This is probably one of the most interesting responses, and I'll try to be as clear as possible.
“Sketch or XD”:
In my humble opinion, the only reason for Sketch’s success is because it was first of its kind. When Sketch was launched, Adobe was like: it’s just a phase. Then they started to implement some stuff into Photoshop and Fireworks before they scrapped the whole plan and came late to the party with XD.
At the time of writing of this article, I would definitely choose Sketch if I am only a UI or UX Designer. But if I wanted more, XD is a clear winner in features (including planned and support by Adobe) and cross platform support.
“You briefly mention you tried Sketch but you also mention you are a Windows user multiple times. How have you tried Sketch and how long did you persevere with it for?”
Yes, I am a Windows user and I will always be because MacOS simply doesn’t make sense for me.
Putting that ehind us, I tried to work on Sketch for more than 6 months on an iMac in 2015. I love the features, but the software is just too full of bugs. Plus, ever since the “wake up” of Microsoft with Surface and Windows 10, it doesn’t make any sense for a software of ANY kind to be stuck on 1 platform. It’s all about giving your user choices to switch between any platform and/or device they want.
Can you honestly tell me that Sketch is coming to iOS soon knowing for sure that Apple is trying to position iOS as a macOS replacement within the next 5 years? With XD, I can start working on my Win 10 work PC, continue home on my Surface, or even give feedback on a design/prototype while I'm in the bus.
Can you say that you can do that on Sketch?
“You posted an extensive post about some flaws with Sketch. If you are going to post articles about the issues Sketch have had — post some about XD as well so people can get a fair idea. It hasn’t been a smooth road for the XD team.”
XD team never said that it’s a smooth road for them. But at least, when you ask a question, XD team answers. Sketch team is nowhere to be found or they reply weeks later.
In addition, Sketch claims to be a fully baked software, XD clearly states that they are still in Preview / Beta, so it’s not really fair to compare a beta software with a “final” version.
One of the main drawbacks that XD users might feel is that on Windows, the app is still a bit more “limited” comparing to the macOS version. In addition, it’s still not very stable. I was very clear and honest with that in my tweets which I mentioned to the XD team publicly and @elainecchao was more than happy to help or give feedback or even logging it as a bug for the development team.
One of my latest “issues” with XD:
“You can design. But you need to pay for another tool to prototype or showcase you final product.”
Yes, up to this point, XD is totally free. In addition, can you mention 5 designers in 2017 that don’t have Photoshop / Illustrator? They’re like the de-facto software for designers since I can remember. And if you don’t like to pay for them, there’s ton of open source options out there that you can use, save your end result as SVG or PNG and happily import it to XD.
And in case, you missed it, Sketch is not free ( $99 USD) and InVision is $15 USD / month for just 3 prototypes while XD has unlimited prototypes.
“You have chosen the best application for UI design for a Windows machine.
The article should have been called ‘If you are a Windows user, choose XD.”
I am sorry to say but this is your opinion not mine. I truly believe that XD is and will be superior to Sketch on Windows and MacOS. If not for the features (which they keep adding), just for the stability and for being truly cross platform.
