December 11, 2019

326: Design Tools Today

41 minutes

In this week's episode, we discuss the state of our industry's current design tools—especially in comparison to the tools available to other disciplines—and we speculate about what those tools could look like in the years to come. In News, we compare notes on Figma's newly released Auto Layout feature. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a flashcard app and a peek behind the park.

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News:

Sketch previewed some of their plans for features in 2020, including many already present in Figma

When Sketch announced Smart Layout, Figma assured users that their own Auto Layout would be coming soon

Industry Talk:

Mike Rundle lamented the state of our UI tools compared to the tools of other design professions

Kelly Sutton replied that our tools aren't part of the critical path to finished software

Framer X touts itself as "the best tool for interactive design"

Webflow allows you to "build better business websites, faster. Without coding."

React Podcast - "75: Sunil Pai on The Future of UI Frameworks"

One Cool Thing:

Brian shared Mouseless, is a flashcard-style app for keyboard shortcuts that helps you "unleash your keyboard’s superpower"

Marshall shared The Imagineering Story on Disney+, a "journey behind the curtains... to discover what it takes to create and build Disney theme parks around the world"

General Magic is a documentary about "the untold tale of how a great vision and epic failure changed the world"

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By Brian Lovin, Marshall Bock

4.7

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