The time came for changes and our design team started raising the topic again about how we should consider moving away from Sketch. This is not the first time this question came to mind, but this time seems like it was serious. Last summer we considered changing Sketch to something else, but at the time the decision was made that it is not worth the hassle. We decided to wait until this tool will catch up as some of us honestly believed in the future of it.

是時候進行更改了，我們的設計團隊開始再次提出有關應該如何考慮脫離Sketch的話題。 這不是第一次想到這個問題，但是這次似乎很嚴重。 去年夏天，我們考慮將Sketch更改為其他名稱，但當時決定不值得為之煩惱。 我們決定等到該工具趕上來，因為我們中的一些人對它的未來深信不疑。

For Telesoftas designers it is a second revolution — the first big one was a long time ago a move from Photoshop to Sketch. At the time it seemed like an enormous deal and the progress of something revolutionary. Now this time we can call it the second design revolution and the next big change.

對于Telesoftas設計師來說，這是第二次革命-第一個重大革命是很久以前從Photoshop轉到Sketch的。 在當時，這似乎是一筆巨大的交易，而且是革命性的進步。 現在，這一次我們可以稱之為第二次設計革命和下一個重大變化。

Sketch的史前史以及為何需要進行更改 (Prehistory of Sketch and why the change is needed)

Most of the team got used to Sketch and it was a really praised tool at the beginning of transition. We were excited about how easy it is to use, sharing with others tips and tricks, shortcuts. What I liked about Sketch at first was symbols and how you can have nested symbols inside. It helped to save many hours; we improved consistency and sped up the entire workflow. However, while working on bigger projects I saw serious performance issues when Sketch started crashing often. Some work got lost and it was a tedious process which tested your nerves.

團隊中的大多數人都習慣了Sketch，在過渡初期，這是一個非常受好評的工具。 我們很高興它易于使用，并與他人分享提示，技巧和捷徑。 首先，我喜歡Sketch的地方是符號，以及如何在其中嵌套符號。 它有助于節省許多時間； 我們提高了一致性并加快了整個工作流程。 但是，在處理較大的項目時，當Sketch開始經常崩潰時，我看到了嚴重的性能問題。 一些工作迷失了，這是一個繁瑣的過程，測試了您的神經。

Collaboration was really a pain and for that you have to use plugins, other services to be in sync with other designers. It was not working perfectly and sometimes we were resolving conflicts when we tried to push designs to the service cloud from the plugin. That when a design tool requires so many other services to be functional at its minimalistic level is outrageous. For design sync we used Plant, for sharing designs with clients or PMs Invision, for creating animations Principle and for sharing with developers Sympli. Sometimes also Anima to create smart adaptive layouts. Since Sketch is the industry-standard tool the missing product features created a lot of opportunities for new businesses to arise.

協作確實很痛苦，為此，您必須使用插件和其他服務才能與其他設計師同步。 它無法完美運行，有時當我們嘗試將設計從插件推送到服務云時，我們正在解決沖突。 當設計工具要求許多其他服務在其最低級別上起作用時，這是令人發指的。 為了進行設計同步，我們使用了Plant，與客戶或PM Invision共享設計，創建動畫Principle以及與開發人員Sympli共享。 有時也可以通過Anima創建智能的自適應布局。 由于Sketch是行業標準工具，因此缺少的產品功能為新業務的興起創造了很多機會。

Some services I found useful, but it adds up initial monthly costs to be expensive. Sketch 99$ per year since obviously people need updates. Invision team license costs about 300$ per year. Plant goes about 144$ per year and Sympli 108$ per seat. Since we need a lot of seats Sympli by itself costs a fortune as designers and developers need that access. It is not only the pricing issue, but the entire workflow going back and forth feels not right and counter-productive.

我發現某些服務很有用，但初期的每月費用很昂貴。 每年草繪99美元，因為顯然人們需要更新。 Invision團隊許可費用約為每年300美元。 Plant每年大約花費144 $，Sympli每個座位花費??108 $。 由于我們需要大量席位，因此，Sympli本身會付出巨大的財富，因為設計師和開發人員需要這種訪問權限。 這不僅是定價問題，而且整個工作流程來回走動都感覺不正確和適得其反。

為什么Sketch落后 (Why Sketch fell behind)

The principal problem I see for Sketch is that it relied too much on the plugins who supported the tool. Some plugins were fantastic, and I am thankful for the community that helped when creating interesting solutions. However sometimes I had a feeling that some plugins should have been a native product feature instead. It felt stupid that you have to use all these plugins to achieve some results. This might be the reason while it was lacking to create some additional features, because plugins fill up the holes.

我看到的Sketch的主要問題是，它過于依賴支持該工具的插件。 有些插件很棒，我感謝社區在創建有趣的解決方案時提供的幫助。 但是有時候我感覺有些插件應該是本機產品功能。 愚蠢的是，您必須使用所有這些插件才能獲得某些結果。 這可能是因為缺少插件而無法創建一些其他功能的原因。

At the moment I see that product tries to catch up and incorporates native functionality while replacing some plugins. It is good to see prototyping functions improving, auto layout, symbol and style management, cloud development happening, so I am grateful.

目前，我看到該產品試圖趕上并合并本機功能，同時替換一些插件。 很好的是，原型功能正在改進，自動布局，符號和樣式管理，云開發正在發生，所以我很感激。

團隊希望的草圖 (Sketch for teams hope)

While we monitor Sketch blogs, email newsletter we got excited again for 2020 upcoming Sketch for Teams, cloud and promised collaboration functionality. It was last year and at that moment I believed that these new updates will help to catch up with XD and Figma. From my point of view they are miles away from Sketch in terms of functionality and experience they can offer. We got new Sketch for team updates; we got the cloud, but eventually we were disappointed at the realisation of these features. The Sketch cloud appears to be slow, the only thing we replaced was Plant, but prototyping, collaboration is still lacking.

當我們監視Sketch博客和電子郵件通訊時，我們為2020年即將推出的Sketch for Teams，云和承諾的協作功能再次感到興奮。 那是去年，那時我相信這些新更新將有助于趕上XD和Figma。 從我的角度來看，它們可以提供的功能和體驗與Sketch相距甚遠。 我們獲得了新的Sketch以進行團隊更新； 我們有了云，但是最終我們對實現這些功能感到失望。 Sketch云看起來很慢，我們唯一要替換的是Plant，但是原型，協作仍然很缺乏。

Unfortunately Sketch for teams didn’t match up with the high hopes we had, so we started investigating others alternatives on the market to make a move. I was really a fan of Sketch and enjoyed it to the fullest, but as I mentioned before other tools seem to be miles away from Sketch. So we listed up requirements and went to look for a replacement. The goal — one tool for all that can replace everything we currently use.

不幸的是，Sketch對于團隊并沒有達到我們的期望，因此我們開始研究市場上的其他替代產品以采取行動。 我確實是Sketch的狂熱者，并且非常喜歡它，但是正如我之前提到的，其他工具似乎離Sketch千里之外。 因此，我們列出了要求，然后尋找替代品。 目標-一種可以替代我們當前使用的所有功能的工具。

工具與作業研究 (The Research Of Tools And Homework)

I started by researching “Framer X” and tried to do some small project with it. Before that of course I spent some time on YouTube and articles to understand more about it. The main value from this tool is that you do designs with real components, everything is fully functional. For example integrated maps, video players, forms are working like a real product. At some point I was amazed by how interactive and real prototyping and designing can be. It has its “Store” where you can download components and by combining your designs with various components you can have usable designs.

我首先研究“ Framer X”，然后嘗試用它做一些小項目。 當然，在那之前，我在YouTube和一些文章上花費了一些時間來了解更多有關它的信息。 該工具的主要價值在于您使用真實的組件進行設計，所有功能都可以正常使用。 例如，集成地圖，視頻播放器，表格的工作方式就像真實的產品一樣。 在某些時候，我對交互性和真實的原型設計能如此驚訝。 它具有其“商店”，您可以在其中下載組件，并將您的設計與各種組件組合在一起就可以使用可用的設計。

But again feels like coming back to the same problem when relying too much on the outside plugins rather when having complete product. I can not say that this tool is easy to use. For example if you want to have hover functionality you do need to got to code editor. The main idea is in the long term you need to have good command of React to be able to master it.

但是當過于依賴外部插件而不是擁有完整的產品時，再次感覺又回到了相同的問題。 我不能說這個工具易于使用。 例如，如果要具有懸停功能，則需要轉到代碼編輯器。 從長遠來看，主要思想是您需要對React有很好的掌握才能掌握它。

After my research for this tool was done I couldn’t see much value for it being as a design tool that can replace everything. I can see it more as a prototyping solution rather than comfortably designing. It has scored little at our criteria table so this tool is the first to drop out. However we wanted to give a shot anyway as it seems interesting what they can offer. I believe it can have some bright future in the long term, but not at this moment. While waiting for other scores to come in after that I jumped on researching Figma additionally, as I didn’t have much knowledge about this tool in general.

在對該工具進行了研究之后，作為一個可以替代所有工具的設計工具，我認為它沒有太多價值。 我可以將其更多地視為原型解決方案，而不是舒適地設計。 它在我們的標準表中得分很少，因此該工具是第一個退出的工具。 但是，無論如何我們都想嘗試一下，因為它們所提供的功能似乎很有趣。 我相信，從長遠來看，它可以擁有光明的未來，但目前還沒有。 之后，在等待其他分數出現時，我又跳上了對Figma的研究，因為我對這個工具的了解并不多。

然后Figma出現了 (And then Figma came along)

After my Framer research I started digging up for the investigation of Figma by downloading an app and by my surprise, it is free. Almost everyday I am using heavily one tool named “Miro” for organising workshops, collaborating with clients, with teammates, and organising research. The multi-player experience at some extent felt very familiar to me of Figma. I even started feeling that it can replace my beloved “Miro” tool and our one tool for all dreams would be even more beneficial.

在對Framer進行研究之后，我開始通過下載應用程序來開始對Figma的研究，令我驚訝的是，它是免費的。 幾乎每天我都會大量使用一種名為“ Miro”的工具來組織研討會，與客戶，隊友合作以及組織研究。 Figma的我在某種程度上對多玩家游戲體驗非常熟悉。 我什至開始感覺到它可以替代我心愛的“ Miro”工具，而我們為所有夢想而設計的工具將更加有益。

The tool felt minimalistic, but at the same time it has everything you need. It has smart components, smart layout which is working even better than in Sketch. Prototyping and animation are also advanced, even vector design felt so good that I started questioning if it can replace Adobe Illustrator. I was like a kid driving a Ferrari, excited to use Figma and I dug even deeper into their YouTube channel to watch everything they got.

該工具看起來很簡單，但同時它具有您需要的一切。 它具有智能組件，智能布局，其性能甚至比Sketch中更好。 原型和動畫也很先進，即使矢量設計也是如此出色，以至于我開始質疑它是否可以代替Adobe Illustrator。 我就像駕駛法拉利的孩子一樣，對使用Figma感到很興奮，我甚至更深入地研究了他們的YouTube頻道，觀看他們獲得的一切。

Figma的插件和社區 (Figma’s plugins and community)

Another discovery which I made was the plugins. Strangely these plugins felt like a pleasant addition to the existing flow rather than completing product’s missing features like it was in Sketch. As a product, Figma at this moment felt complete. As I did my research for Figma at our point system, it was in the first place, not to mention the experience and feeling I had with it. I tried to be as unbiased as possible when researching tools, but I quickly fell in love with it.

我的另一個發現是插件。 奇怪的是，這些插件給現有流程帶來了令人愉快的添加，而不是像Sketch中那樣完成了產品缺少的功能。 作為產品，Figma此時感覺很完整。 當我在我們的積分系統上對Figma進行研究時，它是第一位的，更不用說我的經驗和感覺了。 在研究工具時，我盡可能地保持公正，但是我很快就愛上了它。

Collaboration felt like on another level like I had a similar experience with Miro. I knew this tool for some time before and how people were praising it, but now I only understand how good it is. It is the closest to being our dream “One tool to replace them all”, by going with it we don’t need Invision, Sympli, Plant, Anima and even Miro. Also seems like a suitable solution to do presentations with it.

協作就像在另一個層面上，就像我在Miro上經歷過類似的經歷一樣。 我在一段時間之前就知道這個工具，人們對此也贊不絕口，但現在我只知道它的優點。 這是最接近我們夢想的“一個可以全部替換的工具”，通過它，我們不需要Invision，Sympli，Plant，Anima甚至Miro。 也似乎是使用它進行演示的合適解決方案。

決定時間 (Decision time)

Everyone has completed their research and something unexpected happened. Adobe XD at our point system was almost equal like Figma, as I started going deeper it seems like it has almost everything. Additionally it has one benefit. It plays well in our already existing Adobe subscription plan and works well with other Adobe products. From my own experience I was using it when it came out a couple years ago and gave a try. I had a really different experience since then and XD definitely went a long way. It even has a collaboration feature which is in Beta, but as we tried out it was decently working fine.

每個人都已經完成了研究，并且發生了意外情況。 我們的點系統上的Adobe XD與Figma幾乎一樣，隨著我開始更深入，似乎它幾乎具備了一切。 此外，它還有一個好處。 它在我們現有的Adobe訂閱計劃中可以很好地發揮作用，并且可以與其他Adobe產品很好地配合使用。 根據我自己的經驗，幾年前，我嘗試使用它。 從那時起，我經歷了一次與眾不同的經歷，而XD無疑走了很長一段路。 它甚至具有Beta中的協作功能，但是在我們試用后，它的運行情況還不錯。

It was time to do a presentation, since we live in the interesting “Corona” times all presentations were done remotely. I had a long presentation prepared with extensive research about it which I used present mode and Figma I presented with Figma. At the moment seemed like I covered most concerns everyone had about it, but it had some minor things which were not working as well as Adobe XD. I can admit XD is a decent competitor, its animation and prototyping are better. This was visible easily in the example where we did simple hover effects. In the Figma it was easy as you have to create a hover state somewhere and you use overlay to make it happen. While in XD with states it did this with just a couple clicks as these states really seem useful and beneficial.

是時候進行演示了，因為我們生活在有趣的“ Corona”時代，所有演示都是遠程完成的。 我進行了長時間的介紹，并準備了廣泛的研究，并使用了現成模式，并且使用了Figma和Figma。 目前，我似乎已經涵蓋了每個人最擔心的問題，但是它有些細微的問題無法像Adobe XD那樣有效。 我可以承認XD是一個不錯的競爭對手，它的動畫和原型制作都更好。 在我們執行簡單懸停效果的示例中，這很容易看出。 在Figma中，這很容易，因為您必須在某處創建一個懸停狀態，然后使用overlay使其發生。 在帶有狀態的XD中，只需點擊幾下即可完成操作，因為這些狀態看起來確實有用且有益。

Everyone now had concerns and in the point system they were equal competitors. Now half the team were vouching for XD and other half were still vouching for Figma. The camp has split up into two parts and after endless discussions we made the decision that we go back to the research phase one last time. This time we research each other’s tools. We also know the pains of both tools. XD doesn’t have pagination and with Figma the frames can be messy sometimes and hard to work with it. The next day we had a usual catch up coffee break where we discuss non-work related topics, but even then the flames between XD and Figma appeared again. It was a sign to make up minds faster.

現在每個人都有顧慮，在積分系統中，他們是平等的競爭者。 現在，一半的團隊正在為XD擔保，另一半還在為Figma擔保。 訓練營分為兩個部分，經過無休止的討論，我們決定最后一次回到研究階段。 這次我們研究彼此的工具。 我們也知道這兩種工具的痛苦。 XD沒有分頁功能，使用Figma時，框架有時會很雜亂，很難使用。 第二天，我們有一個例行的補習茶歇，在那里我們討論與工作無關的話題，但是即使如此，XD和Figma之間的火焰仍然出現。 這是更快下定決心的標志。

回到繪圖板 (Back to the drawing board)

The next day in the evening I gave XD a try. Launched the tool and started doing some simple designs. It felt like a nice tool to do landing pages or simple mobile apps; it didn’t look like it could manage large SAAS products. I can consider that as a tool it is good, simple, minimalistic, has all features you need, and they are growing fast. In a couple of years it surpassed Sketch, but behind there is corporation Adobe which has all the resources needed to get work done.

第二天晚上，我嘗試了XD。 啟動該工具并開始進行一些簡單的設計。 感覺就像是登陸頁面或簡單的移動應用程序的好工具； 它似乎無法管理大型SAAS產品。 我可以認為，作為一種工具，它很好，簡單，簡約，具有您需要的所有功能，并且它們正在Swift發展。 在短短幾年內，它超越了Sketch，但背后是Adobe公司，它擁有完成工作所需的所有資源。

In the meantime, my colleague Liudas has jumped to the Figma’s webinar where they talked about intro to “Figma”. They introduced Figma from all perspectives, showed use cases, for example you can have easily fully scrollable maps in prototype mode. During this webinar we got a sneak peek preview about some future updates coming to place. Apparently they are working under improving prototyping features and I assume they even will catch up to Adobe XD. By looking at the current situation and future again, we are sure that Figma is the most appropriate for us. This Webinar might help a little bit for everyone else to make a definite decision.

同時，我的同事Liudas已跳至Figma的網絡研討會，在那里他們談論了“ Figma”的介紹。 他們從各個角度介紹了Figma，并展示了用例，例如，您可以在原型模式下輕松地完全滾動地圖。 在此網絡研討會期間，我們對即將進行的一些將來的更新進行了先睹為快的預覽。 顯然，他們正在改進原型功能，我認為它們甚至可以趕上Adobe XD。 通過再次審視當前形勢和未來，我們可以確定Figma最適合我們。 這次網絡研討會可能會對其他所有人做出確定的決定有所幫助。

Another meeting happens, but this time evenly we come up with a decision that Figma definitely will be our next design tool. One of things we agreed also was that if a particular project has a need for more advanced prototyping or animations it can be done in XD. Also we still have Adobe subscription so it is not going away, but the default one will be Figma.

召開了另一次會議，但是這次我們平均做出一個決定，即Figma肯定會成為我們的下一個設計工具。 我們還同意的一件事是，如果特定項目需要更高級的原型或動畫，則可以在XD中完成。 另外，我們仍然有Adobe訂閱，因此它不會消失，但是默認的訂閱是Figma。

結論 (Conclusion)

We made a choice, so what is next? It will be a big change, since we at Telesoftas are like community and a design tool we chose as these values as us — community first. It is a change in our design workflow to be more collaborative, more open to everyone else and life will be easier. Now we have an overview of all projects that are happening and in a need can jump in for help. It is important that designers have ownership of the project, we include clients and developers in early stages to be involved as possible, without collaboration like Figma has now before it was hard to do. Involving everyone in the early stages and having open design culture makes it easier in the future to get user centred decisions.

我們做出了選擇，那么下一步是什么？ 這將是一個巨大的變化，因為Telesoftas就像我們的社區一樣，我們也選擇了作為我們價值觀的設計工具-社區優先。 這是我們設計工作流程中的一個變化，它變得更加協作，對其他所有人更開放，生活將會更加輕松。 現在，我們對正在執行的所有項目有了一個概述，有需要的人可以尋求幫助。 設計師擁有項目的所有權很重要，我們必須在早期階段就將客戶和開發人員包括在內，以便盡可能多地參與其中，而無需像Figma以前那樣難以進行協作。 在早期階段讓每個人都參與進來，并擁有開放的設計文化，使將來更容易獲得以用戶為中心的決策。

設計工具的未來 (Future of Design tools)

Last year’s 2019 design survey covered that Sketch is still number 1 among all and Figma behind. However, the answer to which tool you are most excited to try out next year was Figma, so it says a lot. Not sure what the current situation is, but feels like either XD or Figma should surpass Sketch, especially when pandemic kicks in with remote work needs. I can think of it as an evolution, change is necessary to keep up with the design world and I think this change is good. Even though there was a moment when I enjoyed using Sketch a lot with all the plugins. We don’t know what the future holds, what is the next big thing in the design tools world. My guess would be something more with AI and Development related.

去年的2019年設計調查顯示，Sketch在所有設計中仍然排在第一位，而Figma在后面。 但是，明年最想嘗試使用哪種工具的答案是Figma，所以說明了很多。 不確定當前情況如何，但是感覺像XD或Figma應該超過Sketch，尤其是在因遠程工作需求而引發大流行的情況下。 我可以將其視為一種演變，為了跟上設計世界的步伐，有必要進行更改，而且我認為這種更改很好。 即使有一段時間我喜歡在所有插件上大量使用Sketch。 我們不知道未來會怎樣，設計工具世界中的下一件大事是什么。 我的猜測可能與AI和開發相關。

成幀器更新 (Update on Framer)

I was doing research at that time for Framer X, now they launched framer for web and the company did some changes. It looks like they’re focus is to be the best interactive prototype tool, which at the moment seems like a competitor to Protopie or Axure and not for regular design tools. Now I am sure it was good decision to ditch this tool at first, however if we are talking about interactive prototyping only it is a good tool for that.

當時我正在為Framer X進行研究，現在他們啟動了針對Web的framer，并且公司進行了一些更改。 看起來他們的重點是成為最好的交互式原型工具，此刻它似乎是Protopie或Axure的競爭對手，而不是常規設計工具。 現在，我相信首先放棄這個工具是一個不錯的決定，但是，如果我們談論的是交互式原型，那么它就是一個很好的工具。