Sketch
The Mac-native design tool that shaped modern UI workflow before collaborative, browser-based tools took over.
What it is
About Sketch
Sketch is a vector design application built specifically for digital interface design, offering artboards, reusable symbols, shared style libraries and a large third-party plugin ecosystem. It pioneered many now-standard UI design workflow concepts (symbols and components, responsive resizing) and remains in use at companies with established Sketch-based design systems, though much of the market has shifted to Figma for real-time collaboration. Sketch has since added its own web-based collaboration features to compete.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Design UI screens and components using artboards and vector shapes
Build reusable Symbols and shared style libraries for design systems
Create clickable prototypes to demonstrate user flows
Hand off specs and assets to developers via Sketch's inspector and handoff tools
Extend functionality with a large plugin ecosystem (Craft, Anima, Zeplin integrations)
How to learn it
Learning Resources
Sketch's own official documentation and video tutorials
YouTube channels like DesignCourse and Flux Academy (cover Sketch alongside Figma)
Practise by rebuilding an existing app's UI screens from scratch
Sketch community plugin directory to explore workflow extensions
Pro Tip
If you're on a team, move to Sketch's cloud-based Workspaces early — the old file-syncing-via-Dropbox workflow is where most Sketch version-conflict headaches used to come from.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool