UI/UX Design and Prototyping Features

[Guest]

I think if Serif had actively developed their UX/prototyping tools and workflows a few years ago they might stand a chance at having some relevance in that particular segment of the market today. As it stands Figma, Sketch, etc are so entrenched in many orgs it’ll now be a Sisyphean task for Serif to gain any real traction in that vertical in the near/mid term. Even Adobe is struggling to gain industry adoption with their XD offering.

[Aaron Martin]

Plus one

[oscarlosan]

UX/UI person inside designer. Different application no, please. But first: Image Trace.

[Guest]

I'm going to add a BIG -1 to this, simply for the fact that unless Serif wants to drastically pivot their product/company to focus extensively on UX/UI design, and go head-to-head with Adobe/Figma and Sketch, there is little possibility they will ever gain any traction within the industry. Too many orgs have built extensive workflows around Figma (and to a lesser extent Sketch) that the costs (and benefits) of switching to another tool/platform at this point would be significant (and difficult to justify).

Smaller companies/freelancers, perhaps, but even then, it's difficult to ignore the 800lb gorilla in the room, especially if they need to collaborate with other designers, developers, and stakeholders during the design process.

[Aaron Martin]

On 10/14/2022 at 2:41 AM, Bryan Rieger said:

I'm going to add a -1 to this, simply for the fact that unless Serif wants to drastically pivot their product/company to focus extensively on UX/UI design, and go head-to-head with Adobe/Figma and Sketch, there is little possibility they will ever gain any traction within the industry.

i have to disagree, i'd think they could not only catch up, but be ahead if they have some sort of true live collaboration functionalities. prototyping functions could be added overtime. although im not sure if current state of serif is suitable for creating a collaborative workflow. Figma done it exceptionally well. (pretty worried if adobe gonna ruin it though)

[User_783649]

20 minutes ago, Aaron Martin said:

i'd think they could not only catch up, but be ahead if they have some sort of true live collaboration functionalities. prototyping functions could be added overtime.

Agree, Aaron. To beat the others in UI/UX field, Serif needs to implement three key things: 

1. A really fast, low latency multi-player editing mode with state-of-the-art built-in conflict resolving so file damage will never happen whatever everyone does. Existing incremental file saving model may be super beneficial here in order to reduce network overhead.
2. Symbols should be taken to the next level. They should evolve into powerful interactive components with multiple states support and proper encapsulation (nesting).
3. There’s also a need for powerful prototyping tools with optional, customizable animations/micro-interactions.

All the rest and truly great stuff is already here (think about existing StudioLink, very powerful text editing and image editing abilities and other useful stuff).

[oscarlosan]

On 19/10/2022 at 16:35, Alex M said:

De acuerdo, Aarón. Para vencer a los demás en el campo UI/UX, Serif necesita implementar tres cosas clave: 

1. Un modo de edición multijugador realmente rápido y de baja latencia con resolución de conflictos incorporada de última generación para que nunca se dañen los archivos, independientemente de lo que hagan todos. El modelo de guardado de archivos incremental existente puede ser muy beneficioso aquí para reducir la sobrecarga de la red.
2. Los símbolos deben llevarse al siguiente nivel. Deberían evolucionar hacia potentes componentes interactivos con soporte de múltiples estados y encapsulación adecuada (anidación).
3. También existe la necesidad de potentes herramientas de creación de prototipos con animaciones/microinteracciones opcionales y personalizables.

Todo el resto y las cosas realmente geniales ya están aquí (piense en StudioLink existente, capacidades de edición de texto e imágenes muy poderosas y otras cosas útiles).

2 is the most important and I think they can be implemented quickly. It is also useful for design in general. The others could wait, I don't need them.

[Pavooch]

Does anyone know if Affinity is going to add Designer features to support UI/UX workflows? they're not that far off, if they expanded on their Assets, Symbols and constraints capabilities, to align with Figma's Components and they way they mock the Flexbox layout, I think that would be enough for 90% of designers.

Personally as much as like the "Prototyping" capabilities of Figma, I've found them really cool, but not practical, for those small A/B tests, I find printing the screens off and and asking the user to go through the flow while manually controlling the flow provides me more valuable insights.