Introduction
How many times a day do you open an app on your phone or bring up a website on a tablet or laptop? Yeah, it’s a lot, and all of those digital entities were created using design software like Adobe XD. XDlets you bring your imagination to life.
What is Adobe XD?
Adobe XD (the XD stands for Experience Design) is a design tool based on vector graphics that allows you to create digital designs for everything from mobile apps to websites. XD is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud and works well with other CC apps. There are many repeating features that make your workflow move faster, and XD also includes collaboration features that make it easy to share and test prototypes. You can run XD on both macOS and Windows and preview your work on your mobile phone.
What Can Adobe XD Do For You?
Whether you are creating an app or building a website, Adobe XD can take you from the planning stage through sharing your digital designs. You can create wireframes and prototypes and it is easy to work collaboratively with others. XD has many useful design tools that allow you to copy shapes and graphics from one artboard to another. You can begin a project in Photoshop or Illustrator and move it to XD because they are all part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Finally, it is easy to pass your design to developers when you are finished.
The UX/UI Design Process
While UX Designers work with people quite a bit, UI Designers are more on their own. UI Designers focus on the visual aspect of how the website or app looks and if it does what it is supposed to. The UX Designer hands off the blueprint for the product to the UI Designer who is responsible for the final look of the product. They use software programs like Adobe XD to create websites and applications that are easy and enjoyable to use. The software also helps UI Designers build different levels of prototypes and test them to see how successful they are. The UI Designer is ultimately responsible for upholding the company brand in the design. Finally, XD makes it easy for the design to be passed on to Web Developers and other members of the design team.
Essential Features of Adobe XD
There is no need to learn to code with Adobe XD. The features are easy to use and they make your workflow move faster. You can run XD on both MacOS and Windows.
XD is organized into three modes: Design, Prototype, and Share
Design Features
- 3D designs, rotate or move objects, add depth
- Repeatable components, choose a design, and copy it throughout the project.
- Changes are made automatically across pages.
- Choose different states like hovering or toggling buttons.
- Create grids and duplicate them.
- Easy content resizing feature.
- Import from Photoshop, Illustrator, and Sketch.
- Blur objects and backgrounds and combine layers to create effects.
- Thousands of fonts available in Creative Cloud.
- Easily change screen size.
Prototype Features
- Add motion to your designs with animation and videos.
- Create micro-interactions and motion graphics effects.
- Add sound effects to your design and create voice commands.
- Make areas of your design scroll or loop.
Sharing Features
- Create interactive prototypes and share them with the developers.
- Designs can be sent as an email attachment, in Slack, or in Jira.
- You can include snippets of code for the designers to work with.
UI Kits and Templates
XD also includes a collection of UI kits and templates designed for different platforms and systems. This can save a lot of time when starting a design. You can choose UI kits for Apple, Google, IBM, Amazon Alexa, and more. Templates are available to help you streamline your workflow with collaboration aids, wireframing sketches, color choice systems, and presentation setups, just to name a few.
History of Adobe XD
Adobe XD was first known as “Project Comet” when Adobe announced it in 2015. A beta version was released for Mac on March 14, 2016, and a Windows version came out on December 13, 2016. XD was out of the testing stage in October of 2017.
How to purchase Adobe XD
Adobe offers a monthly subscription to XD with a 7-day free trial available before purchase. This allows you to try it out before deciding if you want to pay for it. The monthly cost of an annual subscription is $9.99. You can also get the full Creative Cloud, which includes storage as well for $52.99. This gives you access to other useful Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, and more.
How to Learn Adobe XD
If you would like to learn how to use software like Adobe XD in order to switch to a career in UX design, one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for classes. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn XD, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a field like UX design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and will cover UX and UI design in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Conclusion
It’s easy to take Adobe XD classes and start a new career. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online Adobe XD courses and attend from anywhere. Find Adobe XD bootcamps in your area and get started in a new direction today.