Dear Sketch developers, I love your app but will not renew the license, not because Figma. We use Affinity at the office. No. Collaborative design is a trend and it will pass in a mess that will be a result of mediocrity and lack of character. My problem is that you cannot see the Writing on the wall ahead, Apple will bring you down, they do not care, they are service sellers. If you want your software to live long and serve your customers fairly, its time to invest in multi-platform development, and if you want market advantage make Linux your primary choice.
Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
101–110 of 362 posts
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#102I believe users don't actually care about the Native only features, and rather they care more about producing great designs, through a delightful process, in effective collaboration with their teammates. As opposed to focusing on how Sketch tackles these bigger picture user goals, they talk about their love for Native apps, with contrived examples: what percentage of users actually care about using the OSX dictionary while working? They took out a bunch of space to show a user using the dictionary for the word "reading" - a use case that likely doesn't resonate with 99.9% of their users.
A common ego-driven thinking mistake I catch myself making: I subconsciously push myself to believe a false narrative that supports my previous decisions so that I don’t appear stupid in front of my peers and so that I don’t throw away previous work. I think Sketch is making this mistake.
It's tough. When you've raised money and have so much external pressures to succeed in the way you said you would when you raised money - it's tough to own mistakes and honestly, objectively analyze your work.
I sincerely hope Sketch does well in the coming years, their work has benefitted me tremendously, but I feel their focus is off at the moment.
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#103sounds like "oh we're loosing market, oh well, but we're native, please please don't go away to sketch"
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like to write native apps (Swift). I won’t go into why (as everyone here seems to be trying to convince everyone else, who aren’t really listening, anyway. I’m not really looking to change my viewpoint). Figma is cool. I’m working with a designer, now, and we’ll see how it goes. Not sure I’d really say it was a direct Sketch competitor, though. I think Adobe Illustrator is Sketch’s biggest competitor, and that says…
What can Sketch do that Figma can't?
Work offline, Better font rendering
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#105In general, I think it is a mistake to project technology choices as a user benefit.
Particularly when it comes to trying to rank against the modern web. Especially given the testimony of Figma users ITT, because they suggest cross platform availability as the true driving value.
One thing I’d point out is Sketch is acting all lovey about Apple’s awesome APIs right now, but they left the App Store with great bitterness a few years ago.
Those fees, as Apple has stated, go in part to paying for these APIs.
And by leaving the App Store Sketch also restricted user licensing as well.
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#106I respect them for sticking to this, but I think it's a mistake. It's clear users in general don't care about an app being pure Mac OS controls/SDKs/etc. and their claims about it being a truly superior UX are unfounded (having used both regularly, Figma disproves that heavily). With this, Sketch isn't available on Windows nor the web (until very recently it seems?). I wouldn't die on that hill.
A lot of Mac users do. We chose the platform because of it, among other things.
I hate that WhatsApp, Skype and other crap Electron apps that I’m forced to use because of other people can’t do simple things like propor multi language spell checking that macOS has had since day one and that every other app gets for free.
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#107One thing I think people aren't pointing out is how much Figma seems to have done [1] to make the web platform work for them in the way Sketch is describing the Mac App. It almost seems like a technical moat of sorts. Achieving the ridiculous snappiness Figma in browsers is certainly non-trivial. [1] https://www.figma.com/blog/building-a-professional-design-to...
Every single day I’m finding myself using more and more Figma over my standard workflow tools like Photoshop and Illustrator...I just absolutely love how fast and snappy it is.
I must be the only one that refuses to pay for a software subscription.
But I'm not a pro, don't have corporate to pay for my license, may only use a drawing, design, paint program occasionally.
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't a property of native apps or web apps. As someone who's worked on a lot of collaborative technology, I find it weird how most of the interest in collaborative editing is confined to the web. As I understand it, Figma's internal collaborative engine is written in C++ anyway.
If I recall correctly, Figma's entire UI is C++ compiled down to webassembly.
And Rust
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#109I respect them for sticking to this, but I think it's a mistake. It's clear users in general don't care about an app being pure Mac OS controls/SDKs/etc. and their claims about it being a truly superior UX are unfounded (having used both regularly, Figma disproves that heavily). With this, Sketch isn't available on Windows nor the web (until very recently it seems?). I wouldn't die on that hill.
I think this is a good example of the HN bubble which is one of the only places where "native macOS app" means anything to anybody. At least something more than "oh, I need to have a Macbook for that?"
My girlfriend is a UX professional that does most of her work in Sketch. She doesn't care about macOS beyond the fact that it's required by the tools she has to use.
I impulse-built an overpowered Windows machine earlier this year and tried to pawn it off on her, but she didn't even want it because it doesn't run Sketch. She's stuck on a Macbook.
Some people are replying to you saying there are these great benefits to being macOS native, but they really pale in comparison to having to learn something as complex as Sketch. A few familiar component paradigms don't really put a dent in the learning curve, or it's at least vastly overstated. I'd liken Sketch more to Photoshop in the sense that some native components aren't going to make the hard stuff easier.
One practical downside of being macOS-only is that it makes those hard fought Sketch skills less portable and any business that uses Sketch in their pipeline now has a hard platform requirement. Maybe they'll choose something else like Figma. That's something much more tangible to a Sketch professional.
Even VS Code's popularity among developers (the one group presumably sensitive to "native" vs not) suggests how little weight "native" carries with most people. When it's time to get work done, turns out there are more important considerations.
I think you're right, hard to imagine it's a hill worth dying on.
Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App
#110Reminds me of Blackberry that decided to stick to keyboard and went bankrupt. Users don’t care about native or not , they care only about innovation.
I think it's an oversimplification to say that Blackberry went bankrupt because they decided to stick to keyboard. They could've innovated while keeping the keyboard.
Agree. No eco-system, no apps.