Developers: We’re unveiling a new, more personalized Inspect

One of the biggest problems product teams have is getting their ideas held in InVision into a live environment for their customers. Developers don’t go into a new build intending to disregard design requests, but it’s easy for those requirements to get lost in translation when designers and developers are “handing off” between different tools, documentation, and terminology.

The perfect solution to this friction point is getting developers involved in the design process as early and seamlessly as possible—to make sure that everything that is designed can feasibly be built. Historically, this collaboration has required good habit formation and excellent communication skills (which is always easier said than done).

We are committed to making design to development translation a whole lot easier. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve built new developer-focused features in Inspect that solve this exact problem—and these updates are live today!

Sketch library names in Inspect

When making prototypes, it’s pretty common that designers are storing the patterns they use most often in Sketch libraries. So with our latest Inspect update, whenever a developer Inspects a prototype using the Craft plug-in sync, they’ll see Sketch library patterns clearly marked, saving time and preventing redundancies.

Customized variables

In addition to Sketch libraries, we’ve been working a lot to expose and connect developer and designer’s language in this release. A new feature takes this pattern-matching method further and allows each developer to enter their own naming convention in addition to the designer’s input in Inspect and share that with their whole team.

For example, if a designer uses a specific color in their design, a developer can now take that color and specify it to the naming convention in a code repository. Not only will this lead to easier builds, but it will also free up time developers previously used to hunt through documentation.

Improved integrations with Jira and Confluence

Another workflow-smoothing bonus is the addition of embedding live prototypes into integrated Jira tickets and Confluence pages. Without ever leaving Jira or Confluence, developers using Cloud, Server, and Data Center will be able to navigate the prototype, get measurements and other data in Inspect, and comment back to their design team. Read more about the announcement here.

All wrapped in a new UI

In addition to better-matched designer/developer interactions, the Inspect user interface will debut a more modern look that better fits its primary users—front-end developers. Some updates include:

• Improved flagging for downloadable assets
• Improved code panel with better syntax highlighting
• New keyboard shortcuts (and legend)
• Easier selection of screen elements and layer tree navigation
• More measurement options, including text cap to baseline
• New personalizations and adjustments to the Inspect UI

These new updates are just some of many developer-focused improvements we’re unleashing to customers this year. To make sure you’re on top of all of the latest product improvements and announcements, make sure you sign up for the Inside Design newsletter (and are using Inspect.)