Recently we hired a web design agency to create a website design in Figma. Although I am a developer myself, designing and developing are two different skills. A developer works with code, logic and functionality. A designer knows how to arrange text, images, colours, spacing and other visual elements so that the website looks good and is easy to use.
Their job was to handle the visual design. I would handle the development and convert their design into the working website.
The design came out well and we were happy with what we got. Somewhere during our conversations, we were also told that once the design was ready, we could export the code from Figma. Since I would be developing the website myself, this sounded useful.
But “exporting the code” can mean something quite different from what a business owner may assume. If you are looking for Figma to WordPress development, want to convert a Figma design to a website or are searching for Figma to website development, you may assume that exporting the code gives you something close to a working website.
It doesn’t. Figma gives a developer plenty of useful information, but there is still a development stage between the design and the finished website.
What happens when you export code from figma?
A Figma design tells you how different pages should look. It shows where the text and images go, how much space appears between different elements and how those elements should look.
Figma’s Dev Mode helps developers inspect this information. A developer can select individual elements and check:
- Width and height
- Margins and padding
- Font family and font size
- Colours
- Borders and border radius
- Spacing and layout properties
- Images and other assets
Figma can also provide code snippets for selected elements. This is where terms such as Figma to code, Figma code export and export code from Figma can create the wrong impression.
These snippets and values are useful. If a button has 16 pixels of padding, I don’t have to guess. If a heading uses a particular colour, I can get the exact value from the design.
But this doesn’t give me a complete website.
A website still needs structure and functionality. HTML provides the page structure. CSS controls much of its appearance. JavaScript may control behaviour in the browser. WordPress websites also use PHP and WordPress to manage content and functionality.
So exporting code from Figma gives a developer information to work with. It doesn’t remove the development work.
Figma to WordPress is different from reproducing a design
Suppose you have a five-page website and the content hardly changes. You can reproduce the Figma design using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. An automated Figma to HTML tool may even handle part of this work.
WordPress has a different requirement.
The website owner should be able to manage the content without editing code.
When I convert Figma to WordPress, I need to decide where the content comes from and how the website owner will manage it.
If the home page shows the latest three blog posts, WordPress should pull them automatically. If the header contains a navigation menu, you should be able to manage it through the dashboard. The same applies to categories, forms, featured images and other information that changes.
The website may also need templates that aren’t part of the main Figma screens:
- Individual blog posts
- Category and archive pages
- Search results
- 404 pages
- Pagination
- WooCommerce pages
- Login or account pages
Sometimes the designer creates these screens. Sometimes the developer has to work out how they should look from the rest of the design.
This is the difference between reproducing a design and Figma to WordPress development. The website has to remain manageable after the development work is finished.
A figma design cannot show every real situation
A Figma design normally shows ideal content.
The heading fits into two lines. A card contains the right amount of text. The blog has enough posts to fill the grid. The navigation contains exactly the number of links that fit into the available space.
A live website doesn’t behave this way.
Someone may write a 90-character headline where the design used 30 characters. A card that contained three lines of text may contain eight. A search may return no results. Five navigation links may become seven.
The website has to handle these changes without breaking the layout.
Screen sizes create the same problem.
A designer may provide a desktop design at 1440 pixels and a mobile design at 390 pixels. But visitors will also use 1366-pixel laptops, tablets, larger phones and many other screen sizes.
The developer has to decide what happens between the screen sizes shown in Figma.
A navigation bar may run out of room before the mobile breakpoint. Two columns may become too narrow and need to stack earlier. A heading may wrap badly at a particular width.
This is an important part of Figma to website development. The design provides reference points. The developer makes the website work between them and outside the ideal situations shown in the design.
What should be clear before development begins?
Ideally, the developer should see the Figma file before development begins and preferably before giving a final quote.
A simple-looking design can sometimes require considerable programming. Another design may look complicated but use the same reusable components throughout the website.
Before starting a Figma to custom WordPress theme, I would want to know:
- Are desktop and mobile designs available?
- Have all important pages been designed?
- Which parts should the website owner be able to edit?
- Are the required fonts available for web use?
- Are images and icons available for export?
- How should menus work on smaller screens?
- Are there forms and where should their submissions go?
- Are there third-party integrations?
- Does the website need WooCommerce, memberships or other plugin-based functionality?
Interactions also matter. A static screen doesn’t necessarily tell the developer what happens when someone clicks a button, opens a menu, expands a section or submits a form.
These decisions affect how a custom WordPress theme from Figma is built and how much development work it requires.
Can tools automatically convert figma to a website?
There are tools that offer Figma to website conversion. There are also WordPress tools and AI-based services that can generate code from a Figma design.
For a simple website, they may save considerable development time.
Suppose you need a five-page brochure website with mostly static information and little functionality. An automated conversion tool may handle a large part of the work.
The situation changes when the website has to do more.
A WordPress website may have a regularly updated blog, forms connected to a CRM, WooCommerce, custom post types or information coming from an external API.
At this point, reproducing the design is only one part of the job. Someone needs to decide how these features work together and how they are managed through WordPress.
A conversion tool may still provide a useful starting point. But sometimes correcting generated output takes as much time as building that part properly from the beginning.
Whether you need a developer therefore depends less on how complicated the Figma design looks and more on what the finished website needs to do.
What a developer actually does with your figma design
When I work on Figma to WordPress development, the Figma file becomes my visual reference.
I use it for the layout, spacing, typography, colours and images. Then I create the structure behind it.
I decide which parts become WordPress templates and reusable components. I connect content to WordPress. Blog posts need to come from the database. Menus need to work through WordPress. Forms need to collect, validate and send information. Plugin output may need to fit into the design.
Then I make sure all this works across different screen sizes and with real content.
This is what happens between receiving a Figma file and launching a working website.
The design tells me what the website should look like.
Development makes it work.
Clarify what you are getting before approving the project
If you are hiring an agency or designer to create your Figma design, clarify where their job ends.
Ask them:
- Will I receive the original Figma file?
- Will desktop and mobile layouts be included?
- Are all important website pages included?
- Who will turn the design into the actual website?
- Does the quotation include WordPress development?
- When you say I can export the code, what exactly will I get?
- Will I receive a working website or code snippets and design information?
You don’t want to reach the end of the design process believing that the website is almost ready and then find out that development hasn’t started.
If someone tells you that you can export code from Figma, it doesn’t mean you get a ready-made website. You get information that helps a developer build one. Whether you want a standalone website or a WordPress theme, someone still needs to turn that design into something that works.