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I’ve been using the Abstract app for a while and I thought to write about my experience using the app and how I think its a useful and essential tool for any designer or design team. ?

One of the essentials of modern day work on the internet is collaboration. The ability to collaborate seamlessly makes it easier for teams anywhere to do good work.

We’ve had pretty good software that make collaboration easy. There’s Slack for communication, Dropbox for storage, Trello for project management and a plethora of other awesome software that makes sure working is easy and seamless.

As a software developer, one of the most important tools you need to understand and be efficient in is the use of a version control system like Git. Some of the characteristics of Git includes:

Branching Capabilities. Git branches are cheap and easy to merge.
Distributed Development. Developers get their own local repository, complete with a full history of commits.
Code collaboration with peers.
Better file organization.

When it comes to being a designer, there is no such thing as Version control system (well, until Abstract). In a bid to create a file structure/workflow that resembles Git, designers have to resort to something like this below.

Designers mostly miss out on some of the characteristics of Git as seen above which I think is a pain point that exists. Designer A finishes design and has to upload to Dropbox or whatever storage software in use and Designer B has to download, make some edits and upload again and the cycle of begins again ? ?

That’s where Abstract comes in. Abstract is simply a design tool to help designers with the design process.

I first found out about Abstract last year when Frank Chimero shared a link to the blog post introducing Abstract and then in November when Josh Brewer announced the Private Alpha had begun ?

It’s a Mac-only app (makes sense because they only support .sketch files) that’s built on Git and offers features like branch management, comments/feedback, organized file structure. It’s designed to be a version control system for Sketch and makes life easy for designers by taking away the command line.

abstractapp.com

Private Alpha was announced late last year and I only got an invite early this year and I have to say, it’s a great tool for design teams, individuals to use.

It’s got a very clean and intuitive interface that divides your projects into personal and team projects.

Abstract Dashboard ??

For each project, a Master branch is created which acts as the source of truth for the project and you can have as many branches as you want to work with.

Branches

You are advised not to push directly to the Master branch so important to create a new branch to work with. Branches mean you can have as many versions of a file and make as many changes as you can and also track the changes with the commit history. No more file conflicts ??????

Overview of a project’s branch

Abstract also helps you to present your past commits via a timeline. You get to see changes (if any) made by yourself/teammate and when the commit was made.

You can browse through every file and edit them in Sketch and even create a new Sketch file. Abstract automatically tracks/listens for changes in the sketch file and prompts you to preview and commit your change to Abstract. Your teammates get notified whenever you make a new commit and can give feedback by adding comments.

One of the beautiful things about Abstract is the fact that it works well offline, everything is stored locally — that means all your commits, branches, merging and edits are stored locally and then syncs whenever there is internet access. Superb stuff!

Conclusion

While Abstract is still a work in progress (still in Alpha after all) I think it’s a great tool for every designer out there. There are still a few bugs here and there (crashes Sketch when trying to open a .sketch file from the app) but updates are made regularly.

With a simple and intuitive design, Abstract makes you forget that’s it built on Git by taking away terminal commands.

The truth is half of design work is based on managing changes, documenting the work, getting feedback and keeping everyone informed about new stuff and Abstract manages to handle all of that easily.

I’m very excited for future updates of Abstract and can’t wait to see some of the features the Abstract team has in store.

Designers do awesome work and deserve the best tools to make work easy and I think Abstract is just that tool we deserve.

Abstract: The Design Tool We Deserve was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Abstract: The Design Tool We Deserve

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