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Re-entering the field after 4 years – what did I miss

almost 5 years ago from Gabriella C, UX/UI Designer

  • James Jun, almost 5 years ago

    The core tenets of product design hasn't changed much (more nuanced skillsets can be searched on their own), but the design tools have no doubt evolved significantly within that time when it comes to UI design.

    While Sketch was a fairly buggy program way back in 2014, it's become the staple design tool for the industry since then as it's grown leaps & bounds in features and stability. Design system creation & management has become significantly streamlined with support for it in Sketch (as 'Libraries'), Invision DSM & other competing apps. Design versioning has become popularized and easy to do with Abstract. Prototyping is easier than ever.

    The combination of maturing UI tools with the popularization of flat-design ("easy-to-make" interface) dethroned Photoshop & Illustrator as necessary tools. But while that is the case, they still remain in the toolkit of select designers, as Photoshop remains unparalleled in crafting more conceptualized and detailed interfaces along with Illustrator's familiar vector workflow for logos & icons.

    The big noteworthy design tools that have either emerged or grown in those 4 years include Figma, Framer Classic, Framer X, Invision Studio, & Principle. Figma is a web-powered interface tool with powerful collaborative features, available for free for individual use. Framer Classic is a code-powered prototyping (then later interface) tool that allowed for much more nuanced animations you couldn't normally achieve with other tools. It was succeeded by Framer X, a prototyping tool of the same nature powered by React. Invision Studio is a Sketch-esque interface tool that still needs some time to grow, but is worth looking out for. Principle is a pure visual-based prototyping tool that is great for quick-fast animations.

    24 points
    • Jesse Payne, almost 5 years ago

      Also Affinity's Adobe alternatives: Designer (Illustrator) and Photo (Photoshop) are worth checking out and available on iPad—yet to hear of any big design teams using these over Adobe's versions though.

      2 points
    • Gabriella CGabriella C, almost 5 years ago

      Thank you! This is so helpful. Did Invision win out over axure? That was my go-to tool for prototyping...

      0 points
      • James Jun, almost 5 years ago

        I believe Axure still finds its uses amongst seasoned users, but the approachability of Invision (and recently Sketch) makes them the goto for rudimentary prototyping. You'd find the most if not all design tools both current and incoming will have some sort of rudimentary click-based prototyping. For anything more advanced, people tend to use Principle, Framer, Flinto, Kite Composer.

        2 points
        • A B, almost 5 years ago

          Yes. For hard-core wireframing, flows and lo-fi UX design, Axure still reigns.

          It is expensive for what it offers, which is why it is becoming less relevant to the majority or designers as it offers poor value for money compared to Figma, Sketch and other tools.

          0 points