What to Learn After Adobe XD

Adobe XD is a versatile user experience design tool that lets users build and prototype web page designs. If you already know how to use Adobe XD, you might consider learning the most advanced theories behind User Experience Design and the basics of building webpages with HTML/CSS or JavaScript. We’ll cover these skills and programming languages below, so you have a clear understanding of what skill you want to tackle next.

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.

User Experience Design Fundamentals

User Experience design is an ever-changing field dedicated to using user data and behavior testing to better understand user behavior and build better websites. Closely related to the field of data science, XD users may benefit from UX/UI design training so that they will be more cognizant of the best practices for building accessible, memorable interfaces.

Noble’s UX and UI Design Certificate program offers students an opportunity to receive comprehensive user experience design training. This course will teach students how to conduct research and test web pages in order to collect usable data on user behavior. Then students will apply this research to their own interface designs to build a professional portfolio to take onto the job market.

HTML/CSS

One of the limitations of XD is that it is a design tool, not a coding tool. While users can make working prototypes on XD, to launch a live website, they will need a Web Developer to make that website a reality. To expedite this process, students who learn XD may also wish to learn a coding language like HTML/CSS.

For students with no coding experience, Noble’s Intro to HTML and CSS class is an ideal place to begin. This course offers an accelerated introduction to coding with HTML and CSS and lets students start building their own web pages within only a few hours of training. This course is a great introduction to the world of web development for users of XD who want to learn how to build something more than prototypes.

JavaScript

While HTML/CSS is the most fundamental coding language you can learn, it is also fairly limited in its scope. Adobe XD lets users build prototypes using complex, interactive elements that go far beyond the capabilities of a website that strictly uses HTML/CSS. For students who want to learn how to code advanced, interactive elements, JavaScript training may be right for them.

Once a student is comfortable with HTML/CSS, they should consider Noble's JavaScript for Front End. This class will train students in how to code interactive elements into their web pages using JavaScript. This will let students take the animated slideshows, image galleries, interactive text, and scrolling animations that they design in XD and make them a reality in JavaScript.

Key Insights

• Adobe XD is a powerful user experience design tool that lets users create interactive webpage prototypes for testing and iteration.
• Once a user has mastered XD, they may consider learning the skills necessary to become User Experience Designers or Web Developers.
• User Experience Designers work to collect data and test user behaviors to help web designers better understand how users interact with their web pages, teaching them how to make those pages more accessible, easy to navigate, and effective.
• XD can only build prototype web pages. To build a working webpage, users will need to learn how to code websites. Thus, XD users may wish to learn HTML/CSS (the backbone of modern web pages) and JavaScript (which allows them to add interactive elements like the ones that they will design in XD).
• No matter what skills a student wants to learn after completing their XD training, Noble has training options to help them take the next step.

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.