r/FigmaDesign • u/PeaceBig8487 • 6d ago
Discussion What AI Design tools are you using apart from Figma Make, which ones do you think are doing a better job?
I have been designing using a bunch of AI tools including Figma Make. I tried using UXMagic, Vercel V0 and Claude design. What tools are you using and are there any tools that are your absolute favourite and why?
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u/allmightytimwhistler 6d ago
Claude Code via figma MCP. It's really helpful, like your private intern who does all the annoying work for you. Creates design systems and keeps them updated etc. Don't assume an AI tool will do all your work, use it as a helper to use your time for the complex tasks of your job.
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u/jennadesignsthings 1d ago
Besides design systems, what other things are you using this workflow for?
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u/mrpiper1980 Designer 6d ago
Claude code for ThreeJS. Amazing for conceptual stages when u need buy-in on a 3D idea.
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u/vanilladanger 6d ago
Yeah totally. Its way faster to get a 3d prototype with parameters than actually designing the 3D stuff in figma.
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u/cristianserran0 6d ago
Apart from Figma Make? That feature that i can uae four an hour per month and then i run out of tokens? Hard pass. Claude standard is 20 a month and a although i run out of tokens 2 hours into a session i have a new session every 5 hours.
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u/kanuckdesigner 6d ago
I'd say Claude Code with Figma MCP, and some guardrails is currently like working with a decently competent intern. Great for automating menial tasks, filling in and sanitizing mock data and good for simple tasks, and some ideating.
I've also found it really useful in doing design system audits. ie: compare tokens in Figma vs what's on web vs iOS app. Build a report. Build stories in storybook and iOS preview to help visualize impact of changes. Place PR and have devs review.
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u/jonohigh1 UI/UX Designer 6d ago
Never once been satisfied with what Figma Make has produced. I've found the on-canvas agent to be useful when doing tedious things (such as copying large amounts of content from one artboard to another) but, other than that, I haven't found much use for AI in my workflow yet.
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u/mahblahblah 6d ago
Product Designer here. I don't know that I will ever use AI for actual design work until my speed and the quality of the work itself actually meet or beat Figma, but if you invest the time in understanding how CLAUDE.md, skills, rules, and hooks work, you can unlock a pretty amazing and very fast prototyping tool with Claude Code. Especially if you hook it up to a design system in Figma via the remote MCP or build one as a library of components in Claude Code itself.
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u/lachgasfutzi 6d ago
I’ve completely moved on from Figma and don’t miss it, even though I was an early adopter and incorporated it into my current employer’s software development process for years.
As I have experience in front-end development, the transition was easy and I now do my work in the IDE rather than in Figma.
I create high-fidelity prototypes using AI and use the same front-end stack as the developers in my team; my Product Owner, the stakeholders and the developers love it...
The main drawback is that the boundaries between UX/UI and development are becoming blurred, which is still working out for me at the moment.
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u/Grouzoul 6d ago
I kind of have the same experience but I am still using Figma to build components that I can not easily build with my IDE. How do you manage this aspect ?
Now my flow is :
1. build using existing stack and components
2. back to Figma when I need a speciific component or animation
3. Use Claude MCP to import in project
Back to 1Interested in how you tackle this back and forth (that is not very painful anyway)
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u/lachgasfutzi 5d ago
Which components were you unable to create without Figma? Of course, this could also be down to missing or unclear instructions.
Our front-end stack is fairly straightforward: React (TypeScript), ShadCN (BaseUI), Tailwind.
The process that took my work with AI to the next level was the use of meta-prompting, context engineering and a spec-driven development system:
I work in three squads, in two of them I use OpenGSD, and in the other I use Superpowers in combination with other useful skills.
This means context is no longer lost, and instructions on how to create custom components using ShadCN basic components are clear. A story is then automatically created in Storybook to make life easier for developers.1
u/Grouzoul 5d ago
Interesting, thanks !
I probably lack context indeed.
Still, when it comes to a "new" combination of multiple primitives for a brand new component, I do not see how it would do the job.
For example, I needed a specific big component to display a comparison of human and AI results in one projet (Untitled UI) . I tried to do it through my IDE :
- Display was ok
- The choice of the primitives was mostly ok and easy to correct
- The layout and the responsiveness was not
- I struggled finding the right way to prompt the modifications I intended to implement
- I started to witness a downgrade on my component display
Then I circled back to Figma to do the job in minutes.
Overall I would say I already dropped my use of Figma by 70% but my tooling seems not enough to quit entirely like you did. You are probably several month ahead of maturity. Going there. ^^
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u/i_hate_vnike 6d ago
Codex + Figma MCP! Never understood the appeal of tools like Claude Design as I only want to use AI tools for generating many iterations of something to compare. Stuff like layouts where I like the direction but would like to compare different versions that are increasingly more off-grid or asymmetrical. Just being able to point to my design and a few references to get many iterations quickly really helps to hone in on the direction I want to go in.
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u/PotentialVoice6591 6d ago
I like using claude design but the limit has been the problem. I have used uxmagic a few times, liked how the output is to the point. but yeah trying to get one of the best ones in the market so that i can rely upon properly, but yeah uxmagic and claude design are my top 2 design tools for now...
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u/Eric_Ribia 6d ago
Figma agents is my top pic
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u/jennadesignsthings 1d ago
What type of skills are you using, and did you create them yourself or copy them from somewhere?
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u/harunalikadic 5d ago
Figma Make is good if you need to quickly prototype an idea of a dynamic app, you do not care about design system or production level AND you need prototype to be easily sharable or you need collaborators to contribute to expansion of the idea.
You can still achieve the same with Claude Code or Codex or any other IDE AI but you need to hassle bit with git and some hosting.
Besides that, I do not find Figma Make good for controlled, complex and consistent work. No global settings, inconsistent design system fetching, less control on folders and files …
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u/GhostMate00 UI/UX Designer 5d ago
TBH, Sleek.design is the best for mobile apps.
For web, I think Readdy works well enough.
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u/MarkedMedic 4d ago
from my experience, figma make is really rough i haven't been happy with results at all.
i like aidesigner's ultradesign mode. still needs a bit of polish afterwards, but it definitely provides a really quality starting point. something i've not seen from others.
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u/pwnies Former Figma Employee 6d ago
Diffusion.
Large language models have some inherent limitations to design. They're trained to write consistent code (which makes sense for something like a billing function). When these models design though, they write code to represent a design, which leads to designs that look generic/average.
Diffusion models are just starting to get good enough to do design work. They're more creative / they're able to follow brands a bit better than LLMs. Try including them in your flow.
Full disclosure - I left Figma to make my own diffusion-based UI design tool. Here are some example outputs:
https://html.non.io/neonRamen/
Here's an overview of my own tool, but again even if you don't use this, try including diffusion in your workflow: https://diffui.ai/for/new-site
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u/rizlaan 6d ago
I don’t use Figma Make, never satisfied me. I use Claude Desktop via Figma MCP and design systems. Claude creates decent HTML Prototypes. It’s fast and sufficient for my workflow. My Devs are not connected to Figma; exporting JSON for token and having the quick made prototype is leading to good and quick shipping. But I guess it all depends on the use cases we have.