[AD] Useful features for UI/UX Designers (Which ones and Why)

[Zunaid]

My experience (in brief) : I bought AD mostly for UI/UX design and some illustration design. Overall my experience is good. 

 

Some good things :

 

- I felt it addressed a lot of problems that photoshop and illustrator had when it comes to UI Design.

 

- Exporting Persona is great.

 

- Overall it's good even though i haven't used it extensively.

 

Problem is when i am finished with the design. I am having trouble giving my clients the source file. Only that is keeping me from leaving Adobe completely.

 

Reason :

 

1. Most don't use Affinity Designer.

 

2. Png Export is great but clients/developers need source file : Psd, Ai or sketch.

 

3. PSD export has some issues e.g. exporting of text, gradient are two which i came across for now. So can't give PSD export files.

 

 

Solution (Feature Requests) :

 

1. A free affinity designer trial. It can have limited features. But the client and developer can use them to get attributes. So no need for PSD export. I can just tell them to download the trial version. Problem solved to a certain extent.

 

2. Making PSD export files better.  Making the text editable and solving other issues.

 

[Problem with this] This is a tough one. Adobe is not the only competitor. There is also sketch which is getting popular day by day.

Then there is XD. So making export perfect for all this is time consuming, inefficient.

 

 *3. Integration with web apps like invisionApp, Zeplin, Avacode or Sympli (I think Sympli is working on affinity designer version). This will solve many problems. It will reduce the need to make PSD export perfect. Affinity can then stand as a UI/UX tool on it's own. Similar to Sketch. Sketch doesn't need to export their files to PSD. 

 

 

 

4. Plugins. There are different types of plugins some will make the workflow easy and some are important because it allows integration with web apps. (Mentioned in point 3)

 

 

I would suggest it would be better if they can collaborate with InvisionApp.

 

Reason : 

 

-InvisionApp supports both windows and mac users unlike many tools like principle and filnto etc.

 

- A decent prototyping tool.

 

- Inspect feature is similar to Zeplin, Avacode or Sympli. Reducing the need to give PSD source files to client.

 

- Motion (still in progress) : Competitor to Principle/Flinto. 

 

 

 

 

I have read in many posts that these features are being highly sought after and lack of it is sadly becoming a problem in replacing Adobe / Sketch with Affinity Designer for UI/UX designers.

 

 

 

 

 

[fernandolins86]

I agree with the request for better AI/PSD export support, but that should come in time in any case, as the tool evolves.

 

Constraints are wonderful and work great 99% of the time - it's a little tricky to figure out that you need to group objects first before changing their constraints, otherwise the vanish from the screen.

 

Regarding the inspect/specs tool: I would rather this to be native because in Photoshop's case its engine says an object is a certain dimension and then the plug-ins will say it is 1 or 2 pixels larger, which is awful. I guess if this was built into AD there would be less issues like that.

[Zunaid]

 

 

Regarding the inspect/specs tool: I would rather this to be native because in Photoshop's case its engine says an object is a certain dimension and then the plug-ins will say it is 1 or 2 pixels larger, which is awful. I guess if this was built into AD there would be less issues like that.

 

That would be a problem if the measurements aren't accurate. Is this the case with Avacode or Zeplin? How about using sketch? Is the plugin support same.

 

Better support for export will come slowly i believe as all the guys in affinity are regular adding requested features in their list.

 

Let's see what happens.