Quick-Launch Your Design Apps on Mac: Figma, Sketch, Photoshop

Design work uses a small, steady toolkit: a design app such as Figma or Sketch, an image editor such as Photoshop, a browser for references, and a few folders. On a Mac these sit in the same Dock as your calendar and chat apps, so you look for the same handful of icons every time you start working. The fix is to give the toolkit its own always-visible place.

Short answer: the best app for quick-launching your design tools, in my opinion as its developer, is Jetty: it adds extra docks to the edges of your screen, each with tabs of one-click tiles for apps, files, folders, websites and Shortcuts. It is a $9.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later.

Disclosure: I build Jetty.

Why the Dock does not fit design work

The macOS Dock is one flat row. Every app has the same rank, whether you use it all day or once a month. There is no way to say "these four apps are my design toolkit" and keep them together. You either pin everything and end up with a crowded strip, or you remove the tools you need less often and search for them with Spotlight.

You can cut the clutter on the Dock itself. Control-click an icon, choose Options, then Remove from Dock. Our guide to removing apps from the Dock covers it. That helps, but it does not give your design tools a home of their own.

For the whole creative workflow, see organize your creative workflow with tabs of app tiles; the same idea for coding is in a developer app launcher for Mac.

Build a design bar with Jetty

Jetty is a separate bar that you place on any edge of the main screen: top, bottom, left or right. It can also float, so you can drag it anywhere. Here is a simple setup:

1. Create a bar and add a tab called "Design".
2. Drag Figma, Sketch or Photoshop from Finder onto the bar. Each becomes a tile with its own app icon.
3. Drag your assets folder and your brand folder onto the bar too. A folder tile opens a popup that lists what is inside, and you click an item to open it.
4. Add a website tile for the reference site or mood board you use most.
5. Add a second tab, for example "Client", for the mail and chat apps that belong to a different part of the day.

Every tile opens one item with one click. Nothing opens a whole set at once, so starting a design session is a few clicks in the same place instead of a search for each app.

Details that help in daily use

• Tabs keep sets apart. The tab strip appears when a bar has more than one tab, and you can rename or remove a tab with a right-click.
• Tile size and rows are yours to set. Pick Small, Medium or Large tiles, and use one to six rows on a top or bottom bar, or columns on a side bar.
• Labels and icons. Show or hide labels. A tile can use the app's own icon, an SF Symbol or an emoji.
• It stays put. Bars float above normal windows and stay on screen when you switch desktops (Spaces).
• Menu-bar item. The Jetty icon in the menu bar lists your bars so you can show, hide or edit them. You launch from the bars themselves.

Jetty does not change or replace the macOS Dock, and it does not search. If you would rather type an app name, Spotlight does that already.

What Jetty does not do

Bars sit on the main screen. There is no keyboard trigger for a bar, and no window previews or running-app indicators. If you need any of those, use the tools macOS already gives you alongside it.

How we checked

Jetty's details on this page were checked against the app's source code and its App Store listing on 2026-10-10 and are collected on the facts page; I build Jetty. For built-in macOS steps, Apple's Mac User Guide is the reference for your version of macOS.

FAQ

How do I quick-launch Figma, Sketch and Photoshop on a Mac?

Put them on a bar in Jetty, or keep them in the Dock if you use just a few apps. In Jetty you drag each app from Finder onto a bar, and each one opens with a single click.

Can I keep design files and folders next to my design apps?

Yes. Jetty tiles can be apps, files, folders, websites or Shortcuts, so your assets folder and brand files can sit on the same bar as your apps.

Does Jetty replace the Dock?

No. Jetty adds its own bars and leaves the macOS Dock as it is. You change the Dock itself in System Settings > Desktop & Dock.

Can one click open my whole design toolkit?

Not in Jetty directly, because each tile opens one item. A Shortcut tile can run an Apple Shortcut that you build in the Shortcuts app to open several apps; see launching app groups on Mac.

Get Jetty on the Mac App Store. $9.99 one-time purchase, macOS 14 or later.