Designer News
Where the design community meets.
↵
Why we skip Photoshop (posted 2008)(signalvnoise.com)
over 8 years ago from Brennan Smith, Designer
Bryant Hughes, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )
Agree here 100%
Sure, designing in a browser works for some projects/products, but it's definitely not a process that works in all situations as, you're also alluding to.
Similar to how you need to have the design/code knowledge to know the best way to implement something, to solve a specific problem, you also need to understand the best process for implementing a solution. In some cases it might be designing directly in the browser, other times it might be iterating in photoshop/sketch first then transitioning to code.
Process is a tool designers/developers need to understand just as much as any technical skill.
Cihad Turhan, over 8 years ago
Probably, when you post this comment there wasn't any statement of
(posted 2008). So, there wasn't single bit of Sketch then. I agree with the rest, though. Jumping directly to html/css is usually like start a building without any blueprint.Jeff Horsch, over 8 years ago
Well said. I personally like to design in code and modify as I go along. My CSS skills have gotten very sharp as I am able to move elements around the page seamlessly when changing the design.
Rolando Murillo, over 8 years ago
Exactly my point, man. I can design high-fidelity screens at the speed of thought in Sketch. And also:
What about the code quality? Designing in code adds a new level of complexity: writing decent code that can be used for production. This means that aside from the design—which needs a lot of thinking already—you need to think about writing good, reusable code and make sure it matches the front-end architecture, conventions, etc.
Even if you do that AFTER the "design", you then need to refactor the whole thing (very time consuming in my experience). And…
What about mobile? If your design is meant to be responsive—and that's most of the cases lately— , how do you design for mobile? You need to start using media queries, move things around and think about all what I mentioned early.
—
If you just do your job as a designer and design, the best of your time is used.
Chris Aalid, over 8 years ago I totally agree with this.
It's easy to whip out a live mockup with some quick coding, but I feel like you're either going quickly enough to iterate on your ideas in a timely manner, OR you're writing neat, maintainable code that will actually make sense weeks from now or when someone else needs to add onto it.
If you're speeding through messy CSS to iterate a bunch of design changes, wouldn't you just have to go back and do tons of cleanup later?
Marcel Christianis, over 8 years ago
Second this!
Why not use Sketch?
I agree that Photoshop is outdated and doesn't fit the workflow of developing interactive products. What I disagree with is the jumping right into html/css. Quickly iterating on an idea or a feature in higher fidelity comps has always been amazingly important to me. Designers are stuck in details, we love interactions, typography, colors and shapes. In order to get the right combinations it takes time. We have to go down a thousand dead ends to end up at the right solution. Can that be done in code? Yes of course. Is it as fast as me dragging around an art board and trying 30 different iterations? No. Increasingly we're losing the basic design process and fundamentals of design because of the differing opinions of process. Its fine to design in code if that works for you and yes photoshop is antiquated and clunky. But I don't think one shoe fits all (and it doesn't seem like you do either). As designers we need to be thoughtful about our decisions and personally being in code doesn't help me do that.
Just a thought.
EDIT: (Posted 2008) was added to the title after my comment.