[HN Gopher] InVision design collaboration services shutdown
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       InVision design collaboration services shutdown
        
       Author : devgoth
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2024-01-04 16:42 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.invisionapp.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.invisionapp.com)
        
       | robg wrote:
       | What do you suggest instead?
        
         | TechRemarker wrote:
         | Figma is essentially what destroyed InVision so that is where
         | most everyone flocked to for collaboration.
        
           | loceng wrote:
           | I think Sketch is maintaining a foothold, no? Avoids forever
           | monthly recurring fees, even if they've not caught up yet
           | offerings wise.
        
             | patchorang wrote:
             | They are not. If I was interviewing somewhere (I work as a
             | UX designer) and they were still on Sketch, that be a
             | pretty big red flag for me. Using Sketch today would be
             | like using Illustrator during the Sketch era.
        
               | roldie wrote:
               | It's funny, I also consider it a red flag if they're
               | still using Sketch. However, personally, I still want
               | Sketch to succeed and return to being a viable option
        
               | loceng wrote:
               | You work for big corporate or?
        
         | karaterobot wrote:
         | Figma. InVision was always doomed, because it suffered from the
         | problem that Figma did everything it did, plus a lot more, and
         | it did it all better, with no step where you had to sync
         | between the two apps, and you could do it with real-time
         | collaboration, and...
        
       | webwielder2 wrote:
       | To paraphrase Krusty the Clown, "one day you're the hottest name
       | in the design industry, the next you're some schmo working in a
       | box factory."
        
         | jamestimmins wrote:
         | The speed at which Figma replaced InVision was truly something
         | to behold.
         | 
         | I'd love to read a behind-the-scenes story of what it was like
         | at InVision during this time.
        
           | ayewo wrote:
           | IIRC InVision was losing momentum to Marvel app before Figma
           | became popular.
           | 
           | Not sure how Marvel app is faring.
        
           | dannyw wrote:
           | I remember sketch!
        
             | eruleman wrote:
             | the whole Sketch -> Invision -> Figma pipeline was quick --
             | never seen incumbents displaced so quickly.
        
             | mikeryan wrote:
             | We will always be beholden to Sketch for finally killing
             | off Photoshop as a primary app UI tool. Dear god I'm so
             | glad the days of Layer Comps are behind us.
        
             | lelandfe wrote:
             | I still remember Bohemian Coding from their Fontcase
             | days... those guys sure could make Mac apps.
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Is InVision also exiting the forum software area?
        
         | Andrex wrote:
         | That's a blast from the past...
        
         | edgyquant wrote:
         | This is what I thought it was as well
        
         | istvanp wrote:
         | That's a different company (Invision Power Services). This post
         | refers to the design collaboration software company
         | (InVisionApp).
        
           | codetrotter wrote:
           | The most mindblowing thing is that they still exist.
           | 
           | https://invisioncommunity.com/
           | 
           | I thought everyone just installed cracked pirate copies
           | ("nulled", as it was called) of IPB. How are they making
           | money? Who is paying them for their software?
        
             | throwup238 wrote:
             | cPanel most likely.
        
             | Animats wrote:
             | It's software as a service now. They host the forums.
        
             | benbristow wrote:
             | Running web software without updates from some unknown
             | source doesn't sound like a very good idea. Lots of stories
             | out there of communities using "nulled" software which got
             | hacked because of a backdoor left in.
        
       | paradox460 wrote:
       | Can't say I'm sad to see them go. They always felt like a
       | glorified power-point deck to me, and I hated getting mockups and
       | designs in InVision, because there was no in-built redline like
       | Zeppelin and Figma now have, and the designers I worked with
       | often "forgot" to add said redlines. Giving me the raw PSD/AI
       | file was preferable
        
         | esafak wrote:
         | Do redlines here refer to size measurements, or suggested
         | revisions?
         | 
         | https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/781354942292031141
        
           | throwup238 wrote:
           | Hopefully not the discriminatory real estate practice!
        
       | jwithington wrote:
       | so this is invision shutting down right? i couldn't really tell.
        
         | sciurus wrote:
         | Yes. From the FAQ at https://support.invisionapp.com :
         | 
         | > InVision will fully shut its doors shortly after December 31,
         | 2024
        
         | aethanol wrote:
         | Ha yeah same, this announcement is confusing.
        
           | kokanee wrote:
           | Don't worry everyone, it's only the design collaboration
           | services
        
       | _the_inflator wrote:
       | I remember when we managed to add InVision to the internal list
       | of approved apps in a bank after years of struggle with CISO, and
       | the moment it was available internally, Figma was suddenly the
       | hot stuff, and no one wanted to stick with InVision.
       | 
       | InVision was good, but Figma hit hard.
        
       | mooreds wrote:
       | Does mean the entire company is shutting down? It is unclear from
       | the post.
        
         | sciurus wrote:
         | Yes. From the FAQ at https://support.invisionapp.com :
         | 
         | > InVision will fully shut its doors shortly after December 31,
         | 2024
        
       | martinald wrote:
       | Seems extremely poor they couldn't have built a bulk export tool.
       | The FAQ says documents have to be exported one by one.
       | 
       | Surely wouldn't take that long to create one and would make it a
       | lot less painful for users who have bug archives of old stuff
       | there they may want to keep.
        
         | nerdponx wrote:
         | If you were the decisionmaker in this situation, would you
         | build it?
        
           | djur wrote:
           | Why wouldn't I?
        
             | kstrauser wrote:
             | Role-playing their CFO, "because if we had money for
             | projects that don't earn us money, we wouldn't be closing
             | down."
             | 
             | Role-playing an enterprise customer, "we'll pay you through
             | the end of the year if and only if you mail us a hard drive
             | of our content. And if not, we'll pay you through 5PM
             | today. Sue us if you don't like it."
        
       | kstrauser wrote:
       | > _Is there a bulk export option?_
       | 
       | > Unfortunately, a bulk export is not available, so you'll need
       | to export each document one by one. Please note that our Support
       | team will not be able to export documents on your behalf.
       | 
       | Ouch.
        
       | jcomis wrote:
       | As a designer, it was amazing to how badly invision was unable to
       | move beyond their original simple prototyping platform. They were
       | way ahead of the curve when they began and simply never did
       | anything useful beyond that.
       | 
       | What was even more wild was watching them clearly dump money into
       | gimmicks and sales over their product. I worked at a large agency
       | during invisions heyday and they were constantly pitching all
       | levels of employees on whatever their new thing was, typically
       | with sales people flying out for in person visits, buying whole
       | office lunches, etc. I prob sat through a dozen pitches in a year
       | where literally nothing about their product fundamentally
       | improved or changed. People who had no idea what a design system
       | was would pitch a half baked "design system manager" or similar,
       | but were unable to really talk to any depth about design systems
       | or answer questions about gaps in their product. It was very
       | clear they would not succeed.
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-04 23:00 UTC)