11 Figma plugins I actually use as a UI designer (2026)

These are the Figma plugins I’ve used in my own design work. Each one does one job well. They’re grouped by that job, with what I use each for, so you can pick the ones that match how you work.

The quick list

Plugin	What I use it for
Stark	Checking the accessibility of a design
Shadowkit	Natural, realistic shadows
Glow	A glow on any object, to lift a hero section
Material Design Icons	Free icons
LORE (for Lorem Ipsum)	Dummy text
Unsplash	Stock photos
Pexels	Stock photos
Organize Layers	Cleaning up a messy layers panel
Super Tidy	Ordering and renaming frames
Figmotion	Small animations
Sticky Notes	Leaving notes for teammates

Accessibility: Stark

Stark (listed in Figma as “Stark - Contrast & Accessibility AI Checker”) is really good for finding accessibility problems in your design before it becomes a site. Its contrast checker tests whether a text colour and its background have enough contrast for people to read, based on the WCAG standard. That’s the check I’d run on every screen, because low-contrast text is one of the easiest mistakes to make and one of the most common on real sites.

Depth and light: Shadowkit and Glow

Shadowkit is very helpful for applying natural shadows. A single default drop shadow can look flat or harsh. Natural-looking shadows make cards and buttons feel like they sit on the page.

Glow puts a glow on any object. I use it to make a hero section more interesting, for example behind a product shot or a key heading. Use it on one element per screen, or it stops standing out.

Icons: Material Design Icons

Material Design Icons is good for icons, and I use the free version. Having a large, consistent set inside Figma means you aren’t mixing icons from different sources, which is one of the quickest ways to make a UI look unfinished.

Placeholder content: LORE, Unsplash and Pexels

LORE (for Lorem Ipsum) is a quick way to put in dummy text, so you can see how a layout holds up before the real copy arrives.

Unsplash and Pexels bring stock photos into your design. The Unsplash plugin can insert a random image, one from a category, or one you search for. Pexels is another stock photo site with its own plugin, useful when Unsplash doesn’t have the shot you need. Before a photo goes into client work, check the licence and the photo itself; here is what the Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay licences allow.

Tidy files: Organize Layers and Super Tidy

Organize Layers is a good way to sort out the layers when a file gets too messy. A clean layers panel matters most when someone else opens your file, like a developer or another designer.

Super Tidy arranges your frames by where they sit on the canvas. It renames them to match their position and puts them in the same order in the layers list, which helps when a file has dozens of screens.

Motion: Figmotion

I’ve used Figmotion to create small animations inside Figma. It works on a timeline: you set a layer’s properties, such as its position, at points in time and preview the result. It can also export the animation as CSS, which gives a developer something concrete to build from.

Working with others: Sticky Notes

Sticky Notes is good for collaboration while you’re working on a project. You can leave notes on the design for other members of the team, so feedback and questions sit next to the part of the design they’re about.

How to choose your own set

Start with the jobs you do every week, not the longest list. Accessibility and file hygiene pay off on every project, so those come first. Polish plugins like Shadowkit and Glow are for the screens people see first. Add motion and collaboration plugins when a project needs them.

If you’re turning these designs into a portfolio, the UI/UX case study checklist helps you check each project before it goes online, and the one-minute builder quiz suggests where to publish it.