Exciting times with Adobe XD

Recently I’ve had a number of discussions (3 to be exact) with other designers and developers about the tools they use when it comes to interaction design. The general consensus from these conversations is that Sketch is awesome and Adobe could be better—certainly cheaper.

Having used Adobe’s creative applications since CS2 days, I hold thy precious keyboard shortcuts close to my heart. Indesign in particular continues to be my partner in crime, primarily because its treatment of typography and grids are unmatched. I mingle with Illustrator on a daily basis and have a love-hate relationship with Photoshop. There has been many tried and tested others from from the last 5–10 years also worth mentioning, such as Flash Catalyst (discontinued), Adobe Muse, and Edge Reflow.

As a Digital Designer—designing graphics, interfaces and experiences becomes a juggling act. So having a solid ecosystem of applications that play well together is crucial. I find myself jumping between Indesign and Illustrator, and most recently Marvel for prototyping, and then Brackets if and when required. This combination of tools has worked so far with very little traction.

I have tried Sketch, Invision and Atomic in the past and wasn’t able to make it fit into my personal workflow. But there’s a certain agency and autonomy that we need when it comes to the tools we use. It’s vital that they don’t constrain, control or drive the creative process—but instead give it life. It’s fascinating to see the amalgamation of tools used by other interactive designers and how they maneuver their way through the sea of applications available. Let alone creatives in general.

When Adobe announced Project Comet back in October last year, I was pretty keen to jump on the beta bandwagon as soon as possible. I’ve been waiting for Adobe to create a tool that could compete with the existing third-party apps in the game. And then on March 2016— came the arrival of XD.

So far, it's been a delight to use.

Speed for one was the biggest surprise, that is some Tesla magic right there! And although there are a tonne of obvious features missing — it’s very reassuring to know that Adobe opened up a platform for 2-way dialogue where users can request and give feedback.

Incrementally releasing new features voted by users isn’t just healthy for both parties, but it shows how important transparency is when it comes to the development of the products we use everyday. Designing with trust becomes part of the whole process and we see this type of accountability happening across many product companies. Slack, Airbnb, Buffer, Tumblr and Medium just to name a few.

No doubt, it’s a good time to be a product, interactive, interface, experience (or whatever recruiters think we wanna be called) designer. The tools are finally keeping up with the trade and hopefully this hybrid of design and development will encourage more engagement within product teams.

Mobile isn’t going anywhere and it will continue to dominate for the next 15–30 years, but here’s hoping there will be breakthroughs in the way we design interfaces.

What tools are gonna be standard when it comes to designing interfaces for virtual reality, self-driving cars or the plethora of products within the Internet of Things (IoT) space? Possibilities are endless and hopefully will become device and platform agnostic.

Deciding what tools we use to craft these ideas should start with the ‘Why’. And then, ask ‘Why’ again and again all throughout the process just to make sure empathy is still intact. And if all else fails, please refer to this: Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles for Good Design. He knows what’s up.

What tools are you using to make your craft?