Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2tx6Rre">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Oriana Corbett 
<a href="http://ift.tt/1Ls7nHW">Sketch</a> is awesome. I am a total convert. Anyone who works with me knows this and if we get into the conversation about Sketch versus Photoshop I fear they think to themselves “Here she goes again, singing the praises of the almighty Sketch!”
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2uuU5Xs">
As far as I’m concerned it is the best available tool for designing websites, apps, user interfaces and all design digital interfaces on offer at the moment and, thankfully, it seems to be gaining serious momentum in the web design community rapidly.
But what is it about Sketch that has me singing its praise from the rooftops? It’s very simple really. It helps me to focus more on design and speeds up my workflow. It’s also very easy to learn — the learning process was extremely fast.
I will admit that I was a bit nervous about making the move just over a year ago. I was only a few months working in <a href="http://www.strata3.com/">Strata3</a> and didn’t want to spend weeks or even months figuring out the complexities of new software. But this wasn’t the case. Myself and my fellow UI/UX designers made the decision together to take the Sketch plunge. I got a new project soon after and learned on the job. It didn’t take long to get used to the very simple, user-friendly interface and there is plenty of online support and tutorials for troubleshooting and for finding very helpful Sketch resources for example:
<a href="http://ift.tt/2g4Qb30">http://ift.tt/2g4Qb30</a>/
<a href="http://ift.tt/2uv4UsD">http://ift.tt/2uv4UsD</a>
<a href="http://sketchhunt.com/">http://sketchhunt.com/</a>
<a href="https://sketchrepo.com/">https://sketchrepo.com/</a>
<a href="http://ift.tt/1wYNM9a">http://ift.tt/1wYNM9a</a>
I can create wireframes, symbols, create designs and export assets in a fraction of the time I can do it in Photoshop.
Unlike Photoshop, Sketch is lightweight on features and the simple UI approach works for me. There are no 3D tools, complex filters and a plethora of other unnecessary features that affect design speed. It simply offers me the things that are important to me for my web projects and this leads to me saving enormous amounts of time. Who wouldn’t want that?
On top of all of these reasons I choose Sketch over Photoshop, there’s the price. You can buy one license of Sketch online for $99 versus spending $49 per monthly prescription for Photoshop’s Creative Cloud. It’s a company that listens to its users, quickly acting on feedback and releases versions very often to improve performance.
<h4>So why make the move?</h4>
<h4>It focuses heavily on vector</h4>
Currently the most popular trend in responsive web design is flat, simplistic, vector-based graphics. As designers we have to always be aware of high definition versus normal definition displays and Sketch is perfect for design with this in mind. Creating pixel perfect design is effortless and its features allow the designer to freely resize objects and artboards. No more blurry lines!
<h4>It’s easier with symbols</h4>
Praise be the symbol! Simply convert a group of elements into a symbol and within this group play with size, colour, text changes, images etc. You can then use this symbol across the entire website and when you apply a change to the symbol it is automatically changed throughout. I mean, how cool is that? And don’t even get me started on how much time that saves…
<h4>Creating objects is a doddle</h4>
In Sketch every shape you create is listed as an item in the layers list. The paths are not hidden as they are in Photoshop. It’s then possible to combine the paths and create complex shapes although the shapes stay editable. Like with illustrator you can jump into a group of objects by double clicking an object. The snap-to-grid is also a great feature — you can use it to align your objects very quickly and accurately.
<h4>Text styles management</h4>
Text styles are so easy in Sketch. Managing H1, H2, H3s etc is now so easy and consistent. If you change one styled word, the rest of the characters with that style changes throughout your entire document. It keeps everything super consistent. It makes life a lot easier for front-end developers too. Defining text attributes and applying it globally to an entire design is now so simple.
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2uvpPvr.">
<h4>Exporting</h4>
Using Photoshop I always found one of the more tedious jobs was preparing files for export. It took time and it is generally very non-creative and monotonous. Sketch’s built-in export tools make this process so quick and easy — simply click Export, select your exportable artboards and, well, export.
Sketch supports export to JPG, PDF, PNG, SVG and more.
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2tx6RYg.">
<h4>Summary</h4>
There are of course dozens of other reasons why I love using Sketch and personally I predict that in the near future, more and more designers will be making the move.
It’s not perfect but this is another reason I am a fan of Sketch — they are constantly upgrading it and producing plugins and versions that improve performance and functionality. Also considering it’s only a few years since it’s release it has become a pretty amazing, reliable tool that I simply couldn’t live without now.
All praise Sketch!
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2uvfgbX."><img src="http://ift.tt/2txg8Q9" width="1" height="1" alt="stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSou">
<hr>
<a href="http://ift.tt/2uv6SZU">Moving to Sketch was a no-brainer</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Moving to Sketch was a no-brainer

Top Stories