Sketch and Figma, different tools equals different results
By now you probably read countless comparison, this ain’t really one.
We like to compare the difference between various design programs and debate about which one is the most powerful. But we often forget to reflect on how using one of these tools is impacting our product. A powerful artist would say that he can create on any medium and while it is true someone like da Vinci didn’t seem to have had problems switching from science drawings to the Chapelle Sistine his process and his final result are completely different by nature.
As designers, we rely heavily on our tools to produce what we want them to do but we often forget that we have learned to want what the tool can do.
As a junior designer, I would say that I have the luxe of not knowing what the tools can’t do and I am more inclined to notice the difference between the idea and it’s execution. But even there my knowledge as grown so much that I surprise myself drawing wireframes with the program construction logic in the back of my mind.
So here is my little analysis of how logic difference behind sketch and Figma is changing the way I work and the product I make.
Sketch, and the challenge of perfect results
Sketch was made with the idea of creating a vector tool with a system to easily group and manage assets it also supports multiple art-boards to help with website design. From this idea of design management tool Sketch as grown in features developing a way to create component and symbols.
Because sketch was made after vector building tools like Adobe illustrator, it carries in his bones all the powerful features these tools have.
Sketch shine in making symbols and illustrations
The superpower of Sketch is to let you make perfect symbols that adapt to any kind of content and situations. The idea is that you will spend time making the perfect component that you will then reuse everywhere in your app for consistency, it contains very precise and fine-tuning controls that will enable you to achieve almost anything.
Or does it?
The logic behind sketch is that you will use symbols and nested symbols for everything, the tool is made to lead you toward the creation of an atomic design system and integrate component within components.
The side effect is that you end up always making the same structure “image; title; extract; button with icon”. You will get the logic pretty quickly and with it, your brain will adapt the design thinking process into:
“How does this symbol should be created?”
“How can I make this a nested component?”
“Is there a way for me to reuse this element?”
Notice how none of these questions talks about what the app needs.
However, sketch suffer form making too many rules
Maybe we can blame the Dutch who made it for it.
After some time inside of your project, you might think you want to change the behaviour a certain element, start looking for it and realize you can’t find what it the cause of this effect.
A fine-tuned component as a cost, it creates countless intricate rules, you will need to learn them, use them and remember what you did.
Chances are after a few weeks you would probably have lost track of how you tuned your app.
This should not change the way you work, or does it?
Sketch is so complex you will start to always use the same working structure, across multiple apps similar symbols will have similar behaviour. We learn to be efficient and with it loose in creativity. this means that production with Sketch is pretty straight forward you have a process to go from wireframe to high fidelity design and you will use it always the same way because it is the fastest way you have found.
The key with Sketch is that it is made to create ONE good design
The signs of a made with Sketch
You can recognize a work that used all the advanced feature of Sketch when you start to see perfectly sized component easily swapped and assumed bold illustrations who take advantages of complex shadow, blur and gradients.
People on sketch use fully the advanced vector capacity of the program and create environments that are very consistent since their perfect symbols are made to be shared across the app.
Figma, and the challenge of never finishing
Figma interestingly enough was made after design tool like Sketch. The approach it takes is to simplify the creation process to enable productivity and support a way for the entire team to work together.
By comparing both interfaces, you will notice Figma offer you directly fewer options forcing you to build anything from the basic building blocks available.
Because Figma is made for fast productivity it sacrifices features to improve your speed
Figma succeed by allowing you to extrême freedom.
Strangely enough not having many options and tools let you get more creative. Figma doesn’t struggle you with rules and precision it wants you to try, copy and tweak things and do as much as you need to. It does trigger your creativity more as you have to figure new ways to achieve your goals with much simpler tools.
Or does it?
The thing with Figma is that you will be constantly looking for the solution or the trick to get the right results. You are missing fine controls so your process becomes more about trying then making. Figma is always inviting you to tweak something this mean your production will become longer as you will spend time endlessly creating new versions.
Figma struggle from being messy and never precise enough
Pretty quickly you will realize that your art-boards contains hundreds of screens and see that you have barely named your assets. Finding the right information gets impossible as you reach “rectangle 4500”. But that is not everything, because you have been limited with simple tools, you have not created something precise. Yes some versions have some work into it and the structure is well thought but there is always a detail that is missing a rule that doesn’t get applied the way it should. Because your symbols are not smart you will have to make multiple versions and write rules on a document for your developers to understand how it should work.
This should not impact your final result, or does it?
Your brain will quickly adapt to the idea of not being perfect, Figma wants you to think about the big image and the layout and you will. You will start to have versions with placeholders only, extensive lorel Ipsum and realize you spend a lot of extra time cleaning your developer handoff version. You will stop considering tiny details and the quality of your product will start to suffer from it.
The key with Figma is that it wants you to EXPLORE many designs
The sign of a made with Figma
When someone builds with Figma what you can immediately notice is the bold structure of the app (this is enabled by the supper handy grid tool). Because many version has been done, in the final result the information is perfectly organized and the design is rich of different unique components tailored to each situation.
But Figma is lacking super precision and advanced fine-tuning so designers go for simple shapes in illustrations, no shadow, flat design and high colour contrast.
2 results from the same agency
Now for the final test, what can we get from comparing work from one of the best design agency out there.
On Sketch, we see that Cuberto has taken advantages of the advanced shadow and gradient features. Because fine-tuning is easy they have used overlapping layers and subtle colour difference inside the app.
On Figma however, there is no fancy shadow game, the app had to get to the most simple version. so they have used bolder colour difference and inserted simple shapes as illustrations to make the elements attractive.
This is not all dark and grim.
With the right process and experience using any tool will be more about creating what the app needs to do for the user.
Even though it is harder on some tools to get to certain results you can achieve any results on any tools.
This article is more about the reflection that what you can do might not be what you chose to do because you go for the easiest solution within your environment.
Have you seen it happening on yourself?
I am a junior designer and it is a bit hard for me to see how a final result could have been different if I had used the other tool. But I definitely see my process being different according to the program I use.
My goal is to find ways to use the best program according to the situations, making big apps make a lot of sense on Figma. Meanwhile making complex illustration and very high fidelity product make more sense in Sketch.
What about you?
Feel free to leave your experience on the comments.
