Sketch

Sketch. A design tool for web and app interfaces with a lively community

Tech // Lilli Ahner-Wetzel // Mar 14, 2019
Tal illustrationen website TALLENCE sketchh meetup hori 2x

Sketch is a modern interface design and UX tool that makes complex screen design projects easy and intuitive to work with. That’s why Sketch, like many other UX, UI, app and web designers has long been THE design tool for creating web and app interfaces.

Sketch

The big problem with digital products is the speed at which the designer is overtaken by the developer over the course of their life. The original design resources are changed by “on demand” adjustments without the possibility to control or even synchronise new versions. This is exactly where Sketch comes in, providing a “thinking in components” link to front-end development.

We like the flexibility Sketch offers. From fast scribble, to wireframe, to long-term maintenance of a “design system”, we always like to use Sketch. The ability to maintain recurring components in a separate library makes consistent design possible. If we make changes to a design element in one file, this change can be transferred to other documents with full control – this is very helpful! The fast export for assets such as icons and images is indispensable when working with front-end and app developers.

In case the Sketch file components get messy, for example because symbols are duplicated or something was not properly named and sorted, we use one of the many free plugins.

We are watching the market development towards version control of Sketch files with tools like Abstract with great interest. Specialising in enterprise software, we have long wished that there could be multiple versions of a layout file. This way it is possible to work on a sketch file from different places at the same time without overwriting or losing anything. We simply feel comfortable with concepts like “Commit”, “Branch” or “Master”.

Sketch is a tool that has a large active community around it. Whether in New York, London or Kuala Lumpur, app and web designers around the world regularly attend Meetups to exchange experiences around the tool. Only in the cosmopolitan city of Hamburg was there still a lack of a sketch community of its own. This had to be changed. So in the fall of 2018, the SketcHH Meetup was founded, for which Tallence AG regularly provides premises, organisation, kickers and cold beer. In the meantime, SketcHH is part of the global Sketch Community at https://sketchapp.com/community.

At our Meetups, which always take place at the end of the month at Neue Gröningerstraße 13, we discuss everything that has to do with sketch. From useful plugins, best practice in workflow, to the development of complex design systems and collaboration between design and development.

In February our third Meetup took place. We are still excited about the more than 40 participants (and 20-plus people on the waiting list), the great atmosphere, and the many inspiring conversations after a great talk by Jan-Frederic Goltz and Christoph Labacher from Atelier Disko, who explained to us how a complex design system works and what to look out for.

Now we are looking forward to our next SketcHH Meetup, which will be called “How to create an Instant App with Famous Pro”.

Have we piqued your curiosity? Feel free to sign up for our next Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/sketchh/

You can also get a further insight on our Instagram channel.