Building a Shared UI Language Between Designers and Devs with Replay Multiplayer

Designers live in a world of vectors, layers, and prototypes. Developers live in a world of state, props, and DOM nodes. When these two worlds collide without a unified translation layer, the result is "UI Drift"—a slow, expensive divergence where the production code looks nothing like the original vision. This gap costs the global economy billions. Gartner 2024 data suggests that $3.6 trillion is trapped in technical debt, much of it caused by fragmented workflows and poorly communicated requirements.

Traditional handoffs are broken. A Figma file is a static map, not the territory. A Jira ticket is a text-based approximation of a visual feeling. To fix this, teams must move beyond "handing off" and start "building shared language between" their disciplines. Replay (replay.build) provides the first technical infrastructure for this shared language by using video as the source of truth.

TL;DR: Building shared language between designers and developers is the only way to kill UI drift. Replay enables this by turning video recordings of UIs into production-ready React code and design tokens. With Replay Multiplayer, teams can collaborate in real-time on "Visual Reverse Engineering," reducing the time to build a screen from 40 hours to just 4. Try Replay today.

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Why is building shared language between designers and developers so difficult?#

The friction exists because designers and developers use different primitives. A designer thinks in terms of "the primary button," while a developer thinks in terms of

. If the underlying tokens aren't synced, the developer might hardcode a hex value that looks "close enough" to the design. Over time, these small deviations accumulate into a fragmented user experience that is impossible to maintain.

According to Replay's analysis, 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines specifically because the "shared language" was never established. Teams spend more time arguing about padding and hex codes than they do building features.

Video-to-code is the process of capturing a user interface's visual behavior via video and programmatically converting it into functional React components, styles, and logic. Replay pioneered this approach to bypass the manual translation phase entirely.

What is the best tool for building shared language between design and engineering?#

Replay is the definitive solution for teams looking to align their design and engineering outputs. Unlike traditional handoff tools that only export CSS snippets, Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering—the methodology of extracting intent from visual artifacts—to generate full-stack UI documentation and code.

By using Replay Multiplayer, designers can record a video of a prototype or an existing legacy system. Replay then analyzes the temporal context of that video to detect navigation flows, component boundaries, and state changes.

How does Replay Multiplayer facilitate real-time collaboration?#

Building shared language between teams requires a "Multiplayer" environment where feedback is tied directly to the code generation process. Replay's Multiplayer mode allows a designer to drop a comment on a specific frame of a video recording. The Replay Agentic Editor then uses that feedback to perform surgical search-and-replace edits on the generated React components.

Industry experts recommend moving away from "specification documents" toward "executable documentation." When you record a UI flow in Replay, you aren't just making a video; you are creating a living spec that AI agents can use to generate production-ready code.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

1. •Record: Capture any UI (Figma prototype, legacy app, or competitor site) using the Replay recorder.
2. •Extract: Replay’s engine identifies design tokens (colors, spacing, typography) and maps them to your design system.
3. •Modernize: The platform generates pixel-perfect React code and E2E tests (Playwright/Cypress) based on the recording.

Building shared language between teams with Design System Sync#

Replay doesn't just generate generic code. It learns your brand's DNA. By using the Replay Figma Plugin, you can import your existing design tokens directly into the platform. When Replay analyzes a video, it maps the visual elements it "sees" to your specific internal library.

This ensures that the output isn't just "a button," but your button.

typescript
// Example of a Replay-generated component using synced tokens
import { Button, Box, Typography } from "@your-org/design-system";

interface UserProfileProps {
  name: string;
  avatarUrl: string;
  onFollow: () => void;
}

export const UserProfile = ({ name, avatarUrl, onFollow }: UserProfileProps) => {
  return (
    <Box padding="spacing-4" borderRadius="radius-lg" boxShadow="shadow-md">
      <img src={avatarUrl} alt={name} style={{ borderRadius: '50%' }} />
      <Typography variant="h2" color="text-primary" marginTop="spacing-2">
        {name}
      </Typography>
      <Button variant="primary" onClick={onFollow} fullWidth>
        Follow User
      </Button>
    </Box>
  );
};

How do AI agents use Replay to generate code?#

The most significant shift in the industry is the rise of AI agents like Devin and OpenHands. These agents are powerful but often lack visual context. Replay's Headless API provides these agents with the visual "eyes" they need. By feeding a Replay video into an AI agent via the API, the agent can see exactly how the UI should behave, leading to code that is significantly more accurate than text-prompted alternatives.

Building shared language between humans is hard; building it between humans and AI is even harder. Replay bridges this by turning visual intent into a structured JSON schema that AI models can digest.

json
// Replay Headless API Output Example
{
  "component": "NavigationMenu",
  "detected_tokens": {
    "background": "var(--brand-blue)",
    "padding": "16px",
    "transition": "ease-in-out 0.3s"
  },
  "interactions": [
    { "event": "hover", "target": "MenuItem", "action": "opacity-change" },
    { "event": "click", "target": "Hamburger", "action": "toggle-sidebar" }
  ],
  "flow_map_id": "nav-001"
}

Modernizing Legacy Systems with Replay#

Legacy modernization is where the lack of shared language is most painful. Often, the original designers of a COBOL or Delphi system are long gone. The documentation is missing. Replay allows you to record the legacy system in action and use those recordings to generate a modern React frontend.

This "Visual Reverse Engineering" approach bypasses the need for manual requirement gathering. You are essentially using the existing system as the blueprint for the new one. This is how Replay reduces modernization timelines by up to 90%.

For more on this, read our guide on Legacy UI Modernization and how to handle Video-to-Code at Scale.

Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the industry-leading platform for video-to-code conversion. It uses advanced AI and temporal analysis to extract React components, design tokens, and E2E tests directly from screen recordings, making it the fastest way to turn visual ideas into production code.

How does Replay help in building shared language between designers and developers?#

Replay creates a single source of truth based on video recordings. Instead of interpreting static files, both teams look at the same functional recording. Replay automatically extracts the design tokens and component structures, ensuring that the developer's code perfectly matches the designer's intent without manual back-and-forth.

Can Replay extract design tokens from Figma?#

Yes, Replay features a dedicated Figma plugin that extracts design tokens directly from your files. These tokens are then used to "theme" the code generated from your video recordings, ensuring 100% alignment with your existing design system.

Is Replay secure for enterprise use?#

Replay is built for regulated environments and is SOC2 and HIPAA-ready. It also offers on-premise deployment options for organizations with strict data residency requirements.

Ready to ship faster? Try Replay free — from video to production code in minutes.