I made and launched a Figma plugin in under 45 minutes
Hey there,
If you're new here, welcome to the White Space Club, where I cover product design, coding, ethical business, and a bunch of other things I’m passionate about.
Before we start, I have a request to you. Please reply to this email and let me know:
1. What is one thing you love about this newsletter?
2. What is something that you would absolutely change?
Thanks in advance, you’re helping me a ton!
Let’s start:
I built and lunched a Figma plugin in 45 minutes. There's this popular Figma plugin called Pixel Perfect that's been bugging me. I've used it for years, and while it's good, I always have to wait for the UI to load, and it doesn't cover all my use cases. So I decided to build a better one (at least for me).
It's a simple plugin that takes your selected frames and fixes most of the pixel imperfections:Rounds x, y, width, height to whole numbers
Respects auto layout constraints
Rounds corner radius, fill opacity
Rounds stroke width to the nearest 0.5 pixel
The standout feature for me is how it runs with just one quick command. No need to wait for a UI to load - you just fire it up and it does its thing. It's become my go-to tool, whether I'm working on my own assets or tidying up designs from the team. Super fast, super simple. Check it out here.
By the way, I built it using Cursor AI - a new code editor that taps into a few LLMs, similar to Copilot but with a free tier. What would've taken hours of coding, I knocked out in 30 minutes. The AI handled almost everything with just 7-8 prompts, leaving me to fix only 4 minor issues. Pretty impressive stuff.
Midjourney is just great. I know you've probably heard a lot about it - and for a good reason. I'm loving it. While I'm not convinced it's ideal for final products (though some folks pull it off), it's perfect for creating temporary illustrations or preview renders for physical product ideas.
For a recent project, that's exactly what I did. After a few prompts, it produced something I could work with. I used that image as a style reference for other generations (thanks to the handy —sref parameter). With Midjourney's help, 'selling' my ideas became way easier. It made them feel real.
Here is an example of a custom mechanical keyboard render I made.It's not perfect, but it's great for visualizing ideas. I was particularly impressed by how it nailed the frosted glass effect - I wasn't sure it could pull that off. It's also a lifesaver when you're missing images for your designs. Here's the prompt I used:
3D render of frosted semi-translucent mechanical keyboard, wooden frame, black and white rectangular metal keycaps, white LED, transparent white background, keyboard floating
Design generalists are on the rise again. 5-8 years ago, the design industry shifted towards specialized designers excelling in specific areas. This created roles like Design Researchers, UX Designers, UI Designers, and Motion Designers. But with recent layoffs, generalists are making a powerful comeback.
Companies, especially startups, increasingly value designers offering end-to-end services. They're after folks who grasp all parts of the process and can deliver solid work across the board. The rise of no-code tools like Framer is making this trend even stronger.
I'm not saying specialists won't be valued - they'll still be crucial for large-scale projects, especially in corporate settings. But for rapid product shipping, particularly in lean environments, generalists will likely find it easier to land projects and jobs.
2 of my favourite designers, Fons Mans (‘If I would hire a designer today, I would be looking for someone that can help with brand, product, web and everything in between, on a high level. I think I’m not alone in that. More and more clients will be looking for this type of generalist designer.’) and Dann Petty (‘When teams lower, generalist stand out. If you're going to specialize, be very very good.’) also talk about this phenomenon.
That’s it for this week. If you're liking this, could you do me a favor and pass it along to a friend? Thanks!
Have a pixel-perfect day!
István
For more design content, follow me on Twitter.
Got this email from a friend? Subscribe for more! 👇
If you ever want to talk about a topic, reply to this email. I read every message.