Starting a new experiment

2025/03/03 #uiux

In my last blog entry I talked a bit about the idea of not getting too used to the tools you are using for your work and to remember to mix it up once in a while. Well, as it turns out that was perfect timing because today I am going to start a new experiment.

One of the tools I spent the most time working with in the last year or two definitely is Figma. Figma is a great tool for anyone doing work in the UI/UX-fields and I'm sure you are well aware of this product if you are reading this right now.

But in the last few years Figma maybe has gotten too big for its own good. It first replaced the old Adobe XD as the de facto industry standard and then almost got acquired by Adobe which has since stopped working on XD entirely.

So where does that leave us in terms of alternative full-featured interface design applications? There is of course my personal favorite Sketch which seems to try quite successfully to catch up to Figma in terms of features. I know Sketch well and have used it for several projects in the past. But there's one more I think is worth trying out: Penpot.

Penpot's UI seems to have taken some inspiration from Figma.

The special thing about Penpot is that it is free and open-source, both of which is pretty amazing for something as elaborate as this. I must admit that right know I don't know much about Penpot (other than that I unfortunately don't like their logo at all). But what they claim on their own page comparing Penpot to Figma seems pretty impressive and promising.

This whole post is about me announcing that I'm going to start a new experiment and try to use Penpot as my main interface design app for the month of March whenever possible. I will try to keep an open mind about it and I'm already curious what I'll think about Penpot as a Figma replacement after about a month of intense use and will report back right here on a future blog post.