Behind the Plugins: Jackie Chui, UX Designer @ Microsoft | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)
Jackie Chui, a UX designer on Microsoft’s PowerApps team, combines design and coding to build tools that make designers more efficient. After exploring Figma’s API during a 2018 hackathon, he developed numerous plugins, including Find and Replace, Paste to Fill, and Button Resizer. His work reflects Figma’s broader goal of bringing designers and developers closer together through extensible design tools. ## From LEGO Building to UX and Code - Chui’s childhood interest in inventing with LEGO later translated into a passion for UX design. - He learned coding alongside design so he could build and test the products he envisioned. - He finds inspiration by studying other people’s work and connecting ideas across projects. ## Exploring Figma’s API - Chui began experimenting with Figma’s platform more than a year before the interview. - His first plugin project came from Microsoft’s 2018 OneWeek Hackathon, where his team explored accessibility features for design tools. - Discovering API functions that could simulate user actions sparked his interest in plugin development. - He praised Figma’s official API as easy to use and stable. ## Plugins for Faster Design Work - His most anticipated community plugin was **Find and Replace**. - Other projects included: - **Paste to Fill** - **Button Resizer** - Numerous additional productivity tools for Microsoft and the wider Figma community - His goal was to help designers work faster and smarter while encouraging others to build their own tools. ## Building Figma Plus - Chui’s proudest project was **Figma Plus**, which began as browser-only Chrome extensions. - Community feedback revealed that users wanted the tools to work in Figma’s desktop application. - Working with Mirko Santangelo and Ahmad Al Haddad, he expanded the project into a complete platform featuring: - Its own API - A plugin store - A publishing process - The project’s development prepared the team to participate in Figma’s official plugins beta. ## The Future of Design and Development - Chui expects designers and developers to work more closely as design tools increasingly bridge the gap between their workflows. - Because Figma became Microsoft’s primary design tool, building on its platform was a natural way to improve his team’s process and contribute to the broader community. - His plugins were scheduled to become publicly available with Figma’s plugin launch on August 1, 2019. Figma’s plugin ecosystem demonstrates how designers with coding skills can extend their tools, automate repetitive tasks, and create shared solutions for the wider design community.