![]() When writing text (for example), regardless if it’s on a piece of paper or on a computer-you’re writing the actual poem or song lyric-you’re not writing a wireframe of it and then handing it off to another person.” However, Darin asked the audience to think of it in more of a rudimentary sense. Most of the time when the term “direct manipulation” is used, it’s in the context of computer science. We also wanted to make designs more open and accessible for developers.įor our second talk, Juan introduced Webflow product designer, Darin Dimitroff, who discussed the use of direct manipulation to help designers perform complex tasks without code. “We really believe that designers should focus more on actually creating delightful user experiences rather than worrying about specs, redlining the design, and exporting assets for the developer. This didn’t just mean making an app that was compatible on Mac, Windows, and Linux, but also allowing anyone to open a design file independently without requiring design tools.”Īlthough the project was inarguably ambitious, after three years (which included creating their own universal file format), Vu and team fully realized their original vision with Avocode 3, which shipped in spring of ‘18 and is now used by industry heavyweights such as Intel, Samsung, and Avast. Avocode also had to be fully cross-platform. “The first requirement was to create one UI for the developer to get specs and assets from the design. What if the developer doesn’t have that design tool? Are they expected to buy it and learn the software? Should they all have to buy a MacBook just because of Sketch? This is how we came up with the solution of building our product, Avocode.” Developers were forced to use design tools with these plugins to get data from the design. Although this came as a bit of a letdown, it did make Vu realize that there were many other problems surrounding workflow in need of solving. Then, just as Vu and team began to celebrate having created this first-of-its-kind plugin, Adobe abruptly came along with their own built in CSS Hat-style feature. “So I went to our team of developers and said, could we build something like this? Luckily they said yes, and we built the first tool for designers and developers, a product called CSS Hat.” Realizing there had to be a better way, Vu turned his attention to the possibility of automation and found a plugin that could turn layer styles into CSS3 code-the problem, though. You want me to do this extra work, really?” Cleaning up my mess in layers was already enough. To Vu’s own admission, “I was a lazy designer. ![]() In an attempt to streamline the process, his team began asking him to make lists of the elements, layer styles and values he was using, manually. I would just send them a Photoshop file, no specs, no prototype, no documentation, just a plain file… you guys, deal with it.” Back in the day when I would finish my design works, I would just hand it off to them so they could turn it into code. “I was the designer and Martin and Peter (Avocode Co-founders), web and developers. That’s what’s never been quite as diverse as it is right now.”Īnd with that, Juan welcomed to the stage Avocode CEO, Vu Hoang Anh, to discuss how figuring out how to improve his own team’s workflow lead to the birth of their critically acclaimed design software.Īvocode’s roots were planted roughly eight years ago when Vu was a part of a small three-person digital agency. “What is new is the amount of options available to designers to solve them. “Lately, we’ve seen a multitude of products emerging, sometimes even on a monthly basis, attempting to solve design cycle problems.” Although, as Juan was quick to note, problems, such as prototyping, collaboration, and version control are nothing new. Then iOS 7 came along and with it the rise of Sketch: “It was very accommodating, lightweight, vector based, and generally pleasant to use,” Juan explained.Īs they do, however, needs surrounding product design optimization and workflow evolved. “Four or five years ago, it was just the norm to build interfaces in Photoshop–it’s powerful and can be used for everything from painting and photo manipulations to rudimentary gifs.” But with file sizes eating up hundreds of megs and even gigs of disk space, Photoshop, simply put, was Bloat City. Kicking things off for this first design event of the year was our own, Juan Herrera, who offered up a bit of a backdrop on the growing design tool revolution. By the full house of inquisitive creatives at our recent Design Tools of 2019, it was clear that many of you share our passion-which made it all the more special for us to present speakers from Avocode and Webflow, two of the hottest design software on the market.Ĭouldn't make it to our event? We recorded it for you. At STRV we eat design for breakfast, and when it comes to the latest design products, we couldn’t be hungrier for more.
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