Announcing Shopify’s New Sketch Plugin: Polaris Telescope

Shopify’s design system, Polaris, helps us and everyone building for Shopify create apps that look and feel like they were designed by the same team. Today, we’re very excited to take Polaris one step further by introducing Polaris Telescope, Shopify’s first Sketch plugin. Polaris Telescope lets you search and view Polaris guidelines and code right within Sketch. In this article, we’ll cover: Why Polaris Telescope empowers you to create a great experience for merchants. Where to download and how to use this Sketch plugin. Why it will speed up your workflow, as well as your team’s.

Shopify’s design system, Polaris, helps us and everyone building for Shopify create apps that look and feel like they were designed by the same team. Building off an existing design language helps Shopify Partners create a great experience for all merchants.

In a previous article, we outlined how to get the most out of Polaris and take advantage of its component library and style guide to create apps that weave seamlessly into the interface.

The Polaris page holds Shopify’s design principles, language, visual elements, and components.

Today, we’re very excited to take Polaris one step further by introducing Polaris Telescope, Shopify’s first Sketch plugin.

Download Polaris Telescope

Integrate Polaris into Sketch

Polaris Telescope lets you search and view Polaris guidelines and code right within Sketch. You can think about it like a Polaris search engine:

1. Search for Polaris guidelines and components.

2. Access code snippets and speed up your development workflow by going from design to development right away.

Polaris Telescope acts like a window into Shopify’s best practices and UX rationale, making the design guidelines more accessible to you and your team.

You might also like: How to Use Polaris to Build an App UI in HTML or React.

Speed up your workflow

Having better access means no more switching back and forth between Sketch and the Polaris website in your browser, which can be tedious and distracting. 

Polaris Telescope keeps your workflow within one window. You’ll access the tools you need to build with a unified language and consistent feel, which helps merchants trust and adopt your apps.

For example, to create a banner you can easily search for its components and best practices.

Polaris Telescope acts like a window into Shopify’s best practices and UX rationale, making the design guidelines more accessible to you and your team.

Download, install, and use

To install Polaris Telescope:

1. Download the latest version and unzip the file.
2. Double click the .sketchplugin file to install it in Sketch.

Note: When updates are available, they will appear at the top right corner in Sketch.

For more helpful tools, check out our list of favorite Sublime text plugins.

Get started with Polaris Telescope

Whether you’re a designer, developer, or UX researcher, Polaris Telescope was designed to improve your workflow and help you get better results.

Rather than reinventing interface elements, free up your time to solve unique merchant challenges and develop the best experience for anyone navigating through the Shopify App Store.

Download Polaris Telescope