In this video I talk about why Adobe Fireworks is still the best UI/UX Design software available today. I’ve been using Adobe Fireworks since the year 2000 and continue to use it today for all my UI/UX Design needs. In the video I demonstrate the key features I love in Adobe Fireworks.
I totally agree with you Mike…I can not live without FW. I remember when I first emailed you in 2012 and I asked you about FW and was it better then PS when creating a website. I was so confused I didn’t know which program to use…in art school no one taught us FW they all would say use PS because no one used FW…I was so confused now two years later all I use in FW in all facets of my UI Designs…this has become my bread and butter. I only open PS to double check my files when I save a FW file as a PSD for the developers…thanks so much for teaching me about FW it has truly changed my life and opened so many doors in my career!!
It’s always interesting to see different opinions on what program is best for a specific type of media (aside form the standard common knowledge of which program is, in general, better for, i.e indesign for documents and magazines, illustrator for logos etc.). But from that I would think it’s which ever program you are most confident or familiar with, especially if it’s between Fireworks or Photoshop for web, because you will always do better in the program you are most skilled in.
I would say that I like Photoshop for web, but only because I started with it and have always been using it. Although having seen the prototyping feature for Fireworks, that’s quite a nice draw in, especially since clients probably would like to see a prototype over screen shots any-day (pre html markup). I think that could sway a few people into Fireworks.
Is that a feature that can only be used in Fireworks or can you export a prototype, similar to Flash? I’d imagine being able to send a prototype to a distance client could be quite an advantage and a big time saver.
That being said, I think I might give Fireworks a bit of a good. Thanks for the tip Michael.
@Zach – Yeah, Fireworks was always an underrated app. I just used it because it came natural to me as I was using since year 2000 when it was one of the popular apps along with Flash and Dreamweaver. But Photoshop is powerful and can also be used. Its just that for those features I mentioned in the video, FW is so useful for standard UI/UX Design needs.
@Sam – True, it definitely depends a lot on which app you first learned to design in. 95% of the web design community started in Photoshop so its the most popular. I love PS as well, it would be my second go-to app if I couldn’t use FW anymore because PS is so powerful and can do everything graphically. The prototyping and paging in FW needs to be brought over to Photoshop for sure. Hoping Adobe does this at some point. But yes, when you create a prototype in FW, it can be exported as an HTML file with images and image maps, etc. So you can send it to people, upload it to a server, etc.
Can’t say I’ve ever tried Fireworks before. I didn’t even know it existed before finding your website. The vector support looks interesting. I’ve always used Photoshop and Illustrator. Each has a few features that tie me to them. Maybe fireworks is the fit all solution. Looks like like fireworks has extensions to export SVG graphics too (which is a format I use often for icons and such thats not available on Photoshop). Anyways, thanks for the post, might give this a try.
I was a long time Fireworks user, but when I got a retina display I thought text rendering looked awful on Fireworks and switched to Sketch.
Sketch renders text perfectly and since it is being actively developed it has performed way better for me than Fireworks. Fireworks was constantly crashing on my new mac and I kept losing valuable work. Sketch autosaves and crashing on version 3 is rare.
I wish Adobe wouldn’t have cut the cord since I loved Fireworks, but Sketch is amazing and getting better every day while Fireworks is being left to die. (sorry to sound dramatic, but Adobe seems to have no plans to keep us with modern displays and operating systems).
It took a few real projects to fully embrace Sketch. I had to get used to the floating artboard, but once you set the size of your artboards it’s similiar to having a fixed Adobe document.
Vector editing is better in Sketch, IMHO, while Bitmap editing is still slightly better in Fireworks. I sometimes open up Acorn to quickly crop photos, but usually I just use Sketches’ background image option which is a close graphical approximation to CSS background images.
There’s a lot more positive I can say about Sketch, but I’ll spare you. I still recommend your (Mike’s) training to everybody since they completely apply and will help your design skills no matter what software you use.
@Robby – Funny, yeah not many people hear of Fireworks a lot. Its always been a hidden gem to me. Photoshop and Illustrator are definitely king among the community. I love PS and AI as well. I’m hoping for the day Adobe bring some of these features over to PS, it would be all good.
@David – Thanks, yes I’ve only heard good things of Sketch. One of these days I’m sure I’ll give it a try. I don’t have a retina display so haven’t run into that retina issue. Time will tell what Adobe will do. You’re right – the principles of design applies to everyone whether you’re using Photoshop, Fireworks, Sketch, Illustrator, etc.
I’d say a persons choice of software should really depend on a number of things. For example, if he/she is just getting started in UI/UX design now its probably better they use PS as it’s the industry standard and 90% of employers require a high level of competency in it. Where I live (Dublin, Ireland) I’ve never seen a UI/UX design job that asked for FW as a requirement but 100% of them ask for PS and AI and now Sketch experience is in high demand. If a designer has 10 years experience and an extensive portfolio of high quality work then I think they can get away with using whatever software they like as they can show proven results. Personally I’m quite new to UI design, I mastered PS and now I’ve bought Sketch 3 as its been designed specifically for UI designers with all of the unnecessary tools and clutter removed.
PS. Mike, thanks to your course I can use FW so at least I have that skill if anyone ever needs it! Its a shame Adobe scrapped it as with a bit of TLC it could have been perfect!
@John – Good feedback John. What I’ve noticed over the years is that many jobs that I’ve applied for always require the basic Adobe Premium knowledge, PS, AI, Dreamweaver, etc. But many of them in the past never heard of Fireworks. I would land the job and explain to them why I use and love Fireworks and they would essentially fall in love as well. The prototyping features in Fireworks is by far my favorite (along with the ability to do everything else). But you do bring up some good points about PS, we should all be proficient in PS as well. But yes, it all comes down to what you enjoy and how you work best in which app.
@Kris – Agreed. I think every designer should use what they feel is best, but still be knowledgable on various apps if need be. But since FW is still available to designers in the Adobe Creative Suite, I say use it till they say you can’t use it anymore. Yes, the clickable prototyping is huge for me as well.
I think FW Bitmap editing features go underrated. The more I learn in PS about image editing I go to FW and can do much of the same thing(no it’s not ps). It just adds to the package.
I wont bother with another app until It either has everything FW has or once I cant complete a job with it. So far neither has happened. I have my eye on Gravit as they’re reaching out to the FW community for feedback, and core features.
There’s nothing like emailing a clickable prototype PDF to a client to play with.
I have used Fireworks since v4 … I have no plans to stop using it, Fireworks has all the features I need for prototyping and is a zillion times better for web graphics, ui design and wireframing than anything else out there. It is light years ahead in speed and ease of use over Photoshop and anyone who says Photoshop is better for web has not really explored Fireworks properly IMO … I don’t see any major changes that would mean I need to drop Fireworks and unless the landscape changes dramatically I expect to be using it for some years to come!!!