How Long Does it Take to Learn Adobe XD?

Like many aspiringWeb Designers, you might want to learn Adobe XD but worry that it will take too much time. Adobe XD is an accessible tool that is built to ease users into the program. New users will only need minimal training to use the basic features of the program. However, users who want to master the program to use it professionally may find themselves spending months training. Of course, this depends on several factors. Keep reading to learn about how you can learn Adobe XD and some resources to help speed the process along.

What is Adobe XD?

Adobe XD is Adobe’s vector-based user interface design tool. XD was designed to address Photoshop’s and Illustrator’s inadequacies as web design tools, and as such, XD is built entirely with user interface design in mind. Users can build vector-based wireframes for websites and share them with other users as functional prototypes of webpages, allowing users to test their own web designs for future iterations. Links, animations, voice responsiveness, and automated scrolling features let users model working websites with complex and interactive features, and collaborative tools allow teams of designers to work together on building web designs.

Adobe XD is one of the newest additions to the Adobe Creative Cloud, and like most Creative Cloud programs, it is designed with heavy Creative Cloud integration in mind. Users can import Photoshop and Illustrator designs and assets as parts of their UI designs, and Adobe InDesign is an ideal tool for building sketches of web pages. Unlike other Adobe Creative Cloud software, XD is still a relatively new tool, meaning that it doesn’t have the decades of iteration and releases that Photoshop and its ilk have received. This means that updates are frequently adding new tools, but it also means that the program hasn’t become an unchallenged industry-standard yet.

Adobe XD is an ideal skill for web designers and UX/UI developers to learn as a dedicated web interface design tool. The ease with which it allows users to build working prototypes of web pages makes the process of testing and iterating on designs faster and more efficient than ever.

Read more about what Adobe XD is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Adobe XD?

Adobe XD is a versatile page layout design application that lets users build realistic, working prototypes of web layouts for testing and collaboration. The software lets users take basic shapes, designs, and applications and build them into vibrant and memorable web page designs. The program then lets users transform those designs into working prototypes within the application so that they may test and update their designs in real-time.

The ease with which Adobe XD allows creatives to build and test designs means that it is incredibly easy to produce a prototype, share it with other users to test the prototype's functionality, and receive feedback from those tests to return to the original design for iteration. This ease assures that designers aren’t having to undertake long, arduous processes every time they want to test a new iteration of a design, meaning that they can test more frequently and with more diverse groups of users.

Creatives who are interested in entering the world of web design and user experience design will greatly benefit from learning user interface design software like Adobe XD. Anyone already familiar with the Adobe Creative Cloud benefits even more from this training. The program is built to help users build the kinds of prototypes they were already using in older programs like Photoshop.

Average Time it Takes to Learn Adobe XD

With a creative program like Adobe XD, the answer will largely depend on how advanced they feel their training will need to be. Since there are no technical prerequisites to learning XD, students who are familiar with design tools will be able to pick up the program relatively quickly, becoming comfortable experimenting with the program in a matter of a few days. However, students seeking professional training to enter into a UX/UI Design career may find that learning Adobe XD can take months or even years of hands-on training.

Other Factors

There are a few other factors that can impact the amount of time that it takes to learn XD. As a part of the Creative Cloud, knowledge of other Adobe programs can be helpful for speeding up the process. Additionally, students may find it easier to learn Adobe XD with the help of live training.

Creative Cloud Knowledge

Adobe designed XD to fill a gap in the functionality of other Creative Cloud programs, so it is heavily integrated with its other design software. This means that students who already know how to use other Adobe products will be able to pick up XD faster.

Live training

One way to learn Adobe XD more quickly is to enroll in a professional training course and take advantage of live instruction. These courses, taught by industry experts, give students the ability to interface directly with their instructors and ask questions and receive feedback on their work. These courses range in length from an afternoon to months-long bootcamps. They also often have night and weekend sessions available for students with less time available during the working week.

Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost

Students looking to learn Adobe XD may find the prospect intimidating, mainly because it is a much newer program than many of the more firmly established, industry-standard Adobe products. Despite its frequent updates, since Adobe XD came out of beta, it has become a common program used by UX and UI Designers, partly because it is fairly easy to pick up and learn. While more advanced features may prove harder to master, students can generally anticipate finding the program relatively approachable before ramping up into more complex designs.

There aren’t any technical prerequisites to learning Adobe XD, but there are a few things that new users should consider making themselves familiar with before they begin trying to learn the program. Students should be familiar with the basics of their computer platform, and if they are planning to use Adobe XD professionally, they should have an understanding of the basics of user interface/user experience design and a sense of where their designs will be used, as to best optimize them during testing.

Adobe XD is a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of software tools, meaning that to use the programs, users will need to purchase a Creative Cloud subscription and pay a fee based on their subscription package. There is a free trial available, but once it has expired, users will only be able to access XD while subscribed to the Creative Cloud.

Read about how difficult it is to learn Adobe XD.

Watch a Free Adobe XD Online Course

There are a handful of free courses and tutorials available for students who want to try out Adobe XD before committing to a long-term training course. Adobe offers a seven-day free trial of XD, during which time users can experiment with the full program and utilize Adobe’s in-app training tools.

During this free trial, users can take advantage of the free services offered by Noble. Noble offers a free Intro to Adobe XD tutorial video, which can be paired with Noble’s Intro to UI Design and Intro to UX Design recordings to give students a foundation in both XD as a program and the basics of designing applications for web users. Noble’s resources blog also offers students articles and interviews to help ease students into Adobe XD.

These free tutorials won’t replace professional training for students looking to make a career out of UX/UI design. Still, they will provide students with the basic training they need to feel more comfortable with XD before enrolling in a professional training program. In addition, the free trial period can be lined up with a shorter professional training course, such as InDesign in a Day, to assure that a student can access the program.

Read about more free Adobe XD videos and online tutorials.

Learn Adobe XD with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble offers a number of online options for Adobe XD training. For novice users, the Adobe XD in a Day course provides students with training in the program's basic features, such as how to build a simple wireframe layout and collaborate with other designers. This course is designed to give students the required knowledge to learn more advanced XD skills at their own pace. Adobe XD Advanced offers students this advanced training, building on existing XD skills to teach students how to use scroll groups, animations, and sound effects to create dynamic and complex design prototypes. These courses can be taken together in the Adobe XD Bootcamp.

Noble also offers career-focused training through their Digital Design Certificate and Web Design Certificate programs. These immersive courses teach students the skills they will need in future careers as Digital Designers and Web Designers. The Digital Design Certificate program focuses more on web design's creative and visual side, teaching students how to design assets in Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign to be imported into XD for use in a web layout. The Web Design Certificate focuses on the technical side of the field, teaching students how to code in HTML/CSS and JavaScript to turn their designs into functioning web interfaces.

These certificate programs teach students who want to enter the UX/UI design industry. They come with one-on-one career mentoring sessions and provide industry-recognized certificates of completion, confirming to prospective employers that graduates have received professional training in several important career skills. In addition, because they are hands-on courses, students will participate in practical design exercises and build their own sample designs or working prototypes to place in a sample design portfolio when they enter the job market.

Key Insights

• Adobe XD is Adobe’s dedicated user experience web design tool. It allows users to build wireframe layouts for webpages and digital interfaces and create working prototypes for testing and collaboration.
• Students can learn the basics of Adobe XD fairly quickly, often in a little under a day of professional training, but it will take longer to learn for students looking to pick up more advanced skills with the program.
• Adobe offers a seven-day free trial of XD, during which time new users can take advantage of free training resources and tutorials offered by both Adobe and Noble Desktop.
• Noble offers options for live professional instruction that can be built to fit a student’s schedule. Noble offers both introductory and advanced courses in Adobe XD and more career-focused, time-intensive courses that combine XD training with other graphic design and coding educations.