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Many articles about wanting to leave the macOS ecosystem mention Sketch. Sketch is macOS only (and will be for the forseeable future), so it's understandable th

Many articles about wanting to leave the macOS ecosystem mention Sketch. Sketch is macOS only (and will be for the forseeable future), so it's understandable that people want to consider the implications of switching away from it. Recently, however, I stumbled upon Figma, a web-based, real-time collaborative interface design app (i.e., a competitor of Sketch). After convincing my group to experiment with it for a school project, I was pleasantly surprised. - It's web based, so it works on Linux. - It imports .sketch files - It's real-time (you can see everyone's cursor and selection). This was great, because it meant we didn't have to walk through the snow to get to campus to have a discussion about tweaking a few elements. I understand that some people may still need access to Sketch to work with people on their team or at their company. But for me, I'm officially striking Sketch off the list of software that's tying me down to macOS.

ourcat 10y ago
I've never really understood why people use Sketch. I recently worked on a project where I had asked for some basic vanilla templates of a mobile site from the designers and was sent a huge Sketch file. It was utterly useless and I had to code everything by hand myself, since the 'designers' very clearly had zero clue about HTML+CSS or any notion of responsiveness, thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of the knowledge required to be a useful part of anyone's app/site building process.
- z1mm32m4n 10y ago
  I'd be curious to hear what you consider to be an alternative workflow or tool. Any tool can be used incorrectly in bad hands. The problem of choosing to work with talented and competent designers is largely unrelated from the choice of tool.
- dorian-graph 10y ago
  To clarify, you're basing your whole not understanding why people use Sketch based just on your experience that you mentioned?
- kagamine 10y ago
  If you asked for templates you should have gotten templates, not mockups and not wireframes and not a demo. In my experience there is a common misunderstanding between designers, project managers and coders about what word or phrase is used to describe those very different things. And instead of learning what they are and being specific I have been told the equivalent of "just do your thing" ie, stop bothering me. Then people complain "this isn't what I asked for" and I have to explain the whole thing again while they don't bother to listen. Sound familiar?
  - optimuspaul 10y ago
    template is an ambiguous term, clear communication and definitions of terms would help.
- nkohari 10y ago
  My IDE didn't teach me that much about software engineering either.
- kaolti 10y ago
  "thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of the knowledge required to be a useful part of anyone's app/site building process." - I don't see how Sketch is to blame for designers sending you the wrong files.
- therealmarv 10y ago
  You should tell your Sketch designer about https://zeplin.io/ https://zeplin.io/ or upload your sketch design there. But I agree to some other comments... I think you and your designer do not speak the same language ;)
  - danielsamuels 10y ago
    Invision does the same thing as this.
- untog 10y ago
  I think the problem here is that you asked for the wrong thing. Of course you had to code everything by hand yourself - you didn't ask for code, you asked for design templates.
- ourcat 10y ago
  just to clarify: I expected HTML (etc.) files. We'd already been through the whole wireframing process. I also requested a responsive design. What I got was as useful as a PDF. Sorry, just kvetching on Sketching. I just felt it was a waste of time that some basic coding skills could have solved. ;)
- jasim 10y ago
  I'm a programmer like you and used to believe in the idea that you should design in the medium which is HTML and CSS, and not in a tool like Photoshop or Sketch. But I've completely reversed my stance after working with a lot of designers who create beautiful sites that goes very well with the grain of the web. The reason is direct manipulation. You're not thinking in terms of the DOM's static flow when trying to create a design. Instead you want a medium where you can quickly transfer the idea in your head to a tangible form and try out different layouts, typography, colors, and visuals. But there still exist the problem of converting that design into code, and that is a wasteful exercise. You might have found Protoship UIPad, a tool I'm developing (in early alpha), useful there. It can convert Sketch designs into code - HTML/CSS and even React. Sketch has been incredible for that sort of stuff. It is a vector design tool and its design elements are fully expressible through CSS and SVG, unlike say Photoshop which is a raster tool.
  - ourcat 10y ago
    Mostly hand-coding since ~'94. Also waded through the code-soup created by Dreamweaver for a bit. Thought it might save time having 'the designer' do the layout. It didn't. ;)
    - jasim 10y ago
      cynicism is well warranted. but if you're open to possibilities, they might pleasantly surprise you. > This claim is typically met with skepticism. Isn’t generated code unusable? Are the elements going to be absolutely positioned? Would the CSS classes be named correctly, and how reusable would they be? https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/code-generator-to-create-react-projects-straight-from-design-with-clean-html-and-css-c399a8189f0d https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/code-generator-to-crea...
- Lalabadie 10y ago
  > [...] thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of the knowledge required to be a useful part of anyone's app/site building process. This and the massive misunderstanding – where two parties agree to "templates", and one delivers mockups to the other who expects coded pages – tells me that Sketch is a subject in the story, but it isn't at fault. Sketch users can be very knowledgeable designers and very good communicators. Sketch itself doesn't teach design, and it doesn't solve communication issues either.
eriknstr 10y ago
Figma seems pretty neat. Does anyone know of something similar but open source?
slantyyz 10y ago
Affinity Designer is now cross platform and is starting to provide some of the functionality of Sketch. I don't think can handle Sketch files yet, but it's definitely an up and coming design tool.

ourcat 10y ago

I've never really understood why people use Sketch. I recently worked on a project where I had asked for some basic vanilla templates of a mobile site from the designers and was sent a huge Sketch file. It was utterly useless and I had to code everything by hand myself, since the 'designers' very clearly had zero clue about HTML+CSS or any notion of responsiveness, thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of the knowledge required to be a useful part of anyone's app/site building process.

z1mm32m4n 10y ago
I'd be curious to hear what you consider to be an alternative workflow or tool. Any tool can be used incorrectly in bad hands. The problem of choosing to work with talented and competent designers is largely unrelated from the choice of tool.
dorian-graph 10y ago
To clarify, you're basing your whole not understanding why people use Sketch based just on your experience that you mentioned?
kagamine 10y ago
If you asked for templates you should have gotten templates, not mockups and not wireframes and not a demo. In my experience there is a common misunderstanding between designers, project managers and coders about what word or phrase is used to describe those very different things. And instead of learning what they are and being specific I have been told the equivalent of "just do your thing" ie, stop bothering me. Then people complain "this isn't what I asked for" and I have to explain the whole thing again while they don't bother to listen. Sound familiar?
- optimuspaul 10y ago
  template is an ambiguous term, clear communication and definitions of terms would help.
nkohari 10y ago
My IDE didn't teach me that much about software engineering either.
kaolti 10y ago
"thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of the knowledge required to be a useful part of anyone's app/site building process." - I don't see how Sketch is to blame for designers sending you the wrong files.
therealmarv 10y ago
You should tell your Sketch designer about https://zeplin.io/ https://zeplin.io/ or upload your sketch design there. But I agree to some other comments... I think you and your designer do not speak the same language ;)
- danielsamuels 10y ago
  Invision does the same thing as this.
untog 10y ago
I think the problem here is that you asked for the wrong thing. Of course you had to code everything by hand yourself - you didn't ask for code, you asked for design templates.
ourcat 10y ago
just to clarify: I expected HTML (etc.) files. We'd already been through the whole wireframing process. I also requested a responsive design. What I got was as useful as a PDF. Sorry, just kvetching on Sketching. I just felt it was a waste of time that some basic coding skills could have solved. ;)
jasim 10y ago
I'm a programmer like you and used to believe in the idea that you should design in the medium which is HTML and CSS, and not in a tool like Photoshop or Sketch. But I've completely reversed my stance after working with a lot of designers who create beautiful sites that goes very well with the grain of the web. The reason is direct manipulation. You're not thinking in terms of the DOM's static flow when trying to create a design. Instead you want a medium where you can quickly transfer the idea in your head to a tangible form and try out different layouts, typography, colors, and visuals. But there still exist the problem of converting that design into code, and that is a wasteful exercise. You might have found Protoship UIPad, a tool I'm developing (in early alpha), useful there. It can convert Sketch designs into code - HTML/CSS and even React. Sketch has been incredible for that sort of stuff. It is a vector design tool and its design elements are fully expressible through CSS and SVG, unlike say Photoshop which is a raster tool.
- ourcat 10y ago
  Mostly hand-coding since ~'94. Also waded through the code-soup created by Dreamweaver for a bit. Thought it might save time having 'the designer' do the layout. It didn't. ;)
  - jasim 10y ago
    cynicism is well warranted. but if you're open to possibilities, they might pleasantly surprise you. > This claim is typically met with skepticism. Isn’t generated code unusable? Are the elements going to be absolutely positioned? Would the CSS classes be named correctly, and how reusable would they be? https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/code-generator-to-create-react-projects-straight-from-design-with-clean-html-and-css-c399a8189f0d https://medium.com/sketch-app-sources/code-generator-to-crea...
Lalabadie 10y ago
> [...] thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of the knowledge required to be a useful part of anyone's app/site building process. This and the massive misunderstanding – where two parties agree to "templates", and one delivers mockups to the other who expects coded pages – tells me that Sketch is a subject in the story, but it isn't at fault. Sketch users can be very knowledgeable designers and very good communicators. Sketch itself doesn't teach design, and it doesn't solve communication issues either.

eriknstr 10y ago

Figma seems pretty neat. Does anyone know of something similar but open source?

slantyyz 10y ago

Affinity Designer is now cross platform and is starting to provide some of the functionality of Sketch. I don't think can handle Sketch files yet, but it's definitely an up and coming design tool.