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It seems to me Figma is the market leader on this now, at least from what I can see online. What are other people impressions? I still wish Adobe hadn’t killed

It seems to me Figma is the market leader on this now, at least from what I can see online. What are other people impressions? I still wish Adobe hadn’t killed Fireworks when they purchased Macromedia. It was such a brilliant package, by far the best ui design tool at the time.

Adrig 5y ago
I feel the same, but I've been talking to other designers who still prefer sketch for its way of handling design systems and jump into XD for prototyping or vision setting. Despite its little quirks, I believe Figma has the best dynamic of this space. I also can't be happier to ditch an Adobe product for a valid alternative.
- jjcm 5y ago
  Product manager over at Figma - would love to know the quirks you mentioned!
- culturestate 5y ago
  Sketch + Framer is my go-to combo these days, with Zeplin for documentation and handoffs. For some reason, Figma has just never felt right to me.
  - Unbeliever69 5y ago
    Complete opposite experience. Dropped Sketch for Figma and never looked back.
open-source-ux 5y ago
"It seems to me Figma is the market leader on this now" This is my impression too. Adobe XD has always been in 'catch-up' mode to rivals Sketch and Figma. I was sceptical a complex, feature-rich design tool could be possible in the browser, but Figma proved me wrong. Not only that, Figma has proved to be serious competition to rival Sketch which is a native desktop Mac-only app (with all the speed and functionality advantage of a native app.) Both Sketch and Adobe XD are also hampered by the fact that sharing designs or collaborating with others is harder compared to Figma. Sketch and Adobe XD were designed with the focus on single-user desktop app use, not the multi-user (cross-platform) collaboration scenario common today. Both Sketch and XD allow you to share designs by uploading screenshots or files to their 'cloud' or hosting services. But editing is still required in the desktop app - unlike Figma where the browser is the app (although there are Figma Electron desktop apps for offline use). Adobe XD has a feature called 'co-editing' where multiple users can edit a file at the same time - but each user must have the XD app installed. Figma is even encroaching on the territory of other online tools like Miro. For example, Figma can be used as a digital whiteboard - ideal for a mixed team of developers, managers, designers and any other stakeholders. This is simply not possible in Sketch or Adobe XD.
- Unbeliever69 5y ago
  And this collaborative feature in Figma is GOLD. It improved how my team worked significantly.
- whywhywhywhy 5y ago
  > Figma has proved to be serious competition to rival Sketch which is a native desktop Mac-only app (with all the speed and functionality advantage of a native app.) Hats off to the Figma dev team because it actually blows Sketch out of the water in performance, smoothness and stability. Really makes you question the supposed native app advantage when you have such a highly capable team.
seumars 5y ago
It is. However it's unbearably slow when generating previews for prototypes. XD and Sketch are great for quick prototyping and Figma for actually implementing a large scale design system.
sbuk 5y ago
Annoyed by them axing Fireworks, really bitter about them killing off Freehand. It was so much better than Illustrator.

Adrig 5y ago

I feel the same, but I've been talking to other designers who still prefer sketch for its way of handling design systems and jump into XD for prototyping or vision setting. Despite its little quirks, I believe Figma has the best dynamic of this space. I also can't be happier to ditch an Adobe product for a valid alternative.

jjcm 5y ago
Product manager over at Figma - would love to know the quirks you mentioned!
culturestate 5y ago
Sketch + Framer is my go-to combo these days, with Zeplin for documentation and handoffs. For some reason, Figma has just never felt right to me.
- Unbeliever69 5y ago
  Complete opposite experience. Dropped Sketch for Figma and never looked back.

open-source-ux 5y ago

"It seems to me Figma is the market leader on this now" This is my impression too. Adobe XD has always been in 'catch-up' mode to rivals Sketch and Figma. I was sceptical a complex, feature-rich design tool could be possible in the browser, but Figma proved me wrong. Not only that, Figma has proved to be serious competition to rival Sketch which is a native desktop Mac-only app (with all the speed and functionality advantage of a native app.) Both Sketch and Adobe XD are also hampered by the fact that sharing designs or collaborating with others is harder compared to Figma. Sketch and Adobe XD were designed with the focus on single-user desktop app use, not the multi-user (cross-platform) collaboration scenario common today. Both Sketch and XD allow you to share designs by uploading screenshots or files to their 'cloud' or hosting services. But editing is still required in the desktop app - unlike Figma where the browser is the app (although there are Figma Electron desktop apps for offline use). Adobe XD has a feature called 'co-editing' where multiple users can edit a file at the same time - but each user must have the XD app installed. Figma is even encroaching on the territory of other online tools like Miro. For example, Figma can be used as a digital whiteboard - ideal for a mixed team of developers, managers, designers and any other stakeholders. This is simply not possible in Sketch or Adobe XD.

Unbeliever69 5y ago
And this collaborative feature in Figma is GOLD. It improved how my team worked significantly.
whywhywhywhy 5y ago
> Figma has proved to be serious competition to rival Sketch which is a native desktop Mac-only app (with all the speed and functionality advantage of a native app.) Hats off to the Figma dev team because it actually blows Sketch out of the water in performance, smoothness and stability. Really makes you question the supposed native app advantage when you have such a highly capable team.

seumars 5y ago

It is. However it's unbearably slow when generating previews for prototypes. XD and Sketch are great for quick prototyping and Figma for actually implementing a large scale design system.

sbuk 5y ago

Annoyed by them axing Fireworks, really bitter about them killing off Freehand. It was so much better than Illustrator.