LOCOFY Large Design Models -- Design to code conversion solution

TL;DR

This paper introduces Large Design Models (LDMs), a novel approach trained on design data to improve accuracy, interpretability, and efficiency in converting designs into code, surpassing traditional LLMs in performance.

Contribution

The paper presents a new paradigm of Large Design Models specifically trained for design-to-code conversion, including a comprehensive pipeline with data engineering and model architecture modifications.

Findings

LDMs outperform LLMs in accuracy of node positioning.

High precision in UI element detection across diverse designs.

Exceptional end-to-end design-to-code conversion accuracy.

Abstract

Despite rapid advances in Large Language Models and Multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs), numerous challenges related to interpretability, scalability, resource requirements and repeatability remain, related to their application in the design-to-code space. To address this, we introduce the Large Design Models (LDMs) paradigm specifically trained on designs and webpages to enable seamless conversion from design-to-code. We have developed a training and inference pipeline by incorporating data engineering and appropriate model architecture modification. The training pipeline consists of the following: 1)Design Optimiser: developed using a proprietary ground truth dataset and addresses sub-optimal designs; 2)Tagging and feature detection: using pre-trained and fine-tuned models, this enables the accurate detection and classification of UI elements; and 3)Auto Components: extracts repeated UI structures into reusable components to enable creation of modular code, thus reducing redundancy while enhancing code reusability. In this manner, each model addresses distinct but key issues for design-to-code conversion. Separately, our inference pipeline processes real-world designs to produce precise and interpretable instructions for code generation and ensures reliability. Additionally, our models illustrated exceptional end-to-end design-to-code conversion accuracy using a novel preview match score metric. Comparative experiments indicated superior performance of LDMs against LLMs on accuracy of node positioning, responsiveness and reproducibility. Moreover, our custom-trained tagging and feature detection model demonstrated high precision and consistency in identifying UI elements across a wide sample of test designs. Thus, our proposed LDMs are a reliable and superior solution to understanding designs that subsequently enable the generation of efficient and reliable production-ready code.