Adobe XD Prerequisites

Adobe XD is a user experience design tool that lets creatives build vibrant web page layouts using a variety of tools to add text, color, images, and functionality. Users can then convert those designs into working prototypes and share those prototypes for collaborative design and user testing. You might worry that Adobe XD will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning Adobe XD and what you should study to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills.

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.

Is Adobe XD Easy to Learn?

Like most Adobe Creative Cloud programs, the difficulty in learning XD is contingent on whether a student is hoping to learn the basic functionalities of the program or master the system for professional use. The program works to be accessible to new users while being deep enough to serve as a professional design tool. This means that novices can pick up the basics of the program with a little bit of guided practice, while more advanced users can train for months to master all of the program’s features. Adobe XD is an accessible design tool, but the challenge of learning it will primarily be determined by how much expertise in the program a student thinks they will need.

One way to make learning XD easier is by taking advantage of professional instruction opportunities. Noble Desktop offers training in Adobe XD for both novices and experienced users. Students with no XD experience may wish to consider Adobe XD in a Day, in which they will learn the basics of the program, such as how to design on grids, build prototypes, and collaborate with other developers. Students looking to learn more about XD might consider Adobe XD Advanced, which builds on existing skills to teach students how to create more complex designs and prototypes using scroll groups, animations, and sound effects. These courses are made available together in the Adobe XD Bootcamp.

What to Know Before Learning Adobe XD

There aren’t any technical prerequisites to learning Adobe XD, but there are a few things that new users should consider making themselves familiar with before they begin trying to learn the program. Students should be familiar with the basics of their computer platform, and if they are planning to use Adobe XD professionally, they should have an understanding of the basics of user interface/user experience design and a sense of where their designs will be used, as to best optimize them during testing.

Basic Computer Skills and Access

It may seem obvious, but students looking to learn XD should be familiar with basic computer skills to avoid falling behind at the start. XD is available on Mac and PC desktops and has tablet functionality. Students should have a basic understanding of how to navigate systems and files. While the program is not particularly system intensive, students should also be sure that their hardware can run XD.

Additionally, students should be sure that they have regular access to XD. Adobe offers a seven-day free trial of the program, but after that, users will need to pay a monthly subscription fee, either for XD on its own or for access to the whole of the Creative Cloud. Many training programs will provide students with access to Adobe XD, but students should check beforehand to see whether or not they will need to have their own subscription.

Interface Design Philosophy

Novice XD users should also consider receiving some training in the philosophies that underscore user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. In order to design functional and accessible web pages, students should have at least a background knowledge of current trends in design. While learning the program won’t require intensive training in the science and data collection methods of user experience design, knowing how to test and receive feedback on a prototype is still an important skill to have.

Students looking to acquire this knowledge may wish to consider Noble’s UX Design in a Day course. In this course, students will learn about the philosophy behind user experience design, and they will receive training in the current methodologies and best practices for building accessible, functional web applications and interfaces. This is a cursory course, and professional UX Designers will need more training in the science and technology behind UX design, but for novices looking to get acclimated to UX Design, this is an excellent course to start.

Affordances of Different Platforms

Students looking to build user interfaces in XD may also wish to come to their training with a knowledge of how different interfaces are used in different contexts. One of the advantages of XD is that it allows users to build and prototype interfaces that will be used on a number of different platforms. This also means that if a user wants to optimize their interface designs, they should be aware that these platforms differ. A user on a desktop PC will have a very different experience from a user on an iOS phone, and good layout designers will be aware of these differences when designing an interface.

Key Insights

• Adobe XD is a web interface design and prototyping tool built to allow users to easily create and test sample web layouts for websites and digital applications.
• Like most Adobe Creative Cloud applications, XD is easy for a beginner but has enough complex features that to make advanced training difficult.
• Students new to XD may wish to consider hands-on professional training options to help them learn either the basics of the program or its more advanced features.
• While there are no technical prerequisites to learning XD, students should still be familiar with using computers, and they should make sure that they have regular access to the software.
• Students who want to learn to use XD professionally should also consider training in the philosophies of user interface and user experience design. While this training won’t make the act of learning XD easier, it will make applying XD skills to practical web layout design much easier.
• Users interested in learning XD should consider the options available to them through Noble Desktop.

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.