Sketch Effects in RP 9?

#1

Have Sketch Effects been removed from RP 9? I can’t seem to locate them. If so, why? That was a very useful feature.

Greyscale setting
#2

Hi tishaleggett,

That’s correct - Sketch Effects are not available in the 9 beta. Could you let us know which part of Sketch Effects (e.g. greyscale, sketchy, line width) you miss?

#3

Hello!
I came to this forum with a question about sketch effects too.

I use grayscale constantly.

It is often necessary to see the contrast version of the prototype to understand its visual efficiency. So that is why I do a part of prototypes in grayscale at once.

#4

I frequently used the “sketchy” effect when showing in-progress designs to upper management. It let me go ahead and design and document in high-fidelity (proper spacing, sizes, colors, etc.) but present in rough, sketches. It helped to keep leadership from getting “hung up” on aesthetics and focus on interactions and workflow, and it helped me save time not having to create multiple versions of the same thing when I need to hand documentation over to the devs.

#5

The sketch effect is most useful when I am in the iterative cycle of a design - most especially in a Lean UX/Agile environment. Sometimes it is really helpful to take a higher fidelity prototype and use the sketch effect to essentially take it back to more of a “Wireframe” state without having to build over from scratch. Honestly, I haven’t needed it as much until now - really in support of a rapid, iterative product design focused work environment (Think SaFE processes). Being able to scale back the design asthetics (color, lines, fonts etc) really helps my team see the design scaffolding without the distraction of visual applications. It’s really more process oriented. Working from one file where I can present it as either high or low fidelity is particularly useful in an Agile world.

#6

+1 to everything everyone else is saying. Sketch Effects is a HUGE reason why I use Axure and why I tell other people they should too. It is a great way to save me time when I am showing designs in progress. If it is not being considered for the official 9 release that is a tremendous step backwards.

#7

I miss sketchy and greyscale. I need these because my business partners can’t seem to grasp wireframe vs pixel perfects, so it really helps them decipher without me having to keep explaining to them.

#8

Missing the sketchy… agree with others - its a step back

#9

I srsly need Sketch Effects for interim management presentations and, very important, font overrides since we use custom fonts (forget these google fonts in secure corporate environments/automotive) and I need to overrule font mess-ups when team members are not working sober :wink:

ps also I always base64 encode our company fonts and throw them in in @font-face - since you removed general font-to-image conversion in ax8 (that was really helpful since most managers have different font-versions or didn’t install the custom fonts at all)

#10

+1 for this. Presenting very rough designs to stakeholders who would otherwise get hung up on look and feel is a great feature to have — I use it often and miss it in Axure 9.

#11

+1 here as well.
This is a must IMHO. Echoing exactly what @nielsandersen and all the others said.
We liked Axure so much since it gave us the flexibility to look more UI like and something like a real wireframes (Balsamiq style), without the need to re-design/re-create anything in other tools.
I myself used the greyscale and sketchiness options many times according whom I present to.

Now I will not be able using Axure9.0. @Jane_Axure - I will appreciate if you will update if this feature is considered to be brought back.

BTW, as a UX person I am curious - how a feature such as this is being removed? did you pole people about it’s usage?

This is a major step backwards.:sob:

#12

+1 from me too.

This feature is very important for us (npower, UK) and will probably prevent us from upgrading to 9. Are you planning to re-introduce it to the RP 9 full release?

Thanks.

#13

Would love to have Sketch effects back as well…

#14

I miss that feature too.

#16

Wow I didn’t know this feature was so popular. I never liked it and have never had a need to use it. But this gets at the heart of the issue with Ax9. It doesn’t feel like Axure has listened to their users.

#17

+1 missing the Sketchy styling used it frequently to convey early design output

#18

I suspect that the reasoning behind this would have alot to do with how the elements are rendered in HTML from Axure. Maybe a compromise would be utilizing a style “override” - black & white, thicker borders to all widgets, single “active” color - a “Basalmic” type of style. I have created my own version of this to bypass this issue and we are going to adapt our process to stay in the “wireframe” style while testing interactions. I would think that Axure could do the same thing and turn it into a “sketch effects” setting. Grayscaling of image files would be great too.
I would not want to choose between the critical performance improvements of Axure 9 and a easy way to turn a “wireframe/sketch” effect style set on and off. Hopefully the Axure team is working on a way to resolve it as we speak :smile:

#19

I am also looking for the sketchy effect… to keep my prototype high level and not in the details… please bring it back > :slight_smile:

#20

+1 for this.
I find the sketchy effects and the gray scale are a great way to show in-progress work. Avoids a lot of comments by reviewers assuming it is the final design.

#21

@Jane_Axure Please get the relevant powers to make a decision on this then tell us - is Sketchiness coming back or not? I’m planning the company-wide roll-out of a design system across UX, UI and front-end dev. Over 80 people are involved in/impacted by the development of this system and not knowing the answer to this question is a complete blocker to our plans right now.