Now that InVisionStudio is about to be released...

[Wiredframe]

... I think Affinity can finally focus on illustration and drawing rather than on building user interfaces. It would be a great combination. Designing icons, illustrations and more advanced elements and exporting them to Studio. What do you guys think? And what's the strategy for Affinity Designer for the future?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

[JohaWeber]

What I think:

• The constraints function/panel is not enough to use it as a proper UI design tool or to become a proper design tool. What every UI tool lacks is IMO either a proper HTML(Structure)/CSS(Style)/JS(Animation) export, the "truly responsive"-part or a "multiple states in structure and style for a single UI-element"-part. I could live with at least two of the stated features.
• I will not add invision studio to my toolset if either they only provide it on a monthly/yearly subscription base or they only provide the tool to mac users. As far as I know none of the statements were made yet - but who knows what a big corporation thinks inside... I wanted to move away from adobe because of the subscription model and couldn't/can't use sketch as a windows user.
• If they don't get the color workflow for spot colors a lot more easier and keep the professional print production options/features (overprint! spot-color-duotone!) on this level, I don't know why I even should wait for Affinity Publisher to be released.
• So what's their strategy? In general I think (but hope not) it will turn into the same as GIMP but as a paid product: A quick and easy step into the industry which will be followed by a turn to Adobe for pro users. I also think it would be best to focus on providing a perfect featureset for ADesigner, APhoto and APublisher nearly the same as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign which then would suit Illustrators, Photographers and DTP-Pros and create a standalone UI app which just integrates in the Affinity universe.
• Without compatibility for plugins created by users/companies both Affinity Suite and inVision Studio will not succeed the way Sketch or Adobe does. It's the same with every "closed-for-plugins" tool: Looks great, works fine - until you get to the point were the idea is in your head, was approved by your team/client and you're not able to realize it because of the limitations of the tool itself. So you move on to the next one or back where you came from because you can't write your plugin or buy a plugin which brings your idea to life in a breeze - yes sure, nearly everthing a plugin in the graphic-design area does can be achieved without it, but only with a high application of time (which is money). And most projects only have a limited amount of hours on their table.