My background is visual design and I've worked at a couple agencies in NY/SF.
I think this site does a couple things pretty well:
- Really easy to implement Q+D ideas
- Linking to images online in a great idea.
Why I wouldn't use it (Just going to focus on my big deal breakers):
- Where I start to think this breaks down is working with a lot of layers. In Photoshop I can group things together into layer folders and either drag all layers at once, delete them all at once, or lock them so that I don't accidentally drag them. In here, I don't have that option. I know you can use the mouse tool to drag a marquee that selects multiple objects but at a certain point that isn't a great option, such as if I want to keep the background container but not the foreground content.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: This is something that most professional designers use as it speeds up the process tenfold. Keep in mind that designers have been using said shortcuts for years so by changing it up (so that I have re-learn new shortcuts for the same functions) or not having them at all is a very large dealbreaker.
- I don't like the element adjustment menu that follows me whenever I click an element. I prefer having tools docked to the side so I can view the canvas purely even I'm clicked on something.
I have mixed feelings about layers. In an elaborate design I understand how they're useful, but for most website mockups I think you can get by without them. You can, for what its worth, lock elements currently with jMockups (see the property inspector), which might be a good middle ground.
The editor currently supports most of the standard keyboards you'd expect from an app (Ctrl+S/A/Z/Y) with the main exceptions being Copy and Paste, which I'm working on. I'm open to adding as many more as people find useful. Let me know.
Regarding the property inspector: Depending on what direction I take with the width of the canvas, I could add an option for docking it to the left or right of the canvas. What do you think?
I think a good portion of designers who use Photoshop use more shortcuts than standard user. M for marquee. U for shape. Command + Click on Object and move to duplicate the object. Space for hand tool. In other words, every tool has a shortcut so that it's easier to access and in fact, I barely use tool menus except to edit values. It's just so much more efficient to use keyboard commands than to click on every single element.
Docking the property inspector to the left or right or allowing the user to customize it would be a great option.
I still think layers provide a lot of power that's really useful (layer styles, easy to switch which object appears over what, easy to create multiple states) but I'll defer to you since this is your vision for the project.
I just wanted to echo the feature request, layers (and nested layers at that) would be a huge huge feature for me, thats pretty much why I dont use gimp.
and being able to see your selections as you drag for a miltiple selection would be cool too, I think thats part of what I was talking about before with 'feeling nice'
I think this site does a couple things pretty well: - Really easy to implement Q+D ideas - Linking to images online in a great idea.
Why I wouldn't use it (Just going to focus on my big deal breakers):
- Where I start to think this breaks down is working with a lot of layers. In Photoshop I can group things together into layer folders and either drag all layers at once, delete them all at once, or lock them so that I don't accidentally drag them. In here, I don't have that option. I know you can use the mouse tool to drag a marquee that selects multiple objects but at a certain point that isn't a great option, such as if I want to keep the background container but not the foreground content.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: This is something that most professional designers use as it speeds up the process tenfold. Keep in mind that designers have been using said shortcuts for years so by changing it up (so that I have re-learn new shortcuts for the same functions) or not having them at all is a very large dealbreaker.
- I don't like the element adjustment menu that follows me whenever I click an element. I prefer having tools docked to the side so I can view the canvas purely even I'm clicked on something.