How Microsoft built plugins to improve their workflow | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Microsoft uses private and community Figma plugins to integrate its Fluent design system into everyday design work. These tools reduce repetitive tasks, provide approved content, and make it easier to manage hundreds of product-specific libraries. The broader conclusion is that customized tooling helps large design organizations improve consistency, accessibility, and efficiency while giving designers more time for creative work.

Integrating Approved Design Content

• Microsoft created an internal version of Content Reel, a plugin that inserts approved text strings, avatars, and icons into designs.
• This replaces generic placeholder content and reduces the need for designers to search for or request approval of assets.
• The approach can be adapted by other organizations to provide company-specific, reusable content.

Switching Between Product Libraries

• Microsoft maintains hundreds of Figma libraries, with different products requiring distinct themes and styles.
• Jackie Chui built Themer to let designers quickly switch between product themes such as Work and Outlook.
• The publicly available version swaps published styles from different libraries, reducing the manual effort required to adapt designs across products.

Automating Repetitive Design Tasks

Microsoft designers built plugins to eliminate routine work and support more creative problem-solving:

• Find and Replace searches for text on a page and replaces it like a standard text editor.
• Paste to Fill turns a copied image or image URL into a fill for selected layers.
• Button Resizer adjusts button dimensions to fit their labels.
• These tools reflect Microsoft’s broader investment in the Figma platform as a foundation for extending its design workflow.

Making Accessibility Part of the Workflow

• Tiffany Chen, part of Microsoft’s Modern Input and Accessibility team, develops tools intended to make accessibility more visible during design.
• Her work challenges the common practice of treating accessibility as a final-stage addition.
• Embedding accessibility support into design tooling can help teams identify and address inclusive-design concerns earlier.

Microsoft’s example shows that plugins are most valuable when they are tailored to an organization’s real processes. Teams can improve consistency and productivity by connecting Figma to approved assets, design systems, automation, and accessibility checks.