
What Design at a Startup Actually Looks Like [video] - ivankirigin
http://blog.yesgraph.com/remote-design-review/
======
snide
More surprised to see someone using Sketch. Not that there's anything wrong
with that. Just didn't expect it when I clicked the link.

Kind of curious what people are using these days for design.

I originally came from the Photoshop world, and would do all my mocks there
initially, but over the last 3 years (mainly since CSS3) I've basically just
built my designs in code and made them working prototypes first. I'm no
engineer, but I can get a static site running / deployed through cactus /
jekyll or whatever and add bits of jquery to get any inactivity done. I will
admit it's been harder to keep up with frontends moving to ember / angular and
needing more JS skills to fully build out my designs.

Again, not a criticism. Was cool to see a different approach, just curious
what most designers are using these days. Thanks for sharing.

~~~
g1sh
I am the designer in the video. I should say that I also used to work for
Adobe. And that is not to say that I don't design in PS because I think it is
crap. Quite the opposite, the PS team is an awe-inspiring team of PHD-level
engineers. I would say that it is a huge tool that is still focused mainly on
imaging and is decades old. They have to respond to a very large and diverse
user base. I personally, don't like using big monolithic tools, like most web-
oriented people I like the light-weight editors and focused tools.

I was a Fireworks user, but since Adobe decided to phase out support, I looked
at what my workflow would be like. This transition came at the same time that
I was moving away from detailed specs to a more lean design process, leaving
the details to when I switch to code. Sketch, makes it very fast for me to
create mocks and for the team to switch to code. Everything I design
translates very well to web standards. I know that since Generator, Photoshop
has a much better export flow to CSS but that is still not how I work.

Overall, my switch to Sketch has been very positive and I would recommend it
to anyone that is doing any type of interactive design. Granted, Sketch is
still pretty new and is missing a few things. Symbols or Smart Objects being
the biggest thing for me.

Right now my workflow is: Omnigraffle for userflows, Sketch for wireframes and
sketches, PS and AI for asset creation, Reflow for when I need to try some
responsive layout, Edge Animate for motion prototypes, and I'll code with
Brackets.

~~~
jaysonelliot
I used to do more wireframing than UI design, but that's changing, and I've
been looking at the available tools.

PS is not good for multiple resolutions, and I find Illustrator too complex
for the task.

The thing I like about wireframing in Omnigraffle is the wide array of stencil
libraries available.

Have you found it easy to find and/or create design libraries for Sketch?

~~~
g1sh
It is not as easy as Omnigraffle. My rudimentary way of doing this is to have
a template file that I can copy/paste elements from. One function that I love
from Sketch is that you can copy/paste styles, which makes the library use
more flexible. You can copy CSS, but I wish that you could also past CSS into
an object since we also have an ongoing UI library written in LESS

~~~
jaysonelliot
Perhaps I will build my own template files then.

I feel like there ought to be a vector design tool that makes it easy to just
drop UI elements into a predefined display space—preferably even dynamic
elements. (And while I'm dreaming, one that makes documentation easy.)

Either I'm missing it, or there just isn't an ideal tool for UI designers
right now.

------
pothibo
Thanks for the video, really nice. On one hand, I heard you guys talking about
the difference between "subscribe", "pay" and "upgrade". Wouldn't it be more
accurate to just fire an A/B Test for that button and see what converts
better, instead of heresay?

A/B Testing on button title is pretty trivial and you can verify the result
manually. No need for admin panel. Am I wrong?

~~~
ivankirigin
You're definitely right, and testing calls to action is a potentially easy
win. Internally, I've stressed how we should avoid optimizations to help speed
development.

The specific issue here was that the call to action to get the payment modal
was "upgrade" making it a bit weird for the call to action on the modal to be
"upgrade".

------
dsawler
As an interaction designer I really liked watching this. I don't work for a
startup but this is often how quick internal reviews go with a project team
member at my company, as well; discovering unique scenarios you need to design
for while talking through other issues.

~~~
ivankirigin
Thanks!

And you're totally right, this isn't limited to startups. I didn't want to
title it generally "what design actually looks like" because while I'm pretty
arrogant, I'm not that self aggrandizing :)

------
scottmcleod
Would be great to see more videos like this from other startups.

------
AtTheLast
These videos make some of the best learning tools. Thanks for sharing this.

------
dharma1
this was great. thanks for posting, and good work

