. Creating GitHub pull requests to update the codebase automatically

3. Handling both light and dark mode color schemes

4. Supporting multiple languages for typography (e.g., English and Arabic)

Here's a simplified example of how K-Design Wizard might generate a Swift enum for colors:

enum LightColors {
    case primaryBase
    case primaryLight
    case primaryDark
    case backgroundLight
    case backgroundDark

    var value: String {
        switch self {
        case .primaryBase: return "#0077C2"
        case .primaryLight: return "#4DA3E5"
        case .primaryDark: return "#005691"
        case .backgroundLight: return "#FFFFFF"
        case .backgroundDark: return "#121212"
        }
    }
}

This script eliminates the need for manual code writing, reducing the chance of human error and significantly speeding up the process of implementing design changes.

The Automated Workflow

With our custom tools in place, the design-to-development workflow becomes a streamlined process:

1. Designers make changes in Figma

2. The custom Figma plugin exports updated design tokens as JSON files

3. K-Design Wizard processes these JSON files, generating Swift code

4. The script creates a GitHub pull request with the updated code

5. Developers review and merge the changes

This automated workflow ensures that design changes are reflected in the codebase quickly and accurately, without manual intervention.

Benefits of Automation

The advantages of this automated approach are numerous:

1. Time Savings: What once took hours of manual work now happens in minutes.

2. Reduced Human Error: Automated code generation eliminates typos and misinterpretations.

3. Improved Consistency: Design tokens ensure that the same values are used throughout the application.

4. Faster Iteration Cycles: Quick implementation of design changes allows for more rapid prototyping and refinement.

5. Better Collaboration: Designers can see their changes reflected in code almost immediately, fostering better understanding between design and development teams.

Implementation and Integration

To implement this workflow in your own projects:

1. Install the custom Figma plugin in your Figma workspace.

2. Set up K-Design Wizard on your local machine or CI/CD pipeline:

   • Ensure Python is installed

   • Install required dependencies (pip install PyGithub)

   • Configure GitHub access token for PR creation

3. Establish a process for running the script when design tokens are updated

4. Train your team on the new workflow and tools

Here's a simplified snippet of how you might use the generated Swift code in your iOS app:

import SwiftUI

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Text("Hello, World!")
            .foregroundColor(Color(colorString: LightColors.primaryBase.value))
            .padding(Space.medium.cgFloat)
            .background(Color(colorString: LightColors.backgroundLight.value))
    }
}

Remember, the key to successful adoption is clear communication and documentation. Make sure all team members understand the benefits and processes involved.

Future Improvements and Possibilities

While our current setup has greatly improved our workflow, there's always room for enhancement:

• Expand support for other programming languages (e.g., Kotlin for Android development)

• Integrate with design systems to generate component code automatically

• Develop a web interface for non-technical team members to trigger updates

• Implement version control for design tokens to track changes over time

The possibilities for further automating and optimizing the design-to-development process are endless. As we continue to refine our tools, we're excited to see how they will evolve to meet future challenges.

A New Era of Efficiency in Design and Development

By creating custom tools that bridge the gap between design and development, we've not only saved time and reduced errors but also fostered a more collaborative environment. Our Figma plugin and K-Design Wizard script demonstrate the power of automation in solving real-world development challenges.

We encourage all teams facing similar design-to-development hurdles to explore custom automation solutions. The initial investment in developing these tools pays off manifold in improved efficiency, consistency, and team satisfaction.

Remember, the goal is not just to make the process faster, but to create space for creativity and innovation. By automating the mundane, we free ourselves to focus on what truly matters – creating exceptional user experiences.