Recently, the design community has been blowing up with excitement surrounding Invision’s new product, Studio. Like my other fellow designers, I too was hyped and instantly signed up for its beta.

Being a resident of NYC, I was fortunate enough to attend the first public demo of the product this past Thursday. Let me preface my takeways by saying the event was AMAZING! Nice job Invision Studio staff and team — loved the open bar and vibes!

1. “Clark from Invision” is Real!

Some people from Twitter and the Internet thought Clark from Invision was a robot. As funny as that is if it were true, he spoke at our event, so this is not the case. He is in fact a human being. Or is he…

Source: GIPHY

2. There is a Dark and… Light Interface

On the promo video and site, you only see a dark interface similar to that of Photoshop or Adobe XD. Although quite sleek and sexy, I was thrilled to see you could still design in a light interface similar to that of Sketch (my go-to).

3. The Learning Curve Appears Easy

If you’ve ever used Sketch before, this should be a relatively straight-forward application to use. Much of the platform’s functionality is very similar, as was intended when I spoke with one of the product leaders on Studio. The purpose isn’t to relearn a new platform, but introduce a familiar environment that acts as the go-to for everything ranging from Product Design, Interaction, Animation, Collaboration/Shared Design Systems, and Developer-Friendly Handoffs.

4. The Animations are far Richer

While you still have your traditional screen flow transitions similar to that already available on Invision, they’ve added more dynamic animation that uses an algorithm of theirs to provide the optimal experience from asset to asset or screen to screen. All these animations also live within the layers applied to, so it’s easy to adjust or remove without having to go into some additional animation mode.

5. There are Responsive Artboards

The fact that none of the big design players have implemented this until Studio still baffles me. We live in a world with screen sizes of all sorts now, so modern tools should naturally adjust to this shift. This will prevent developers and designers from spending extra hours designing for numerous platforms. What’s great about Studio’s responsive artboards is that you get to see the changes in real-time as you adjust dimensions, rather than having to look by trial and error for potential break points.

6. Sharing Design Systems is a Smooth Process

In larger or growing design teams, being able to maintain consistency on product amongst all different individuals is never an easy task. Company design libraries and assets have to always be revisited, which can be quite time consuming. In Studio, the ability to find the right colors, dimensional shapes, and styling can be accessed right in the platform. Not to mention, you can pull changes on one screen that applies to all others, such as the color of a button.

7. Platform Collaboration is Available

Rather than having to shuffle between different task management/sharing tools such as Trello, Asana, and JIRA, this can all be done internally within the platform. When you invite other team members to your project, they can leave comments on your current workflow so you know exactly what their thoughts are. No longer do you have to upload individual screenshots and wait for them to comment back for feedback.

8. There’s An Open Developer Community

Similar to Sketch, there’s an open community where developers can create plugins to help push the boundaries of the platform. This could be quite exciting depending on how large the community becomes.

9. Invision’s Web Platform has been Upgraded

Unlike the state of prototyping it was formerly in, Invision has created an improved platform that better supports rich animation and designer to developer communication. The ability to extract code for platforms such as IOS, rather than just HTML & CSS was neat.

10. The Design Community Continues to Grow

Unrelated to the product itself, it’s incredible to see how much interest there is in design these days. I had to wait 45 minutes in a line snaking around the building to get into this exclusive event where the whole venue was packed with talented designers and others outside the community. I overheard so many conversations with individuals speaking about the state of design and the importance of it from designers and non-designers alike. To see that overwhelming support for our profession is refreshing and a sure sign we’ll continue to push the value of great design. Thanks Invision for a great night and I appreciate the free drinks and swag!