First off, I absolutely love the constraint and component system that Subform offers. Some basic things I feel like it should have though are things like a shapes panel (hitting enter is a little weird), snapping to the artboard and other elements, holding option/shift to affect resizing/moving elements similar to other design programs, and small things like closing the application without saving and prompting a warning. I guess it just feels very unnatural jumping in. When I started using Sketch coming from Adobe products, it was a very fluid movement and I felt at home and could start creating things right away. I understand this isn't an Adobe product or Sketch, but it seems like these are some foundational things a designer would expect to see. Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe it's still too early.
Basic design tool features similar to Sketch and Adobe
Definitely this. And also it is our job as backers to help shape the software so that when it does release, it is in a state that you likely discovered Sketch in; that is, highly usable for you, a designer.
Hey @ftntravis! Thanks for taking the time to experiment with Subform and share your thoughts.
Our emphasis so far has really been focusing on the elements that make Subform unique: the layout engine, components system, etc. These are novel and technically challenging problems—if we don't solve them well, Subform's not going to be useful.
That said, there's definitely a lot of polish that needs to make its way into Subform before a 1.0 release. Things that make Subform more usable. Feedback on this forum helps us illuminate and prioritize these issues.
So, in terms of priorities: we're first focusing on what makes Subform unique and better. As we dial in those features, we'll be adding in the features that are more-or-less solved problems, but important to have in everyday use—like better hotkeys, etc.
Thanks for being patient while Subform comes to life—and please keep sharing your feedback to help us make it better for your workflow.