Sketch 3: the one UX tool to rule them all
All UXers out there undoubtedly know the pain of using a myriad of design tools and software for wireframing… for years my process has been a juggling act between tools like Omnigraffle, Axure and, dare I say it — Photoshop. For wireframing. I know. With each unique project, my choice of tools changed depending on the output needs, and often started in one and transitioned (rather clunkily) to another. Inevitably, as I collaborated with colleagues, projects would run into compatibility issues, prototypes in Axure would become incredibly heavy and slow, and the learning curve to include some trivial interactions in prototypes was huge. Strange how the UX tools we rely on are so user-unfriendly…
Thats why I’m so excited by Sketch.
I was an early adopter of Sketch, and have stuck with it through some of the buggy old days because of the promise it showed. From the start I could see it had the potential to be a game-changer… and I’m happy to say that we’re at the point now where it has delivered on that promise. With Sketch, you can easily create designs of any fidelity, making it a one-size-fits-all tool for your design process. The layering will be familiar to anyone who has used Photoshop, but somehow seems lighter and simpler. And, the ability to use ‘Symbols’ to create reusable master components makes updating footers or UI elements so simple. It’s exactly what Photoshop aimed to be before it got so feature-heavy that it became the convoluted, weighty beast it is.
Sketch makes it so easy to export canvases, or design elements too. You can set up any number of export elements and outputs, and with a click of a button, you have your PDF, PNG or even SVG. If you want to export multiple types of files from the same design element or slice — no problem. Simply define the details, and with one click everything is done.
But, for me — the real power of Sketch is the plugins. There are some really clever people out there building awesome plugins for Sketch that are taking it to the next level, making what was a novel tool into an indispensable part of my design process. Take, for example, the ‘Craft’ plugin by inVision. ‘Craft’ is the content tool that every designer needs — making it dead simple to pull real content from existing files or websites into your Sketch templates. No more lorem ipsum or cutting and pasting, then reformatting text… with a couple of clicks you have real content. And, it just works, no glitches, no issues. Magic.
Another plugin I’m really excited about is the soon-to-be released ‘Silver’ — the new mobile prototyping plugin that will send Axure the way of the dinosaur. While its yet to be released, it has the potential to make Sketch the omnipotent tool for UX. If the prototyping process is as simple as it looks in their video, it will no longer be a chore to build interactive mobile prototypes for user testing. Hell, with the time it’ll save, testing prototypes would be accessible for any design project, regardless of its size.
A big advantage for me is that Sketch plays nicely with other useful tools out there. Integrating with InVision is a great way to get feedback on designs in a collaborative way, and Sketch makes it so simple to upload your prototype. Simply drag your file into inVision, and your canvases import as pages in your InVision prototype. It even brings in the name of your canvas, so there’s no need to name each page.
While Sketch is still evolving, the plugin process allows fantastic user control to shape it into a tool tailored to your needs, without the feature bloat that hampers some of the more traditional tools. I’m looking at you Photoshop. It also means that it can adapt to changes in the industry and remain relevant. As with all tools there are some issues (like accidentally adjusting a symbol template and inadvertently screwing up a dozen other canvases), but I’ll admit that most are user errors instead of true functional flaws. Yes, the UX around issues like that could be improved, but it’s more an issue of retraining myself in the Sketch way of doing things. And, the guys and girls at Sketch are awesome at responding to feedback and implementing updates, so these teething issues are quickly resolved.
I know a few of you out there will be worried about having to learn a new tool after investing so much time with the usual tools, but I can tell you — it’s worth it.
