An apparatus and method are disclosed for obtaining a simulated preview that depicts a representation of one or more user interface changes associated with an application plug-in. The approach involves, for example, rendering the simulated preview overlaid on a user interface of an application executing on a device. The rendering aligns the representation of the one or more user interface changes over the user interface to depict a preview of the one or more user interface changes that will occur after an installation of the application plug-in. The approach also involves rendering the simulated preview along with one or more simulated previews of installed plug-ins overlaid in a staked view on the user interface of the application. Addition and/or deletion of plug-ins can be managed in the stacked view.