Behind the build: a Q&A with developer Gavin McFarland | Figma Blog
Gavin McFarland, a freelance design consultant and developer, discusses building a FigJam table widget after first creating a popular Figma table plugin. The widget lets users manage tabular data without leaving FigJam, supporting columns, rows, data import, and sorting. His experimentation with the widget API evolved into broader questions about multiplayer collaboration, performance, and productivity. ## Gavin’s Path to Plugin Development - McFarland began by designing and building websites for friends and family. - As a freelance consultant focused on user-centered digital transformation, he regularly pushes himself to learn new tools. - After seeing someone ask for an easier way to create tables in Figma, he modified the Rectangle Creator example into his first plugin, **Table Creator**. - The plugin eventually gained tens of thousands of users. ## Building a Table Widget for FigJam - McFarland created a FigJam table widget for users who need to display and manage structured data during collaborative work. - The widget supports: - Adding rows and columns - Importing data - Sorting by columns - The goal is to keep users inside FigJam rather than requiring a separate tabular-data application. ## Learning the Widget API - He began with the FigJam notepad example and made incremental modifications to understand the API. - The project required learning JSX, which he had not previously used extensively. - After understanding the basics, he experimented with rendering rows, columns, and different visual designs. ## Collaboration and Multiplayer Challenges - What started as an API exercise became an exploration of how teams could work more effectively together. - McFarland considered: - How simultaneous editing should work when multiple people modify one table - How the interface could show that another collaborator is active - How to keep large datasets responsive during multiplayer interactions - These challenges appealed to him because they combine visual design with technical problem-solving. ## Finding Ideas Through the Community - McFarland looks for problems designers encounter in their everyday workflows. - He draws inspiration from the Friends of Figma Slack community and the broader developer community. - Conversations with other plugin creators help him exchange ideas and improve his own work. ## Focus on Practical Productivity - He hopes the widget helps people work more productively and collaborate more closely. - His broader motivation is creating tools that address real, everyday problems. - The article ends as he begins discussing another plugin, **Node Decoder**, so the remainder of that project description is not included.
Read original(opens in new tab)