I built a portfolio site in one day with Figma Make

I'm a huge Figma fan.

Since Figma has recently released a variety of new AI-related tools, I spent this weekend playing around with them to see what they could do.

To start with the basics

I've been making videos for 20 years (I actually counted recently, and it's true), and I've repeatedly built portfolio sites only to think, 'This isn't quite right,' and quit. The very first one was Apple's 'iWeb,' then I tried Adobe 'Muse,' and there was also a period where I used 'Squarespace.' I also used 'SUPER,' which lets you build sites from Notion, because it was interesting. Unfortunately, 'STUDIO' didn't suit me... I wonder why...

So, everything became too much of a hassle, and for the past five years, I've just been posting my portfolio on Instagram. In conclusion, Instagram is totally enough. I have absolutely no complaints.
Also, the task of putting together a portfolio is quite difficult. Mentally, looking back at past work again can really drain you...

But I want to organize it soon

That said, I tend to have all my work mixed together on Instagram, and I wanted to compile only my work as a 'Video Director.' What I want to express as a CD and as a Director can be completely different, and while Instagram is good for announcements, I didn't have a single page that gathered 'work I'm satisfied with' in one place.

So, as I was looking around thinking, 'Should I build a site...', I realized I just don't have the time. While going through this cycle, I thought...

Couldn't I just... build it with AI?

Is that even possible? I did some research, and while there's a lot you can do with general-purpose AI, as a Figma nerd, I decided to open 'Figma' first.

The video from the recent presentation. So many new services were released, it's amazing...

At the moment, there are three ways to build a site in Figma.
Build it thoroughly with 'Figma Sites' (the standard method).
Use 'regular Figma' as if it were a portfolio (edgy).
Or...Build it with 'Figma Make,' which has Claude Sonnet 4 inside.

Let's build a site with Figma Make

Figma Make is probably the best fit for me.
I opened it up and typed in a prompt.

So, to cut to the chase,I did it. A perfect Ver. 1.

Completed after about 84 exchanges

The first page that came up was pretty good, so I got excited and kept giving it all sorts of abstract feedback. For example...

Whoa, this is actually good.

Not bad at all.

It easily understood design terms like 'condensed type' and 'corner radius' and fixed them right away. It's insane.

Time to add my work

Now, I will start adding my work to the site. (For now, I've just had placeholder photos and text inserted.)

When thinking about how to keep things organized for future updates, and considering things like adding English support, I decided to use a Google Spreadsheet to manage everything.

The items are as follows:

I tried to have Figma Make read this directly via a link or Excel file, but that wasn't possible. It told me to convert it to text.

For this text conversion, exporting the spreadsheet as a "CSV file" and having "Claude Sonnet 4" convert it to text was the most successful method.

I have Figma Make read this text directly. And then...

It worked. No problems at all...
The description pages for each work also...

The quality is naturally high. The font, text size, and colors are all exactly to my liking.

That said, this was still version 44. I made quite a few detailed adjustments after this.

Complete

So...

It's finished at version 84...
I still want to keep updating it, but I only started this work yesterday. To think I've come this far...

Publishing was also incredibly smooth. It's nice that there are so few things to choose from. It seems you can specify a domain, but for now, I had it published on the Figma site.

What I liked

I've written a lot, but I think the benefits are clear as soon as you read them. First of all, it understands my rough prompts with incredibly high resolution and makes corrections. Moreover, it does so with a great sense of style. The fact that it includes Claude Sonnet 3.5 seems to be a big factor, and the process was truly stress-free.

There are three things I thought were particularly good.

One is that "updates are likely easy."
If I input the spreadsheet mentioned earlier and turn it into text, it updates automatically. This sense of security is tremendous.

Another is that "you can pack in as much originality as you want."
Usually, you are tied to the templates of site-building services, and it's difficult to change them significantly... However, with Figma Make, you can make quite large corrections with a single prompt, and the visuals can be changed boldly. Moreover, it makes highly stylish suggestions without looking tacky. Even if you make a mistake, you can undo it. Honestly, it's scary.

And finally...
Simply put, building the site was more fun than ever.
While building it, I had a strong feeling that "I can make anything with this." This is version 1, but I want to keep updating it. Something I want to try myself is "AI automation of reels." It would be great if the reels changed every time I updated it to match the music... However, that seems difficult with current technology, so I've started looking for separate AI editing tools.
Also, I could probably do a blog, or even make something like a game... I felt that not only portfolios, but also sharper interactive pages and business-like LPs, anything is possible.

Conversely, the points that were subtle

I don't know the cause, but there are times when images don't display correctly no matter how many times I try, or it fails to read the room. It also makes suggestions like "Isn't this nice?" on its own, which can be a bit annoying at times.
But that is also the real thrill of AI. There are many cases where things improve depending on how persistently we ask and how we make those requests. You need the ability to give clear and explicit direction, such as "Don't do this when making this correction."

So, everyone, let's use Figma

Figma Slides and Figma Make are the best.
I also love using FigJam.

Everyone, let's use Figma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!