[HN Gopher] I made a free Figma library packed with components f...
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       I made a free Figma library packed with components for fast
       prototyping
        
       Author : kojiwakayama
       Score  : 178 points
       Date   : 2024-12-14 08:54 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (veryfront.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (veryfront.com)
        
       | jillesvangurp wrote:
       | Veryfront is amazing. I've known Koji for several years and he
       | and his team have built a lot of great tech that now covers
       | everything from rapid design iteration, to developing with their
       | web IDE, with a live preview (it actually continually builds your
       | website). and deploying using their cloud hosting solution.
       | 
       | The technology stack is very flexible. You can add your own
       | components, libraries, styling solutions, backends, etc. And
       | there is also an export option if you want to leave their
       | platform that gives you everything in code form.
       | 
       | The big benefit of veryfront is that you can get started and have
       | a webapp live in no time at all. You don't need anyone working on
       | devops because they do it for you. You don't need to setup a lot
       | of tools because it all runs in the browser. You don't need to
       | figure out how to set up these tools either because they do it
       | for you. You just code your webapp.
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Thanks so much Jilles. I really appreciate it!
        
       | submeta wrote:
       | I am about to draft a UI and user flow for an internal tool (an
       | LLM based RAG). I was thinking about using Vercel/V0. Is this an
       | option? What else can I use? Is Figma a must have in my tool
       | belt?
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Start prototyping the user journey in Figma to map out the
         | flow. For frontend, use Next.js or Vite/Vike, which we use at
         | Veryfront for its lightweight and performance. Simple API calls
         | (e.g., OpenAI) can use a server function, but for RAG, I'd
         | recommend a Python backend service.
        
         | mattkevan wrote:
         | This is a RAG search I built with NextJS, Pinecone and
         | Langchain. It also uses AI for content tagging and
         | summarisation.
         | 
         | https://www.uxlift.org/search/
         | 
         | I made a quick wireframe in Figma, but didn't bother to pixel-
         | perfect it. I mostly design in the browser, but taking a few
         | minutes in figma up-front to get the shape of it saves time in
         | the long run.
         | 
         | If I'm designing for stakeholders or dev teams I'll still
         | absolutely produce full prototypes and designs otherwise bad
         | things happen. Figma is the current market leader, but you
         | could use anything that you can communicate your intent well
         | enough with, from the back of an envelope to a competitor like
         | Penpot or Sketch. Just don't use Photoshop.
         | 
         | V0 is interesting, but the results can be inconsistent. For my
         | site I just copied and pasted the shadcn components I wanted
         | and tweaked the styling to fit. Not sure V0 would be faster,
         | though it might be useful for generating ideas. Depends on how
         | much control you want over the final layout.
        
           | submeta wrote:
           | Wow, excellent site. Very useful!
        
           | kojiwakayama wrote:
           | Great work on the website! Figma is definitely the way to go.
           | Having everything spec'd out beforehand makes implementation
           | and iteration so much easier and faster.
        
       | baxtr wrote:
       | I would love to have a text box in Figma and then just type in
       | what I want.
       | 
       |  _" Design a basic login screen. Change red for yellow. Move the
       | layer up front."_
       | 
       | Is anyone working on this at Figma?
        
         | submeta wrote:
         | Isn't vercel v0 doing this?
        
         | dennisy wrote:
         | Yes they are releasing AI features: https://www.figma.com/ai/
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Great idea to allow prompt based design!
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | No need to do it in Figma. Soon your OS will be able to do it,
         | and it will be able to use all apps on your system to create a
         | design, not just one app.
        
           | kojiwakayama wrote:
           | Interesting. Are you thinking of an agentic system here?
        
         | someothherguyy wrote:
         | https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/02/figma-disables-its-ai-desi...
        
           | jjcm wrote:
           | We've since re-enabled it after addressing the underlying
           | issue.
           | 
           | Source: I'm the pm who launched the feature.
        
         | airstrike wrote:
         | Somewhat tangential but I've found Claude 3.5 to be
         | _ridiculously_ good at doing this kind of prototyping with
         | React, and you get the preview immediately in the artifact pane
         | to the right of the chat. Mind you I don 't ever use React (I'm
         | writing a desktop app in Rust), so I'm probably as unbiased an
         | audience as it gets.
         | 
         | Here are a couple of examples of things people asked for help
         | with and I just iterated with Claude for 5-10 minutes on (code
         | upfront and gif demo at the bottom):
         | 
         | https://gist.github.com/airstrike/7ae444de207e679adca7be6faa...
         | 
         | https://gist.github.com/airstrike/e0e47eaab733277b537923c4d3...
         | 
         | I think given the sheer amount of training data on React, these
         | models tend to really hit it out of the park when they are
         | allowed to use it. Part of me thinks the best approach is to
         | have it model in React first and then translate it to whatever
         | other language/framework you need it in
        
           | kojiwakayama wrote:
           | Definitely, AI for coding makes sense. In the Veryfront
           | Studio, you get a similar experience with live previews and
           | AI coding capabilities, with the added benefit of being able
           | to instantly deploy or export your code.
        
         | adrianbordinc wrote:
         | Uizard does exactly this: https://uizard.io/
         | 
         | Disclaimer: the founder is a friend of mine
        
           | preommr wrote:
           | Any inside scoop on why they sold the company to miro?
        
           | JaggerFoo wrote:
           | I like that Figma is not required. Can it dynamically model
           | horizontal scrolling, such as album art and info?
        
         | maximilianthe1 wrote:
         | Recently needed to develop a React Web solution for hackathon.
         | I had 0 previous experience with web, but was able to create a
         | good looking (but with 0 logic) website, using Vercels V0[0].
         | It did great both working from text suggestions and from figma
         | screenshots. It also was great at implementing changes after
         | initial generation. Not an add btw, haha
         | 
         | [0] v0.dev
        
           | kojiwakayama wrote:
           | nice one!
        
       | ThinkBeat wrote:
       | It seems to be a hosting company, that offers goddies different
       | level of goodies based on the price of the subsciption?
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | hi, yes we offer different tools to streamline the web
         | development process, such as:
         | 
         | - Veryfront Studio, an online coding platform with live
         | previews, instant deployment, and code exports. - Veryfront
         | Components: Ready-made UI components for fast app building. -
         | Veryfront Templates: Starter templates to kick off your
         | projects. - Veryfront Figma Kit: A Figma library packed with
         | components for quick prototyping
         | 
         | You can try everything for free for an unlimited time and
         | upgrade to a paid plan when your app is ready to go live.
        
       | kojiwakayama wrote:
       | Hi HN, I'm Koji, software engineer and co-founder of Veryfront,
       | where we offer tools to streamline web app development. Happy to
       | share insights or answer questions about design, development, or
       | anything related to building apps. AMA!
        
       | nelsonic wrote:
       | Great work as always @kojiwakayama looks superb!
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Hey Nelson, thank you very much! :)
        
       | eichi wrote:
       | Why not create crappy frontend to validate demand for MVP then
       | hire a designer? Designer is cheap.
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | You can directly start coding in Veryfront Studio using the
         | same components from the Figma Library as ready-made React
         | components. Having tools for both designers and developers
         | which integrate is key imo.
        
       | tomrod wrote:
       | I'm going to be very naive here as this isn't my space at all.
       | Are these open sourced? If not these, are there react components
       | I can grab for basic front end projects that won't run afoul of
       | licensing?
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Yes, all components and templates are open source. Both Figma
         | and React components.
        
         | DidYaWipe wrote:
         | Figma isn't. However, there is an open-source competitor called
         | Penpot: https://penpot.app/blog/7-reasons-penpot-is-more-than-
         | just-a...
        
       | replwoacause wrote:
       | Looks nice but I just wish every new thing wasn't React based
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Thanks for the valid feedback. What is/would be your preferred
         | stack?
        
           | trevorhinesley wrote:
           | FWIW I +1 that comment. Great tool, just not my stack. Rails
           | + Hotwire here
        
             | kojiwakayama wrote:
             | Rails and Hotwire is a nice stack. Thx!
        
       | n144q wrote:
       | For prototyping purpose, how does this compare to other design
       | kits, e.g. Material Design?
       | 
       | https://www.figma.com/community/file/1035203688168086460/mat...
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Material Design is awesome. What I like about Veryfront
         | components is that it includes also section components which
         | are larger building blocks and integrates nicely with Veryfront
         | Studio for seamless dev handoff, which then allows to go from
         | build to deployment quick and easily.
        
       | computergert wrote:
       | Any plans to support Vue as well?
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Thanks, good question. Eventually yes but atm the focus is on
         | React and enabling one seamless development process. We aim to
         | eventually enable all types of javascript stacks.
        
       | pmg102 wrote:
       | Nice work. Tip: you're missing an 'l' from Frequenty Asked
       | Questions
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Oups. Thanks for spotting! Fixing :)
        
       | stevebmark wrote:
       | I'm really into audio production, and I would re-record the video
       | without using a mechanical keyboard, and ideally not in an echo-y
       | room. It's not very watchable right now. In addition to using a
       | noisy keyboard not appropriate for video recording, you type very
       | hard / angrily. Switching to a quieter keyboard with low key
       | travel might help you prevent RSI in the future.
        
         | kojiwakayama wrote:
         | Thanks Steve for the feedback!
        
         | DidYaWipe wrote:
         | "Angrily?" Really?
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-14 23:00 UTC)