Why I felt in love with Abstract 😍 (but it was not love at first sight)

4 months ago I’ve started using Abstract, a tool that allows me to collaborate better with my colleagues and work simultaneously on the same sketch file. This is the story about how I chose it.

Viola Mottarella

Published in

Design + Sketch

6 min readFeb 11, 2019

(Thanks for the background Madison Inouye)

Ops I did it again!

It happened 3 years ago with Sketch, after one week I asked “him” to marry me and…here we go again, but this time I’ve tried some other tools before giving to Abstract the engagement ring.

In this article I will sum up my impression about Github (+Sourcetree) Kaktus, Avocode..and why at the end of the day I chose Abstract.

The problem to solve

In our team of 2 designer (and +10 developers) we had one very big issue: work on the same file at the same time, having always the certainty to work on the most updated version. Easy to say, not so easy to do.

Adding a new tool in our workflow (Sketch + Zeplin + InVision) was a decision that needed to be thoughtful. Before I started looking for a tool I wrote down what I was expecting from that new tool, and then I started skimming off, asking my self which points were essential for us. What remained were the three most important things to have:

And then, finally, the prince charming hunting started (the final is already spoiled in the title, I know).

The satyrs

First contender: GitHub (+ Sourcetree)

Very short explanation → Github, what’s that? It is a cloud hosting service for Git repositories, which sounds like double dutch, I know. Let’s say it is a website where projects that use Git can be stored.
SourceTree: is a Git Client, it allows you to “visualize and manage your repositories through Sourcetree’s simple Git GUI.”
Both Github and SourceTree “speak the same language” which is Git (Git is an open-source version control system that was started by Linus Torvalds)
If you want to go deeper there is a plenty of articles out there:
→ https://hackernoon.com/understanding-git-fcffd87c15a3
→ https://www.edureka.co/blog/git-vs-github/
→ https://www.howtogeek.com/180167/htg-explains-what-is-github-and-what-do-geeks-use-it-for/

I’ve started with the “obvious one”: Github
Because -let’s be honest-, the developers know perfectly since years how to work “on the same files” at the same time. We, designers, don’t.
So I’ve decided to start with their tool to see if it could be useful also for designers. The answer is yes, it could be; but not for our team.

It’s always a matter of “to get used to something” (and I know that there are some designers who use Git, I love the idea of considering it as a bridge between devs and designers) but if you have choices you will probably go with a tool that suits you better and, for us, GitHub was a no-go: I should have known when I first open their website: Built for developers. Fair enough.

Git&co allow you to version many kind of file but unfortunately for design files (.sketch) it’s not enough supportive from a visual point of view.
And this is when Mathieu Dutour (the creator of Kaktus) comes into play.

Second contender: Kaktus

As they say on their website: “Introducing true design version control without changing your tools. Manage changes, document work and keep your team in sync.” Kaktus is, basically, a tool that helps designers to experience GIT but in a nicer way.

Opened a bug here → https://github.com/kactus-io/kactus/issues/118

If you are already a push-pull dancer or, at least, you are familiar with Git&co…you should give it a try.

LINK: https://kactus.io/

Third contender: Avocode

Avocode seemed the right tool to collaborate, to keep the file organised but also to hand-off to the devs, even to prototype. Maybe for us, at that point, was too much.
As I said at the beginning of this article we didn’t want to change our workflow or choose a tool that could impact also on other teams. We just needed something that allowed us to work together easily and we already had a tool to hand-off (Zeplin) and that both, developers and PMs, are ok with.

LINK: https://avocode.com/

The winner

With Kactus and Github was a push&pull dance with something that we found uncomfortable and far from our world.
Avocode was too much, I’ve tried also Figma quickly but since it was a kind of substitute of Sketch I give up immediately because the divorce with Sketch was not on my priority list.

And then…I found him. 😍

“He” was good looking, intuitive, with a very small learning curve, he could take care of everything we need. It was another tool, yes, but a very useful one. The name explains a lot: it abstracts you from all the GIT underneath complexity.

LINK: abstract.com

Conclusion

Every team has different needs and, of course, this article is based on my experience. Abstract had a big positive impact on our workflow: we feel that everything is under control using a tool really made for designers.
Nevertheless it is important to mention that every tool is useful but every tool could be also useless; what makes the difference is the team, the people behind it. Abstract could be a mess if you don’t decide, for example, when and how commit or merge. When there is a common method shared within the whole team then your daily work could really become better (which also means, in this case, less conflict resolution.)

I’m thrilled to know any other way to collaborate within a design team and with the development team.
[To be honest, there is a fourth contender that could wipe out all: Figma, but this is another story (and…I still have to try it properly😉)]