Design Thursday #15
A weekly recap of everything you need to know about tools, events, guidelines and design in general.
WWDC 2023
Everyone probably has seen the Vision Pro, a brand new spatial computer from Apple. It was introduced alongside new software updates for all Apple platforms during this year’s WWDC. There’s a lot to watch in the keynote, but the sessions made by the engineers and designers are even more interesting to watch. Be sure to check out the spatial design sessions, but also the updates for Symbols, animations and accessibility.
Penpot Flex
Penpot is an open source alternative design tool for Figma or Sketch. They have recently released Flex Layout, which allows you to create responsive layouts inside of your design tool. Think AutoLayout 2.0, grids have never been easier to design. Plus it generates development ready CSS code that you can reuse in your projects.
Webflow DevLink
Webflow’s DevLink is now in open beta and can be used by any Webflow member. This allows you to create design system component in Webflow and reuse it in other web projects. Making handoff easier than ever and makes it possible to have actual components right next to your documentation in Webflow.
Learn more about the DevLink beta
You can get a more in-depth overview from the latest Webflow live stream:
On top of that, Webflow released some new keyboard shortcuts to move elements. You can view them all on their updates page.
Sketch updates
Sketch has some brand new updates: Collections to organize your workspace better, View & Mirror is now available on iPad and can open offline files which makes for a great mobile companion app, selection improvements, multi-layer renaming and more.
Spline Style Transfer
Spline is testing out an AI powered style transfer feature that allows you to generate images from 3d scenes, use modifiers for lighting/environment and use prompts. It’s only available as very early preview for paid customers right now.
Stark web app
Stark previously launched a mac app to audit your design files and annotate them with accessibility landmarks and alt text. Now they’ve released a web app that contains all of your projects, reports and insights. Making it easier to find everything back in a centralized location.
Learn more about Stark Web app
Rive 101 course
There’s a brand new Rive course to let you get familiar with Rive in just over an hour. You can view the complete course on their Youtube channel.
Official Apple Figma resources
Apple has officially joined Figma Community and released their first resource, the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 component library. It’s great that we finally have official components from Apple, but let’s not forget the great resources created by Joey Banks in the past.
Jitter updates
Jitter released some smaller but great updates lately. First off, improved GIF export so that the file size is smaller and exporting faster. Second timeline selection, it’s now easier to select multiple animations on your timeline.
Principle support on Campsite
You can now share Principle prototypes on Campsite to receive feedback on your animations or prototypes. It’s also a great way to version your prototypes, as you can go back to earlier versions via Campsite.
Read about the Campsite update
Specify Launch week
From June 12 to June 16 Specify is holding their Launch week with a new feature being announced every day. So far they announced npm and notion as a destination for your tokens and support for the official Design Token format. Be sure to check back at the end of the week for all announcements.
View Specify Launch week announcements
Framer AI
Framer launched their AI web tool this week to make designing and building websites even faster. Just write your prompt and watch your responsive website being designed and built in real time. You can easily make adjustment by switching out themes and fonts or write new fonts to adapt different elements on the page. This is a great way to get started with Framer and make it more beginner friendly.
Webstudio Beta
Webstudio is an open sourced alternative for Webflow to build websites using a visual interface. It’s now available in beta, so you can try it out.