Archetype
Design Engineer
Focus on implementation and bridging design to code
Design Engineers live at the intersection of design and code. You’re not just creating mockups—you’re building real interfaces, often writing the production code yourself or working so closely with developers that the handoff is seamless.
You think in components, understand CSS intimately, and care deeply about how designs actually behave in browsers and on devices. Static mockups frustrate you; you want to see things move, respond, and work.
What matters most to you:
- Direct path from design to working code
- Tools that understand real web/app constraints
- Strong prototyping with actual interactions
- Design system integration that syncs with code
- AI assistance for faster implementation
Top 5 Tools for Design Engineers
Onlook
onlook.com
Visual code editor for designers - 'Cursor for Designers'. Edit React websites visually with AI assistance, writing changes directly to code in real-time.
Dessn
dessn.ai
Design and prototyping platform that works directly within your production codebase. AI-powered design language extraction with code generation developers can use.
Figma Make
www.figma.com/make
Prompt-to-app capability announced at Config 2025 enabling teams to generate high-fidelity prototypes from text prompts or existing designs. Part of Figma's major expansion.
Figma
www.figma.com
Industry-leading browser-based collaborative design platform that has expanded into a complete design ecosystem with Draw (illustration), Sites (web publishing), Make (AI prototyping), and Buzz (marketing assets).
Lovable
lovable.dev
Full-stack AI coding platform converting natural language prompts into complete web applications. Generates React frontends with Tailwind CSS, connects to Supabase backends, handles auth, databases, and deployment.