Sketch Copenhagen
Freddie Harrison (Mastodon, Pieter Omvlee):
Early on in the process, we prototyped various approaches to the sidebar and Inspector, including floating options (the new default in Tahoe) and glass materials. Ultimately, we went custom here, with fixed sidebars that felt less distracting in the context of a canvas-based design tool.
Another area we went custom with was document tabs. Having them run along the top of the window didn’t work well with the toolbar and ultimately felt too boxy and imposing. Instead, they now live in the sidebar, and are just as functional.
[…]
As well as shipping our own glass effect soon after WWDC, we’ve adopted Liquid Glass in subtle ways in Copenhagen. You’ll find it in the toolbar, minimap and notifications at the bottom of the Canvas.
[…]
One of the first things you’ll notice when you work with the new Inspector is that most of the old popovers are now separate panels.
These new panels have a lot of advantages. You can move them freely around the window to bring them closer to your work. They also stay open if you change your selection and they’re still applicable, making similar changes across multiple layers more convenient.
[…]
We created a new set of icons (over 700 of them) — you’ll find them everywhere from menus, to the Inspector, and beyond.
This probably will not convert the kind of person who finds Liquid Glass revolting in its entirety, but I think this implementation is thoughtful and well-considered. Note, too, that Apple itself has not shipped any of its own Mac pro apps with Liquid Glass changes. The choices made by the Sketch team are instructional.
The Sketch design team should be the folks designing at Apple.
Haven’t they sucked up enough talent already?
Random thing that I love: the whole application is still just 215MB.
In general a nice update and so far the best implementation of Liquid Glass, but that toolbar is breaking me. Muscle memory I built since Sketch 3 (partly Sketch 2 even) gone and replaced by searching icons in an ever changing toolbar.
A customizable toolbar wasn’t really a viable option in this era of macOS.
Previously:
2 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Why is everyone cheering on this monstrosity, when the last tweet in the last link tells the whole tale; designing a true macOS app is no longer “an option for us with what we were doing.”
