Managing design assets and modular templates for an app

Question

Does anyone know or use any tool or application program that allows you to manage all design assets and its modular/page templates from your desktop or in a shared drive or even online?

I am currently working on an app where I manually collate and stored all of its assets in an organised way in a single folder. Each asset is directly link to all layered design or Photoshop files I've created for ease of tracking and sourcing.

However, apart from having a library of assets, I would ideally also like to have a library of all modules I've designed for the app. For instance, how the menu opens, how a loading page behaves, how a certain page behaves or present its content when it's expanded, or simply what does a certain page consist of, etc. This is not just for ease of taking over by another designer in case I am not at work, but also for stake holders to have access and see how certain section of the app works.

The only thing I can think of is for me to manually create a WordPress site. I just wonder if someone or a program already exists that offers this type of management feature/facility.

Answer 1

I’d recommend taking a look into Linked Smart Objects and use Dropbox, LayerVault, GitHub or something similar as a way to share the files and for version control.

Linked Smart Objects:

• https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/how-to/photoshop-linked-smart-objects.html
• http://bjango.com/articles/linkedsmartobjects/
• http://bjango.com/articles/photoshopcc2014smartobjects/

You’ve probably heard of them, but here’s some links for

• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com
• LayerVault: https://layervault.com
• GitHub: https://github.com
• Box: https://www.box.com/

Most of those services (all?) let you give a link to a colleague to show them a file. LayerVault also allows comments and markup for collaboration. I think all have version control (the only one I’m not sure about is Box).

Git doesn’t play to nicely with big PSDs, but if you’ve broken everything down into smaller files for use as Linked Smart Objects, it could work well.

If you’re after a way to show off prototypes, then there’s a few other services that you may find useful:

• Flinto: https://www.flinto.com
• InVision: http://www.invisionapp.com
• Pixate: http://www.pixate.com
• Framer: http://framerjs.com

Disclaimer: I wrote the two Bjango articles.

Answer 2

There's also Evernote vs Dropbox which has advanced organization and sorting capabilities.

If I understand the question, there are collaborative sites that have various degrees of control (security/confidentiality) for sharing databases of all sorts. PBWorks and Slack are two you might find beneficial. Most all database sites scale up from a basic package for free or very little.

Answer 3

you can use the layer comp option in photoshop.

Using layer comps, you can create, manage, and view multiple versions of a layout in a single Photoshop file - basically, you can create steps of the behaviour for your layout using layer comps so anyone can access and understand the flow order.

following is the link - https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/layer-comps.html