I wrote a post on my Sketch Hunt blog. It has a brief summary of 2016 milestones for Sketch and other related design tools. I also share some thoughts about what might come our way in 2017.
You can find it on Sketch Hunt, or see people’s comments and recommendations in the cross-posted version on Medium: “Looking ahead at Sketch and other design tools in 2017”.
Thanks to Mobile devices, 2016 may usher in a new wave of Stylus use among both professionals and consumers. The pressure sensitive stylus in far from new. However, the stylus as well as the range of software and devices that can now support them, has seen incredible growth. It used to be that Wacom was the big kid on the block, and their core users were primarily designers and 3D animators. Mobile hardware, more specifically tablets, have kicked off a new generation of stylus options for all skill levels. (more…)
Adobe announced Project Comet, among with a lot of other interesting stuff, at their 2015 MAX conference on October 5. Depending on the types of tools you’ve been using recently, this news may mean different things for your workflow. For those who primarily use Adobe tools, Comet may look new to you. If you have been experimenting with the surprising number or new design, prototyping and interaction/animation tools that have risen in popularity over the past few years, you may see Comet as reactionary (but, perhaps compelling nonetheless).
Image Credit: Adobe.com (Note: image resized using Affinity Photo – to emphasize competitive pressure)
When Adobe announced artboards for Photoshop, there was a lot of talk about Adobe copying Sketch. This seems fair to say, however it also seems a little bombastic when you consider that Adobe Illustrator has had artboards for years. However, it’s clear that Sketch has become known for developing designs on artboards and easily exporting final artwork assets at various pixel densities. It’s success has also been buoyed by a growing ecosystem of independent plugins, UI Kits and other resources.
With the announcement and demo video for Comet, similar cries of ‘copying’ will continue as we notice familiar aspects of various prototyping and design tools in Comet. However, there were also some pretty cool things shown in the Comet demo that seemed ahead of the competition. For example the ease of mocking up repetitive data like lists and grids via Comet’s “Repeat Grid” tool. (more…)
