The Problem of Consistency in a Dynamic Environment
In a mature design system with living component libraries, consistency control is partly automated. But the reality of large projects is this: "wild" elements (overrides), manually created buttons, cards, and icons always appear. Over time, these deviations accumulate, and the interface begins to "erode." A manual audit means hours of scanning.
How It Works: Visual Search by Example
Unlike text search, which looks for layer names, Visual Search analyzes the visual characteristics of the selected element: its geometry (size, radius, stroke weight), styles (shadows, fill), internal content (presence of an icon, text size), and spatial arrangement. Then it scans the entire file (or a selected area), finding elements with similar visual "fingerprints."
In-Depth Analysis of Use Cases:
1. Audit and Mass Replacement:
Scenario: You need to change the primary accent color from blue to purple.
Action: Select one blue button. Run Visual Search. AI will find all elements with a similar blue tint: buttons, icons, highlights of active menu items, lines in charts.
Result: You get a complete list of elements to change. You can select them all and change the color of the global style.
2. Detecting Deviations from the Design System:
Scenario: You suspect that "Submit" buttons in different parts of the interface have different padding.
Action: Select a reference button with correct padding. Run the search. AI will find all buttons similar in shape and text. You can quickly go through the list and check if they match the reference.
3. Structural Analysis of a Layout:
Scenario: You need to understand how many types of product cards are used across all 50 screens of an e-commerce site.
Action: Select one card. Run the search. AI will highlight all similar cards, allowing you to instantly see the volume and variations.