What to Learn After Sketch

Sketch is a graphic design application used to build working prototypes of user interfaces for web design and digital application layouts. The application allows users to build complicated and detailed UI designs using various interactive tools and elements.Once you’ve learned Sketch, consider learning another UI design application, UX design principles, or front-end coding skills as described below. 

What is Sketch?

Sketch is a design tool for creating user interface (UI) layouts for webpages and mobile applications. Sketch is a vector-graphics design program, meaning that the assets created can be modified and resized for optimal performance on screens of any size. Sketch’s significant features include its easy customization tools, digital collaboration tools, and, most importantly, Sketch symbols. Sketch symbols let users create reusable design elements that can be modified individually, allowing users to build layout assets like buttons and drop-down menus, which all look the same but function differently, as the design demands. Advanced Sketch users can use the built-in tools to make even more complex, interactive symbols to optimize their workflow and the functionality of their design.

Sketch originated on the macOS app store and is only available on machines that run off macOS. Therefore, the program can be slightly limiting but is built with the specific functionalities of this operating system in mind. Sketch has features common to almost all macOS native programs, such as touch bar support, Retina and non-Retina displays, and native font rendering. These features allow macOS device users to learn Sketch more efficiently and quickly pick up advanced skills. Web designers can also create layouts designed to operate on devices like next-generation iPhones. The functionalities of Sketch designs won’t be limited to these devices, but the program gives users the tools to optimize their layouts for specific platforms.

In recent updates, Sketch has added new features to make collaboration and prototyping easier for teams of users. Sketch lets designers work together to build clickable prototypes of their webpages that designers can distribute for testing and iteration, a crucial feature of any user-interface design software. And Sketch is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its users.

Read more about what Sketch is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Sketch?

Sketch allows web designers to create layouts for webpages and mobile applications. Users can create vibrant, interactive webpage models for testing and development using text, images, graphic designs, and artboards. Because Sketch is a vector graphics illustration tool, these designs are easily reusable and scalable. They can be optimized to work on any-sized screen and used in multiple contexts in any design layout. Sketch also recently added advanced features for collaboration and prototyping, allowing team members to work together more efficiently to build model user interfaces.

Sketch’s most unique features are symbols and reusable digital interface assets that can be replicated across multiple pages. Sketch lets users define symbol characteristics to repurpose them as the design warrants. In addition, users can manually override the function of individual symbols, letting users give each asset a different interactive functionality without having to start from scratch. More advanced users can build complicated, multi-purpose symbols that make designing interfaces a breeze.

Sketch also has a robust community of designers and developers who are constantly building new adds-on and templates for Sketch. Users who learn Sketch can take advantage of these resources to make working with the program more straightforward and efficient. Since this community is so active, new resources are available daily.

Another User Interface Tool

Because Sketch is only available on macOS devices, users hoping to design on other platforms must learn a different application. Both Adobe XD and Figma are excellent alternatives to Sketch, and once a user has training in one of these tools, they are better equipped to learn other similar software.

Students looking to learn Adobe XD or Figma should consult the options available through Noble Desktop.

Data Science for User Experience Design

Learning Sketch may interest some users in learning the science behind UX design. A lot of time, money, and energy goes into the research that helps designers better understand user behavior. UX Designers conduct research, build test prototypes, and analyze data to make scientifically informed decisions about best practices for UX/UI designs.

Sketch users interested in UX design can look at Noble's UX design courses.

Front End Web Development Languages

Generally, once a Web Designer has completed the visual layout of a user interface, it is handed over to a Web Developer for coding. Web Designers interested in career advancement may decide they want to learn how to build a webpage after it has left the design phase. Front end coding languages like HTML/CSS and JavaScript are ideal for Sketch users because they are the languages used to add format and interactivity to Sketch-built UX/UI designs.

Noble offers many courses in front end web development.

Key Insights

• Sketch is a macOS UX design tool that allows users to create functioning prototypes of webpages and digital applications before they go to developers for coding.
• Sketch is only one of the UX design tools on the market. Because it is only available on macOS, Sketch users may find it beneficial to learn other tools like Figma and XD to expand their career opportunities.
• Sketch users may also wish to learn more about the science behind UX design to create better webpages and understand how productive and actionable user testing is performed.
• Since Sketch is only a design tool, Sketch users may wish to learn front end development skills to code their designs instead of handing them over to a web developer.
• No matter what skill you hope to learn after mastering Sketch, Noble has the training course for you.

Learn Sketch with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Students looking to master Sketch may wish to consider any Sketch classes and bootcamps offered through Noble Desktop. These classes, which range from short seminars offering students a basic understanding of Sketch to in-depth career skills training courses, give students the tools they need to use Sketch in their personal and professional lives. These courses are available in person at Noble’s Manhattan campus or live online from anywhere in the United States. Courses are taught by experts with whom students can interface directly, and class sizes are kept small, even online. So, students can ask questions and receive timely, personalized feedback on their work. Plus, courses include a one-year free retake option. Students can repeat the course to review a lesson that gave them trouble, attend a seminar they missed, or just get more hands-on practice with Sketch.

Students seeking in-depth training in Sketch should consider Noble’s Sketch Bootcamp. This intensive skills training course teaches students to use the basic and advanced features of Sketch, such as its layout design tools, interactive elements, and prototyping capabilities. Students get hands-on instruction in building web layouts using text, shapes, and images, all built with Sketch’s vector graphics illustration tools. They then learn how to optimize those illustrations for web and mobile viewing, including Hi-res and Retina displays. Finally, students receive hands-on training in using Sketch symbols, including how to override symbol functions to make them work differently and how to alter their functions universally after they have been implemented.

Noble also offers Sketch training as part of its immersive, career-focused UX & UI Design Certificate program. This course is designed to help aspiring Web and user experience (UX) Designers receive comprehensive career training and mentorship. Students learn to use an array of design tools, including Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD, and receive hands-on training by working through practical exercises that reflect the work they will do professionally. Students also learn the best practices of UX design and how to best conduct user research and analysis. By the end of the course, students get the opportunity to have one-on-one career mentorship discussions with trained experts in the field of UX/UI design, and they will have built a sample design portfolio to take with them into the job market.