Over the last couple years, I have written articles on various topics and addressed various queries that people want to know. Somewhere in my blog, I talked about how UI & UX are becoming integral parts of the design process.
While talking about the same, one of my mates asked me what in reality these UI and UX designers do? What makes them the ‘Other Category’ designers?
Answering to her question, I said, there’s a tremendous change in the definition of designer. We no longer consider a normal person who creates graphics a designer, It has gone beyond that. Designers, today have become very specific regarding their designs and they now create what people will love to see.”
UI/UX Designers at work
And that is what UI and UX designers do. They create an interface of the application that people will love to use. User friendly approach, simple navigation, brilliant colors, readable text, enough white space and every other element that makes an application good, falls under the UI and UX design field.
These designers work from the scratch and turn the wireframes into something realistic and tangible. Now, the question arises: are there any special tools available to them? The answer will be yes. Just like graphic designers have Photoshop and Illustrator as their sidekicks, UI/UX designers also have similar tools which allow them to create different dynamic prototypes, wireframes and end products.
Some of the famous UI designing tools that are used widely across the world by professionals are Figma, Sketch, Fluid UI, etc.
While Adobe was already ruling the digital design industry with its prominent tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and Premiere Pro, it has added a new kid to the block, which in no time has become a favorite tool of UI/UX designers around the world- Adobe XD.
The Release of Adobe XD
In 2016, they launched a new application in the industry- Adobe Experience Design (Adobe XD) it was like the application was solely developed for two reasons-
- First, to, as Adobe says, “Elevate Your Experience & second with a motive to surpass and overpower the then industry leader, Sketch.
Why did designers need Adobe XD?
The entire generation of designers grew up using Photoshop to design the UI of applications but the problem arises when both designers and Adobe felt that an application like Photoshop is never built while keeping UI designers in mind.
It was then they started working upon the solution of this issue and came up with their new application, XD.
Adobe XD came with the mission
The mission to simplify and ease the cumbersome designing tasks for UI and UX designers. For Mac users it wasn’t something new because they already had a Sketch app in their team but the ease that XD gave them made even Sketch users use this application.
Adobe XD is an all-in-one solution by Adobe that covers designing, wireframing, prototyping, and sharing. Whether you want to design for the web or creating a mobile app you can do all with this single application.
Collaboration becomes easy
This software offers you a great amount of freedom to integrate with our cloud based applications. You can preview your designs anytime using the mobile app available for both iOs and Android platform
Collaboration is easy, and it integrates with other Creative Cloud apps. Plus you can preview your designs on mobile via the iOS and Android apps.
Design at a speed of light
In too little time XD became everyone’s favorite. While saying about the success of XD, Adobe said that the core motivation to design this application is to give power to designers to ‘design at the speed of light’ making designing hassle free in every manner they can.
In UI designing, one of the most common traps that UI designers fall into is they fall in love with their first raw idea and do not leave any space for exploring enough options and concepts.
XD is amazingly and tremendously fast. It has allowed designers to explore more efficiently and work upon several ideas at once.
Features that make XD favorite!
Here are the features of Adobe XD which makes it unique and different as well as easy to use: –
1. Repeat Grid Feature
It has this feature called Repeat Grid; this will help you copy the grids that you made. The copied data will have the same configuration.
2. Interactive Prototype
The amazing feature of Adobe XD is that you can show the interactivity of one page with the other pages. This is something which Photoshop users can never even think off.
3. Assets Panel
This new update by adobe in the year 2017 can change everything in a click. Even if a single change is done in assets panel, then all the assets in that panels follows that command.
4. Advanced UI kit
There is advanced set of UIs that can be configured with the Adobe XD and you just need to drag and drop those UIs as you want. Its UI kit includes, radio button, checkboxes, etc.
5. Price and licensing
The Beta version of this is free. You just need to login using Adobe ID. But for additional features you need to buy the premium.
Other Features of Adobe XD
Unlike Photoshop, Adobe XD provides the tutorial for the beginners. The key features that are required to start working on the software are stated below:
1. Shortcuts: It is always good to know the shortcuts, as they make the speed of work faster.
- Ctrl + V – Used to Select
- Ctrl + T – To add Text
- Ctrl + R – To form select rectangle tool
- Ctrl + E – To select ellipse tool
- Ctrl + L – To select Line tool
- Ctrl + P – To select Pen tool
- Ctrl + A – To select Artboard tool
2. With few clicks the content can be copied with proper alignment and configuration.
3. Make an artboard with just a tap and adjust size later on.
4. Adjust and insert images within no time, which used to be cumbersome task in PS.
5. Bring your template to LIVE by the use of Prototype feature.
6. Within 2-3 clicks make your template scroll and hence dynamic.
7. Change styling of all the artboard with just few clicks.
8. There is a special feature to make the header of your template fixed.
9. Sharing is no longer a complex task. Get a link and share with whosoever you want.
Why Use XD as an alternative of Photoshop or Sketch?
As per the most users, Adobe XD works quickly as compare to software like Photoshop where files can become heavy in seconds. Earlier, designers used to rely heavily on Photoshop. Sketch was a great option but for pc users, the incompatibility issue was nothing less than a nightmare. Working efficiently has become a great necessity these days and XD being compatible with every platform makes it one of the most viable options.
➔ Lightweight Application
The thing which makes it everybody’s favorite is that it is an extremely light weight application. XD files are almost ten times smaller than those bulky PSDs. XD files are so light that you can even mail them or send them as an attachment over a cloud application.
XD files open up relatively faster than Photoshop files and have a smooth interface. You don’t have to confuse yourself with various layers.
➔ Multiple artboards
The application has the ability to create multiple artboards and you can easily edit your vector files as XD is vector based software. You can design the UI and UX of entire website in one document without compromising on the quality of work
XD makes file sharing among clients and stakeholders a breeze!
Is it the right time to move to Adobe XD?
Oh, certainly, digging your hands and find the hidden treasure that is there in this magical software. I think even the sketch users should give it a try, you will for sure have a better UI experience.
Conclusion of the blog
So, what are you waiting for? Time is running everyday a new software is coming to make the working life of an individual easy.
Adobe has given Adobe XD for the UI and UX designers to make amazing template without wasting any time. The tasks which used to take minutes in Photoshop can be accomplished within seconds using this software.
If you are thinking to learn this tool then you can go for ADMEC Multimedia Institute which is considered as the best Adobe XD institute in Delhi. ADMEC adapt the change in industry software so quickly that they have the best Adobe XD Course in Delhi and give the of their knowledge to the students.
Wanna learn UX/UI design? Contact us today and kick start your learning adventure with us.
