UX/UI/Web Design course covering Sketch & Affinity but not Adobe CS?

[clcssics]

Hi everyone, long time lurker here. I’ll jump straight to the point:

As I’m sure many of you are familiar, Sketch 3 is fast on the rise and many people already swear by it for UI design. On that same token, many are turning to Affinity Designer for their illustrating needs. Both are award-winning, well-developed and supported by some of the best in the industry. With that said, Photoshop & Illustrator have been the de facto industry standards for almost two decades and aren’t going anywhere.

Would it be wise for a brand new UX/UI/Web Design “bootcamp” course to teach only Sketch 3 & Affinity (along with other tools, of course, like Balsamiq and InVision)? I guess I am just hesitant that going “all-in” on these up-and-coming technologies will backfire in terms of finding employment.

Would love to hear your guys’ 2¢

[nkrisc]

The tool isn’t important. I don’t know the nature of the bootcamp, maybe it is in fact more focused on the tools, but really a good way to get introduced to UX/UI design would probably be with a piece of paper and pencil. When I look around my office, I see about as many hand sketches on the wall as I do mockups printed out. Learning the process and principles of UX design is independent of the tools.

However, if they are going to teach a tool, Sketch and Affinity seem like good choice if only because they’re much more readily accessible by more people. If I recall, Sketch goes for about $99 while Affinity goes for $59 (or so). That’s not a large upfront investment as opposed to purchasing Creative Suite or Creative Cloud or whatever racket Adobe is offering now.

Your employability as a UX/UI designer will likely have little to do with what tools you can use, as opposed to your ability to demonstrate good design practices and thinking. An employer can always teach you to use a tool. They’re less likely to want to teach you the foundations of design.

[clcssics]

Thanks for the great response. Much appreciated.

[sarahbellum]

I agree here with @nkrisc.

A good employer will hire your good design practices and thinking. Not saying that I wouldn’t be a bit concerned if you didn’t know how to use the standards of the industry like Photoshop and Illustrator.

I don’t know if I swear by Sketch, but it is so much faster for prototyping than anything Adobe so it wouldn’t hurt to learn new tools in general.

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