Design to code is the process of translating elegant visual UI designs into readable code that adheres to the intended appearance. It is sometimes also referred to as the design handoff process. To do it right, designers and developers must work together, which eventually reduces days of effort into minutes. However,how did we get to this current process, and where is it headed? 

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Using this manual, we'll investigate the following: 

How to instantly translate a design into code with Dualite.

History of design to code.

The background of the design-to-code methodology and the difficulties we encounter.

Design to code limitations.

The function of the developer and designer.

Let's see how Dualite may assist in automating the design to coding process.

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How do you convert UI design to code?

Basically starting with choosing a Dualite plugin.

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Select the first frame of an interactive prototype and choose the language (React, HTML/CSS and JS Code).

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Choose the language and click on convert to code which hardly takes 15-30 seconds. 

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One can download the code as a zip file or copy the HTML directly or Preview the code in Code Sandbox, it is a tool for visualising written code.

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The output code is modularized in different files for easy organisation.

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Click on this link to watch step by step process

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Design to code: what is it?

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Design to code, sometimes also referred to as the design handoff process, is the procedure of translating a graphical UI design from a visual editing UI platform like Figma into real quality functional code with  the same layout, style, and interactions as designed. The process involves close coordination between designers, who provide the visual designs, and developers, who know how to code in languages like Native for mobile apps, or React, HTML/CSS, and JavaScript for the web, to convert those designs into functional websites or applications. The intended outcome is for the programmed implementation to closely resemble the original planned prototype or mockup on all platforms and browsers.

Design to code automation, to put it simply, is the process of transforming designs into functional products with minimal manual intervention. Simply select the design, choose your appropriate language support based on your development standards and see a pixel-perfect output of the generated code that mimics the design..

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How have we traditionally translated design into code?

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There have been two approaches to design to code in the past. There are two ways to go about doing it: one is widely used, while the other is rarely used, though it is still desired. Looking at the design made in tools like Figma and manually coding by understanding the specs is the method used mostly by everyone.

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There is a lot of back and forth in this process as you look at the design, code its UI in-parts, and then look at it again for the next. After that, comparing it and fixing minor changes. Apart from being tiresome, the issue with this is that the developer still has to work out the hierarchy, grouping and other things.

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What are the challenges with design to code?

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The difficulties are in being able to create designs. You must comprehend the full structure in order to succeed. Four main difficulties exist:

Determine which photos should be single images and rasterize the data appropriately.

Building the complete clean  hierarchical structure of groupings and its ordered tree from the top down is known as grouping.

The final code logic includes all of the logic, as well as recommendations for screen size, wrap, and margin auto. Everything that was said.

Semantic tags, meaningful class names, well-named and well-structured code, etc. are examples of high-quality UI code.

Dualite has been used to overcome all four of those challenges by utilising distinct AI models for each of them.

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Design to code limitations

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It's an artificial intelligence model. Even the most advanced AI models have limitations and are not always accurate. To get you 80% there is the aim for most of these, including Dualite. Even if you were to save 80% of your time, that would still be a great result.

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Its inability to assist with business logic, such as database connections, is another drawback. The developer still needs to do that. Although that feature is not available yet, AI models will soon be able to connect to design systems as well.  

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The support of frameworks is one clear constraint; many of them are supported, but not all of them are, which causes limitations in some use cases.

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Here are some guidelines for using the Figma Plugin in Dualite.

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How long does it take from design to code?

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The concept behind design to code is that it doesn't need altering workflows, and there shouldn't be any real adoption obstacles or curves. With Dualite, all you have to do is press a button.

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It's the best kind of product—one with only one button. To obtain your code, click the button, then click the design. It doesn't require hardcoding, and there is no modification to the workflow. Although experimenting with the settings and AI is entirely optional and has no bearing on the design or programming, you may still wish to do so.

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What part do developers and designers play in the design-to-code process?

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The developer integrates the resulting code into the code base and submits pull requests to deploy it in production, whereas the designer is obviously responsible for creating the design.

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Who performs the conversion? At Dualite, we firmly believe that the developer should be in charge of this. You can modify the code to suit your needs after selecting the "generate code" option and launching Dualite. The developer's skill set is needed for this customisation, although we’ll soon be launching direct Github based integrations to your repository.

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Which is better, code to design or design to code?

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While going from code to design is convenient, it is preferable to move from design to code because it is a more sophisticated process and can be automated to save a significant amount of time. Designing a design from a website's blueprint and then coding it up is far simpler. The distinction is between working hours and working days. You save time when you use design to code.

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