Digital design and marketing have been in a love affair for many years – and are now practically inseparable. Marketers, designers and developers work hand in hand building web and mobile products. And the ultimate success is impossible without a close alignment and collaboration between all three.

There has been however a huge gap between the three parties. Designers draw pictures. Developers write tons of code.

And marketers? They often sit idle waiting for the former two working. And when finally they have a look at the product – it often turns out being not exactly what the consumers wanted. It may look “right” – but it’s not how it works. Repeat the process.

Reason? – Our Design Tools Are Inadequate

Our design tools were built to create print images. Back in the times when feedback loop was fast and a single “product” took just hours, not days and weeks to create.

Modern, digital products no longer work this way. Developers need to know exactly how the product works and “feels” – not just how it looks. Designers must not write code and transform into the mystical “unicorns” – it’s not what they do best. And marketers must understand and be able to market the products before they’re even finished.

Phase – Reinventing Digital Design.

We got a chance to chat with Vlad, a co-founder of Phase – the new digital design tool that got announced last month. Phase aims to bridge that gap in the creation of digital products.

Vlad, so could you please tell us more about what Phase is?

Phase is a digital design tool. It enables you to create advanced interactions visually, without any limitations or writing code. We want to destroy the division between developers and designers, allowing the latter to create whole working digital products themselves.

Why is it so different?

All the previous design tools tried to “patch” some isolated problems in our design process. The result is that designers must now use 2, 3 or even 5 separate tools in their workflow.

In the dynamic digital world, it’s no longer enough to just design an image. Designers are tasked with designing how exactly the products must work. Code is one way to do that. Code is powerful and flexible – so let’s write code? In the creative process, however – code slows everything down. A lot.

Phase is all visual, and lets designers design fully working products. Phase 1.0 is going to let you import Sketch files and create advanced interactions. In the future versions, we will build full app previews, visual version control, real data, and export to code API (any platform and language/framework).  

So when is Phase getting released?

Phase 1.0 is going to see the world early this summer. We’ve now opened the beta waitlist. If you want to lay your hands on Phase beta – welcome to sign up on our website.

Finally, what are the people that stand behind Phase?

We are a small team still: six people, coming from five different countries and three continents. What unites us is the passion for design and software.

Thank you, Vlad! We’ll be looking forward to the release of Phase and further news on the product.