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Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

sketch.com

231–240 of 362 posts

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#231

Why does this website change my mouse pointer though? I have it set to a different color and bigger for a reason. Visiting this page makes it small and black. For what purpose?? Is this the design they are so proud of?

It's styled to look like Mac OS, of course. It's meant to be a cute novelty.

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#232

By now, I'd treat Apple-exclusive app developers for Stockholm syndrome. I used to build a Mac-only native app for real-time audio processing, which was great for battery life, snappy performance and had no latency. But the work that Apple pushed on me just to keep things running okay-ish across OS releases was too much to bear compared with the meager revenue of only serving 10% of the addressable market. By now, my…

I was with you until you mentioned Epic. What Epic did was a violation of a contract in a way it knew would bring about a confrontation. The judge hearing the case agreed that it was purely self-inflicted pain by Epic. To be clear, many App Store rules seem arbitrary and ill defined (and enforced), but Epic is not the one to support here for what it did.

I agree that Epic is not innocent here. But what I worried about was Apple's reaction to them. Kicking Epic out is OK, but when they decided to use Epic's Unreal Engine customers as leverage by threatening to prevent future security updates of the engine, that was a clear sign that the current Apple management does not value the indie studios that build the apps.

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many people with visual accessibility issues would take a graphic design job

Accessibility features are used by people regardless of whether they have visual accessibility issues. For example, I (and many others–watch some WWDC presentations closely and you'll see this) use the "display zoom" feature during presentations and when doing UI work to focus on things. The feature where you wiggle the mouse cursor to make it big? That's an accessibility feature, but it got a prime spot at the keyno…

You can use voiceover as a way to add a lot of context and “color” to a UI. I make a big effort to support voiceover in my apps. In fact, most of the text that I translate is never seen by the user[0].

On the Mac, I also like to use tooltips, applying the same string as voiceover.

[0] https://github.com/RiftValleySoftware/ambiamara/blob/bbb1d98... (Note, also, that these voiceover strings have been localized in French, German, and Spanish).

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#234
post #173

Design is communication. I loved sketch and was a devout user for years. But with Sketch, I can only communicate with a very small set of people. It required a plethora of other tools and services to share, get feedback, or insights on my work. The tool is only as effective as the reach of its creation. If technology has shown us anything in this generation, it is that reach and collaboration are immensely more valua…

They’ve literally stated that Sketch app has live collaboration coming

I think OP was referring to cross-platform support and being able to work with people who don't have a Mac, unless I am misunderstanding.

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#236
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a whole world of difference. Figma's servers can be down when you need it to work, developers might want to 'phase out' the function you need, or introduce some changes that would totally break your workflow, and you will be absolutely powerless to do anything about it but conform. With locally running app you control when and where the app works, and you have way more options when developer introduces some…

Meh. I can't open any of our old sketch files at work because I don't have a valid license for a version that works on the newest OS. All the same as being locked out of a server in the moment.

Except one is your choice, the other you have no control over?

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many people with visual accessibility issues would take a graphic design job

Accessibility features are used by people regardless of whether they have visual accessibility issues. For example, I (and many others–watch some WWDC presentations closely and you'll see this) use the "display zoom" feature during presentations and when doing UI work to focus on things. The feature where you wiggle the mouse cursor to make it big? That's an accessibility feature, but it got a prime spot at the keyno…

of all the features you mention, except TTS none depend on the app being written in a specific framework as far as I know ? (and I don't remember TTS not working in e.g. Qt apps for instance - at least I know that I sometimes bash my keyboards repeatedly to stop the damn thing that I opened by whatever goddamn shortcut :D)

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#238
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they need at least a live Web preview too, and cover all of Figma‘s other functionality.

They do. Sketch Cloud has live web preview, developer handoff, basic prototyping, version control and more. It’s not as fully featured as standalone alternatives, but it’s free and works well.

Agreed although it's not free, it's $79 per year.

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#239

I find at least zooming in/out large project files to be much faster in Figma. Lack of good offline workflow sucks but the overall features and cross-compatibility means nearly everyone is moving to Figma. Sketch isn’t bad software at all, but they are really losing out to the network effects of Figma. Design software isn’t like IDEs where everyone in an organisation can use their favourite one - orgs choose design t…

I’m not sure I would feel sorry for them; doubling down on your one-platform stance while your customers are overwhelmingly voting with their feet and wallets for cross-platform support is just stupidity in my opinion. They’ll have a core set of customers who will appreciate it, but I’m not sure they’re going to pay the bills just because you’ve convinced them stay, which they probably would’ve done anyway

It might also be that they have considered the cross-platform option...and found it not feasible.

They might have decided that it is easier to continue on the current path.

Re: Sketch: Proud to Build a Truly Native Mac App

#240
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

figma is pretty freaken amazing, and it works outside of macs. So overall there is nothing but upsides to it. Collaboration is amazing too. Just... No down sides.

Fan of Figma, but would switch to a better one in a heartbeat because of the following huge downside.. Once you are in Figma, you are trapped forever. No way to get out your original editable artwork files. Buyer beware!

This should be higher up! Is there really no way to get your original designs out of Figma? That's pretty damning. Wow.
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