Adobe XD for Students: a look at why XD works for design’s next generation.

Before I start, I’ve got a few things for you to know.

1. I’m a Windows user, always have been, I may always be (don’t know, still working on that foresight stuff, and I’m definitely open to using Mac).
2. I have been using Adobe products as long as I’ve been using computers. So I may have been slightly excited about the release of XD for Windows.
3. Adobe XD is one of three softwares I’ve used for wireframing / prototyping / digital designing, with Invision and Axure being the other two.
4. This is meant to open a conversation about the usefulness of XD for students rather than argue it is the ‘best’ tool.

Adobe XD is simple, which is nice, it gives a few options, then the rest is up to you. There aren’t a bunch of settings and templates to muddle your decisions. It asks what kind of artboard you want, and you build, simple as that. Once you’re in, you have free reign to make boxes, write stuff, design the next big thing, or close the app because you don’t actually want to design. I could go on and on about the nuances of the software, but it’s best if you use it, and check out the tutorials for your creative needs. I’ll merely point out some of my ‘top bits’ of the product, especially for students.

Top XD Bits:

• Repeat Grid — Being able to group pieces of a design and replicate them is absolutely wonderful, not to mention you merely need to snag a group of photos or a .txt to fill it.
• Symbols —With any design, there’s bound to be things that are the same from one screen to the next, and this tool is wonderful for just that. If you’re working on five pages or fifty pages, having a place to put grouped assets right there to grab is always useful.
• Creative Cloud Libraries / Folders— For students, this is your key to highly functional teams, by placing assets / files, colors, fonts, honestly anything will do, also, if you happen to find yourself in a lab, you don’t need to bring an external hard drive to work on a project.
• UI Kits — These are high on my list of “what did I do to deserve this goodness in my life”, because I definitely don’t want to be making a pixel perfect header every single time from scratch.
• One Big Design Space — Everything is on one plate, or table, just like paper prototyping, or whiteboarding. You can drag things off to the side if you don’t need them, or import artboard with content that you need. The workspace is nearly limitless
• Link Publishing — Along with Creative Cloud there are prototype testing capabilities that are insanely simple. Being able to go from design to prototype to test is massively streamlined.

These things all give breath to my designs, and they can do wonders for students working on a number of projects. However, where there are top bits, there are always bottom bits.

Bottom Bits:

• Static Right Options Bar — Though the workspace is limitless, it can feel quite small at times on a laptop. The right-hand options alley is quite imposing at times, even more when I have two projects or a project and a UI kit that I would like to look at simultaneously.
• Opacity Adjustment — This is probably my issue more than anything else, but I find that I’ll click on a font size, type in a number, and the Opacity has changed. The touchiness of the options bar selection is frustrating at times.
• Document Handling—Finally, the lack of tabular document selection at the top of the page (similar to most other Adobe Products) makes it difficult to switch quickly from one document to the next.

These issues are small, manageable, and likely in the pipeline for updates. Especially as Adobe is asking for users to vote on needed features. Overall, the functionality of the product is clean, and with small bumps along the way, I can build nearly whatever I please.

From the first time I used Photoshop Elements, to this past Tuesday, when I competed in a Creative Jam, Adobe products have worked for what I need, and XD is my tool of choice when I design and prototype digital interfaces. The functionality is clean and there is an attitude by Adobe that they’re relentlessly developing it to fit the needs of designers.

I suggest students use it for their design projects, not only for the features, but the community and ecosystem that comes with it. In some cases, universities have partnered with Adobe and made access to CC free for their students. Students are the future of the design industry, and Adobe is working hard to make XD the future as well. It makes sense that students take the helm by using, and giving feedback on Adobe’s XD as they grow into roles and become influencers in design.

Thanks for reading!