Chris Messina

Play - The first native iOS design tool

by
Top Hunter

Play is a new approach to mobile product design that lets you design, prototype, and collaborate directly from your iPhone and iPad. Experience your design as you create it, while taking full advantage of native iOS features to bring your product to life.

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Fede Sanchez
Morning! I'm Fede, part of Play's design team. I fell in love with prototyping a few years ago, I've tried every prototyping tool, but when I saw Play's launch video, I was amazed and knew I wanted to be part of this dream team. I genuinely believe Play is the future of design. And I've never had more fun at work than right now. We are also here to help you learn it, we will support, create and keep improving the app. Thank you!
Meenank Minnu
@0db8_ are you the same notion consultant, craft promoter, domestika course fede Sanchez? All the best for your product!
Fede Sanchez
@superminnu Haha yeah! 2022 has been a busy year!
Dan LaCivita
Dan LaCivita
@0db8_ @sbadaoui Thank you!
Dan LaCivita
Hello Product Hunt! 👋 This is Dan and I’m one of the co-founders of Play. I’m excited to tell you more about the new design and prototyping tool we have been working on the past couple of years! 📱Play is a modern product design tool that was born out of a need we experienced when designing mobile products in the previous company we were at. We found that while vector drawing tools play a role in today’s workflow, there are a number of limitations, especially when designing mobile products. 😩 Some of the pain points we're working to address with Play are the limitations in our traditional tools' ability to create high fidelity, native interactions, the constant need to develop hacks and workarounds to recreate native iOS UI, ignoring many real-world guidelines of product design which make collaborating with engineers challenging, and lets not forget the endless context switching from desktop to the phone, relying on mirror apps that only emulate the native app experience. 💡We saw these pain points as an opportunity and took a different approach when building Play. We started with the medium you’re designing for—the phone—and imagined a design platform that used the phone as an input device. This opened up a world of new opportunities! 😎 Here are some of the benefits of Play and what makes it unique: ✨ 1. Design with real iOS materials. Use the same library of native elements and gestures that Xcode offers, without writing any code. Live maps, input text fields, haptics, switches, pickers, steppers, blur effects, UIMenu, and native gestures are all at your fingertips in Play. ✨ 2. No more simulations and spaghetti artboards. What you create in Play is rendered with the same technology as a finished native iOS app. You have access to gestures like pan, drag, advanced scroll triggers and much more that aren't possible in other tools. ✨ 3. Experience your design as you create it. Unlike traditional design tools that require you to context switch and simulate the mobile experience, Play is the first tool to make contextual design for mobile possible. Design from both iOS and iPad. ➡️ How can I use Play Today? Today, Play is free to use for your iPhone and iPad, where you can work seamlessly across both platforms. You can start designing from scratch or import your existing design components from Figma. Invite team members, collaborate, and share prototypes that are previewed as a real native app. 📲 Download Play: https://apps.apple.com/app/id147... 🎥 YouTube for tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/c/create... 📖 Support Site: https://learn.createwithplay.com/ 👋 Discord: https://discord.com/invite/C8jwY... 🕸 Website: https://www.createwithplay.com ➡️ What’s on our roadmap? We’ll be making some exciting announcements in the coming weeks but the team is working hard on new Play platforms and new ways for engineers to be brought into the design process. And of course, we’ve got a lot of exciting new things rolling out for iOS and iPad, from spring and bounce animations to new Swift Charts and much more! ❤️ A big thank you to all our early users for your continued support and feedback! Thank you to Chris Messina for hunting us as well. Our team has poured their heart and soul into this product. It is an ambitious vision and we're excited for you to give Play a try. Looking forward to hearing your questions and comments! —Dan
Anastasya Dmitrenko
it's a game changer I will definitely try it
Dan LaCivita
@anastasya_dmitrenko Reach out with any questions!
Prakhar Shivam
Congrats to the team! I remember the time when I first discovered just the landing page of Play and was blown away by the ways in which its possibilities were presented visually. When I tried out the product, my initial reaction got solidified more. Looking forward to creating mini-apps and interactions.
Alex Greene
@prakharshivam Fantastic! We'd love to see what you create when you have something to share! What are you most excited to build in Play?
Prakhar Shivam
@alexg473 A simple app for creating and sharing vertical stories, meme-betting app and a few other mini apps.
Harcourt Allen
@alexg473 @prakharshivam Cool! We'd love to see your results. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Antonio Langella
I know lot of people who cannot wait to use that, nice product ! good luck for the launch
Alex Greene
@antonio_langella That's so great to hear! Tell them to reach out if they want a demo / walkthrough for themselves or their teams!
Adrián de Bustos
An incredible product focused on developing your creativity. It changes the concept of design turning into a “play”. Designing magically from your device is a revolutionary experience. A game changer without any doubt. 🚀🚀
Fede Sanchez
@adridebustos @michael_sieb Thank you both for the nice words!
Dragos Popescu
Stoked for this approach, looking forward to try it!
Alex Greene
@drgs We can't wait to hear what you think! Reach out once you've spent some time with Play 🤘
José Alvarez
It is one of the best user experiences to design from a mobile screen. I highly recommend Play! 🤩
Dan LaCivita
@josealvarezn Thanks, Jose! Your continued support and feedback is always appreciated :)
Alex Greene
@josealvarezn Thanks José, that means a lot! Designing in the context of your iPhone screen is incredibly fast; Have you seen our iPad app as well?
Dalem Nazim Abdelaziz
Good work!
Fede Sanchez
@dalem_nazim_abdelaziz Thank you so much!
Steve Ruiz
One of the best and most ambitiously design-led projects I’ve ever seen (and was lucky enough to briefly contribute to). There are so many fundamental “design tool” software features that have had to be re-imagined for these new form factors—like the objects list or properties panel—and this team managed to invent entirely new solutions that really work. It’s worth the ticket just to take the tour!
Sid
Play is one of the only reasons my iPad gets much use these days. Its such a clever tool that enables designers to think in context and with developer constraints. Is there a better way to design for mobile than on mobile?? Cheers to the team making this happen!
Alex Greene
@justanothersidd Thanks for much for the kind words Sid! We're so happy to hear Play is a core tool on your iPad!
Ryan Hoover
Impressive demo! You're also pushing the "norms" by making the creation tooling mobile first. Have you received pushback from designers that are used to doing this on a computer?
Sagar Kava
@rrhoover Do you think this app can become Figma for iOS?
Dan LaCivita
@rrhoover Thanks for the question! We believe there is still an important role for the desktop—we'll be making some exciting announcements on that soon! By starting with the phone it gave us the opportunity to rethink how to use the actual device we're designing for as more than an afterthought in the design process. We're really excited with how the iOS platform will work with other mediums (like desktop and tablet) to create a fresh approach for what a modern product design tool looks like.
Cem Bulut
Congrats on the launch guys! It seems really easy to use while the output is cool & impressive designs.
Fede Sanchez
Thanks for the nice words @cem_bulut
Catalina
Designing for mobile on your mobile device? As with all good design, it seems obvious once you see it. Will definitely try this.
Alex Greene
@todaviamal It's definitely surprises a lot of people how well it works on iOS!
Adam Wiggins
Dan & team's approach of "designing with real materials" is an inspiration!
Fede Sanchez
Thank you Adam! We love Muse too.
Giuseppe Avagliano
It's amazing! Congratulations!
Johan Steneros
Wow! This looks interesting. Will have a play around with it for sure.
Alex Greene
@jsteneros Thanks Johan, Bravemark looks like an interesting product as well! Different context, but we're thinking a lot about the handoff process at Play too. Let us know what you think after you've played around with Play a bit! We'd love to get your thoughts / feedback.
Johan Steneros
@alexg473 thx we are working hard to get the beta out for now. Will def get back to you when I have had a chance to play around with it.
deepu
Glad to see "mobile first products" are coming back. I've tried "Details pro" before which is similar product to this and it was lil buggish, I gave up the idea of building prototypes on portable devices. I am having high hopes on this 🤞 Kudos to the incredible team 🙌
Dan LaCivita
@pradeeb28 Reach out if you have any questions as you check out Play!
Kyler Phillips
Excited to see this out in the world, congrats on the launch team!
Tashawn Jones
I was lucky enough to test this years ago in the early stages and almost everything I wanted to be improved on the Play team delivered. Congrats on the launch guys!
Alex Greene
@tashawnjones_ Thanks Tashawn! Mind sharing what else is on your list of desired improvements that we can take a look at?