dmaya vs Refbox

Conversational AI Design Agent

Interact with an intelligent AI agent using natural language to generate and refine your designs. Simply describe the interface you need, and receive complete, production-ready UI screens in seconds. The conversation continues as you ask for specific changes—"make the primary color blue," "swap to a sidebar layout," "increase the font size"—and the AI applies these edits precisely and instantly, creating a fluid, iterative design dialogue that accelerates the creative process.

Multi-Screen Infinite Canvas

Work across multiple artboards for different device frames, such as desktop and mobile, on a limitless canvas. Organize, drag, and zoom through your screens in a familiar, Figma-like environment, but with AI handling the initial heavy lifting of layout and component creation. This feature allows you to visualize entire user flows and application ecosystems in one cohesive project space, ensuring a holistic design approach.

Client Presentation & Feedback Portal

Share your work seamlessly by generating a unique, shareable preview link. Clients and stakeholders can view the interactive design directly in their browser without needing an account. They can leave comments and feedback directly on the design, which you can then address in real-time within dmaya. This creates a tight, efficient feedback loop, transforming a traditionally lengthy review cycle into a matter of minutes.

Design-to-Code Export

Once a design is approved, export it as clean, well-structured HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. This output is specifically crafted to be handed off to AI coding assistants like Claude Code or Cursor, which can then transform it into production-ready code for any modern framework like React, Next.js, or Flutter. This bridges the gap between visual design and technical implementation without sacrificing design intent.

Always-on-Top Floating Frames

Refbox’s signature feature allows you to pin any reference—images, GIFs, videos, or notes—into individual frames that hover above all other applications. These frames are fully resizable and can be minimized or locked in place, ensuring your references stay visible and accessible without ever blocking your workflow. This eliminates the need to constantly switch windows, creating a truly integrated and distraction-free creative environment that evolves with your project's needs.

Masonry Mode & Infinite Canvas

Organize your visual inspiration effortlessly with Masonry Mode, which arranges your references in a beautiful, Pinterest-style flowing grid on an infinite canvas. This layout maximizes space and provides a holistic view of your mood board or reference collection. You can also flip through items in a full-screen slideshow for quick comparison, making it perfect for iterative review and ensuring every visual element aligns with your creative direction.

Intelligent Media Handling & Notes

Refbox goes beyond simple image display with deep, thoughtful media controls. Step through GIFs frame-by-frame for detailed animation reference, take markdown-enabled notes with styling and checklists, and crop images to focus on specific details. You can also screenshot websites by pasting a link, view SVG files as images, and use a built-in color picker on any media to copy hex codes directly to your clipboard, continuously refining your asset management.

Streamlined Workflow Shortcuts

Designed for speed, Refbox is packed with shortcuts and smart features that shave seconds off repetitive tasks, which compound into hours saved. Quickly swap floating references with arrow keys, change entire collections with one click, or auto-hide the main sidebar to declutter your screen. These iterative improvements to your daily actions provide full control and keep you firmly in your creative flow, minimizing friction at every turn.

Agency Pitch & Concept Development

Agencies can use dmaya to rapidly generate multiple high-fidelity design concepts during client discovery calls or pitch meetings. By quickly visualizing different creative directions from a text brief, teams can present compelling options to stakeholders in hours instead of weeks, significantly improving their chances of winning projects and aligning visual expectations from the very start.

Product Team Ideation & Prototyping

Product managers and designers can leverage dmaya to explore UI directions and build interactive prototypes before committing engineering resources. This allows for rapid testing of user flows and layout ideas, facilitating better collaboration between design, product, and engineering teams within a single workspace and reducing costly late-stage changes.

Freelancer Project Delivery

Freelancers and independent designers can dramatically increase their capacity and project throughput. dmaya enables the delivery of professional-grade UI designs faster, allowing freelancers to take on more clients or charge a premium for accelerated service. The streamlined client approval process further reduces administrative overhead.

Design System & Consistency Building

Teams building or evolving a design system can use dmaya to generate consistent UI components and screens. The AI's use of design tokens ensures that changes to colors, typography, or spacing are automatically propagated across all screens, maintaining visual coherence and speeding up the creation of a unified component library.

Digital Illustration & Concept Art

Illustrators and concept artists can keep character sheets, environment photos, and color palettes pinned around their canvas in Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint. The ability to lock frames and step through GIF frames is invaluable for studying motion or expressions, allowing for continuous refinement of artwork without breaking concentration to search for files.

UI/UX & Web Design

Designers can float style guides, component libraries, competitor screenshots, and user flow diagrams directly over their design tool like Figma or Sketch. The website screenshot feature and easy color picking streamline the research and implementation phase, fostering an iterative design process where references directly inform each decision.

3D Modeling & Animation

3D artists and animators can reference orthographic drawings, texture maps, and video clips while working in complex software like Blender or Maya. Having model sheets and motion reference always visible accelerates the modeling and rigging process, enabling a continuous cycle of reference and creation that enhances accuracy and speed.

Motion Graphics & Video Editing

Editors and motion designers can pin storyboards, style frames, and asset lists above Premiere Pro or After Effects. The video playback in floating frames and the organized gallery view for mood boards help maintain visual consistency throughout a project, supporting an iterative creative workflow from concept to final render.

dmaya is the AI-powered design platform purpose-built for the professional creative workflow. It is engineered for agencies, product teams, and freelancers who understand that intentional design must come before code. Unlike AI tools that bypass visual planning, dmaya champions a design-first philosophy, providing the critical space where concepts are visualized, iterated upon, and aligned with stakeholders before any development begins. The core value proposition is speed and precision through collaboration. You describe your vision—a SaaS dashboard, an e-commerce flow, a mobile app—and dmaya's AI agent generates polished, professional UI screens in seconds. The real power lies in conversational iteration: you chat with the AI to refine colors, swap layouts, adjust typography, or add new sections, with every change applied instantly and consistently across your project via design tokens. This cycle of creation and refinement happens at the speed of thought. When the design is ready, you share a client-ready preview link for feedback and approval, a process that condenses days into minutes. Finally, export clean HTML, CSS, and JS to hand off to AI coding agents like Cursor or Claude Code for implementation in React, Next.js, Flutter, or any framework. dmaya is the missing link for teams that present, approve, and ship with confidence.

Refbox is the ultimate floating reference companion for creative professionals who demand an uninterrupted, focused workflow. It is an innovative application designed to end the constant, distracting cycle of alt-tabbing between folders, browser tabs, and your primary creative software. At its core, Refbox allows you to pin images, GIFs, videos, and notes into always-on-top, resizable frames that float above any other application on your desktop. This means your inspiration and critical references are perpetually visible, right where you need them, whether you're sketching, designing, animating, modeling, or illustrating. By centralizing your media into a customizable sidebar that you can populate instantly from the web, local storage, or your clipboard, Refbox transforms a fragmented process into a seamless flow. It champions a philosophy of continuous improvement for your creative process, eliminating friction points one by one. With powerful organizational features like Masonry Mode for dynamic layouts, full-screen galleries for dual-monitor setups, and markdown-enabled notes, Refbox ensures your tools adapt to your vision, not the other way around. It's built for the professional who can't afford distractions, empowering you to maintain a state of deep focus where creativity thrives.

How is dmaya different from other AI design tools?

Most AI tools are built for solo enthusiasts and focus on generating code, effectively skipping the crucial visual design and client alignment phase. dmaya is purpose-built for professional teams where design must come first. It provides a full-featured design canvas, focuses on iterative visual refinement through conversation, and integrates client feedback directly into the workflow before any code is written.

What kind of designs can I create with dmaya?

dmaya is versatile and can generate a wide array of professional UI designs. This includes but is not limited to SaaS application dashboards, e-commerce website flows, mobile app screens, landing pages, and web application interfaces. You guide the output by describing your specific needs in plain language.

How does the collaboration with clients work?

You generate a secure, shareable link from any project in dmaya. When you send this link to a client or stakeholder, they can view a high-fidelity, interactive preview of the design in their web browser—no login or account required. They can click on areas of the design to leave contextual comments and feedback, which you will see and can act upon inside your dmaya workspace.

Can I export my designs for development?

Yes. Once a design is finalized and approved, you can export it as clean, semantic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This code is not meant for final production but is optimized to be read and understood by AI coding agents (like Cursor or Claude Code) or developers, who can then accurately build the design in your chosen framework such as React, Next.js, or Flutter.

What types of media can I use with Refbox?

Refbox supports a wide array of media types to serve as comprehensive references. You can directly add images (JPG, PNG, SVG, etc.), GIFs (with frame-by-frame control), and video files. Additionally, you can create and format text notes with markdown, take screenshots of websites by pasting URLs, and even use the application as a color picker on any displayed media.

How does Refbox improve my workflow compared to just using browser tabs?

Refbox eliminates the disruptive context-switching required when digging through folders or cycling through dozens of browser tabs. By keeping your references in always-on-top, organized frames directly over your work application, your focus remains locked on creation. Features like instant shortcuts, collections, and media tools further streamline actions, turning a fragmented process into a smooth, continuous, and iterative flow.

Can I use Refbox with multiple monitors?

Absolutely. Refbox is ideal for multi-monitor setups. You can use the full-screen gallery mode to turn a secondary display into a dedicated reference board, or simply drag and position your floating frames across any screen. This gives you expansive, organized visual space, keeping your primary screen clean for your main creative application while all your inspiration remains instantly accessible.

Is there a way to organize my references within Refbox?

Yes, organization is a core strength. You can create multiple Collections to separate references by project, client, or theme and switch between them with a single click. Within a collection, Masonry Mode automatically arranges items in an efficient layout, and you can always pin key items to floating frames. This system evolves with your project, keeping your visual research tidy and actionable.

dmaya is an AI-powered vibe design platform that helps agencies, teams, and freelancers create professional UI designs through conversation. It sits at the intersection of visual design tools and AI code generators, focusing on the critical step of intentional design before development begins. Users often explore alternatives for various reasons, such as budget constraints, specific feature requirements, or integration needs with their existing tech stack. Some may seek tools with different collaboration models or more granular control over the design-to-code workflow. When evaluating other options, consider the core workflow: the ability to generate and iterate on visual designs conversationally, streamline client review and approval, and export clean, usable code. The ideal tool should bridge the gap between creative ideation and technical execution without sacrificing team alignment or client confidence.

Refbox is a specialized productivity tool designed to streamline creative workflows. It operates as a floating reference manager, allowing users to keep images, videos, and notes visible above their primary workspace. This eliminates disruptive window switching, making it a powerful asset for designers, animators, and other visual professionals. Users often explore alternatives for various reasons, including budget constraints, specific feature needs, or compatibility with different operating systems. The quest for the right tool is a natural part of refining one's creative process, as needs evolve and new workflows emerge. When evaluating alternatives, consider core functionality like always-on-top windows, media support, and organizational features. The goal is to find a solution that integrates seamlessly into your existing routine, fostering a cycle of continuous improvement and sustained creative focus.