Friday , March 29 2024

New Software Spotlight: Adobe Experience Design (Adobe XD) CC (Preview)

Adobe has just released a new Mac-based program (English-only as of this release) of its new application design and prototyping tool, formerly known as Project Comet. Adobe Experience Design CC, also known as Adobe XD – the two names refer to the same product – was built from the ground up for speed and a fluid workflow. It will let you design, create wireframes, preview changes in real time, and share among group members for fast feedback. This first release is meant as a new beginning and the intent is to add new features every month.

Adobe XD
Adobe XD

When Project Comet was first introduced in October 2015 at Adobe MAX, it was an end-to-end platform on which designers could design, prototype, and share experiences for web and mobile. Now, with Adobe XD, they can reduce friction in workflow – design, prototyping, sharing, and finally exporting the results into product-ready assets.

The main purpose of Adobe XD is to bring to design a single tool, instead of a bunch of separate products for tackling designers’ problems in going from design to prototyping to sharing. By consolidating the design process into a single product usable on different screens and mobile devices, it should increase your productivity. With one base for many different artboards to manage pages, and multiple devices you can work on, you can consolidate your efforts into one stream.

Adobe XD
Adobe XD

The main features of Adobe XD include the ability to draw vector icons and artwork right in the application. You can choose border colors, thickness, and fill colors; apply shadows; and more. You can design for specific software systems such as iOS, Google Material, and Microsoft Windows. You can add stylized text and refine your designs.

As I said before you can have multiple artboards representing both different screens on the same device, or different devices altogether. These can be for web, tablet, phone, and even watch devices. If you want you can select items in your design and replicate them horizontally or vertically as many times as you want. Your styles and spacing stay intact.

Adobe XD
Adobe XD

You can preview your prototype and even record it to a .MOV file that can be shared with your group or stakeholders. You can add interactions to see how users will react to your design. You can also switch between prototype and design without ever leaving the app. The application is integrated with Photoshop and Illustrator so you can use your assets directly. When you are ready, you can export your production-ready artwork.

I think that Adobe XD is a great start to the design process. It has a lot of promise and potential to be a great tool. To be better it needs to be tied into the Creative Cloud, which no doubt will happen soon. Until then, if you are a designer, I highly recommend looking into Adobe XD, especially with the current free preview.

About T. Michael Testi

Photographer, writer, software engineer, educator, and maker of fine images.

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