1/7/2024 0 Comments Avocode versioning![]() Not to mention storage limits, internet quality at different locations, etc. Unlike documents, design files often don't have the luxury of small files sizes, and their big size means storing PSD or Sketch files in the cloud has the additional problem of keeping local and remote files up to date. However, the "file passing" workflow was still a reality in the design world until very recently. I shudder to think of ever returning to using email to share and collate documents. Having your documents stored remotely meant your files were always up-to-date and accessible from anywhere. Google Docs revolutionised document collaboration. ![]() These unique things alone make it definitely worth checking out for big productivity gains, but there are two important foundational things that I love about Figma that really change up a lot of the usual design trends. There's a lot to love here, and the fact it's all built on web tech and still runs silky smooth is magic. Regular meaningful releases - there's constant improvements happening ![]() Many auto-alignment tools for simplifying layout changes Google fonts integrated - makes integrating typography super easy for web designs Team libraries, symbols - for cross-page, cross-project asset sharing Prototyping tools brings the best of InVision's clickable interface builder right beside your design tools Real-time collaboration on documents - many users can make changes simultaneously Something you'll definitely love if you do any iconography Vector networks - multi-point paths for drawing shapes. Not only that Figma makes its own improvements on various design tools. This means you can run Figma from your web browser, without the need for a paid license or installation, on any device or operating system. It provides a similar tooling experience as Sketch, but using browser technologies. So with Sketch firmly established in the web designer mindset, where does Figma come in? What does it offer that isn't already available, and does Figma even have a chance to compete? Figmaįigma could be described as "Sketch in the cloud". This in turn sprouted a whole new ecosystem around Sketch (InVision, AvoCode, Zeplin, etc.) providing additional application/cloud-based services for exporting or exploring Sketch designs. But with the rise of cloud-based services like Google Docs, the delivery workflow of Sketch felt somewhat archaic. That is, single large files stored locally, requiring a licensed copy of Sketch on any computer that needed to view the file. While Sketch improved the web design tooling, it still followed similar delivery mechanisms of the old days. Sketch, with its interface-focused vector tooling and comparatively cheap price, answered many of the shortfalls of Photoshop for web design and became the tool for designing websites on Mac. In the past five years, there's been a large uptake in Sketch for web design. While there were a few others tools better suited to interfaces, like Adobe Illustrator and (Macromedia/Adobe) Fireworks, many designers still chose Photoshop. Also, the filters and effects that Photoshop provided did not always translate well to CSS. Multi-page designs meant multiple Photoshop files, and shared colours and components just weren’t possible. However, Photoshop was not built for creating web interfaces, and as the web moved to responsive designs and high resolution displays, being raster-based meant additional work was needed for adding and exporting vector icons at different sizes and different file types. Perhaps this is why Photoshop, a photo-manipulation program, was the ill-fitted tool of choice for designing web interfaces for many years. Regardless of promised benefits, the idea of learning a new tool can often frighten rather than excite. Many people, designers included, don't like change. It looked like a simple vector web-app at first glance, but the more we saw, the more we realised this had potential to change our whole design/delivery process in ways similar to how Google Docs revolutionised sharing word documents. However, when one of our developers was looking for a Sketch alternative to perform frontend development on his Linux laptop, we stumbled upon Figma. Salsa Digital, like many digital agencies, has been designing in Sketch for years.
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