On March 15, 2016, Adobe announced the release of the first evaluation version of the Project Comet product, which was officially named Adobe Experience Design CC or, in short, Adobe XD. The product is currently available only for Mac.
Without thinking twice, we began to examine from different sides the promised offspring from Adobe. So let’s go!
The Adobe XD welcome screen gives us the opportunity to choose the direction for creating a design, a set of UI whales for iOS, Google Material Design and Windows.
The first five seconds, it seems that did not close Sketch.
The decision to make such an interface will definitely play into the hands of the developers, even though it is partially borrowed.
The toolbar is located on the familiar left side and consists of only:
Selection: V
Rectangle: R
Oval: E
Line: L
Feather: P
Text: T
Artboard: A
This set is quite enough to create any interface. Above there are two tabs “Design” and “Prototype” (about this a bit later). On the right all the clear control panel styles of objects and text. Actually, this is all!
But no! The most important thing is the “Play” button for demonstration of the created prototype.
So, we decided to try out XD in battle by drawing a small catering application in it. Yes, it was simple enough!
During the course of the work, we noted several charms of the Adobe product, which pleased us pleasantly:
In each object used in the design, the pictures are easily placed by usual dragging from the folder.
The “Repeat Grid” function is an interesting tool that speeds up work when creating multiple copies of grouped elements.
Rendering in the program is very fast and file sizes are quite easy.
Source support from Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Sketch.
A slight disappointment was the lack of a layer panel, but at this stage it is not noticeable. Also trouble with the types of color matching and the lack of gradients. But let’s not forget that this is only a preview version.
The layout is ready, it remains to go to the very essence of XD – prototyping.
Everything is also elementary here: Everything is also elementary here: in the Prototype mode we set a logical sequence of transitions between screens. And the most interesting: you can immediately see the finished prototype of our application with the help of the built-in emulator (the same “Play” button). Moreover, the changes are displayed in real time. And this is good news.
A working prototype can be shared with selected users, all without leaving Adobe Experiense Design. In my and RedLeos Agency opinion, this is great! – RedLeos A Digital Marketing Agency in Pakistan
WORKING PROTOTYPE
Also in Adobe XD there is an export of artboards and layers, implemented quite competently. There are exports to PNG, SVG for web, android and iOS. Unlike Sketch, here it is enough to select the original resolution of the layout – the rest is exported independently and with the necessary prefixes.
In general, it was nice to feel the new product from Adobe, albeit in a damp form.
The only serious disadvantage, in our opinion, was the lack of a Windows version at the moment, since it was Windows users who were looking forward to the release of the declared cross-platform.
The developers promise to release a version under Windows during 2016.
The company’s blog pages list future product features:
Advanced design features, including support for gradients, text diversity, effects, and blending modes.
Improved color selection.
Support for working with layers.
Increased control over the exchange of link prototypes.
Authoring scrolling content.
Micro-interactions for prototyping.
Preview mode design and prototype testing on mobile devices in real time (IOS and Android).
Re-usability and sharing of project assets and styles using Creative Cloud libraries.
Extensibility / API layers for plugins.
Program support on Microsoft Windows 10 (the expected release is scheduled for the end of 2016).
Adobe listens to the opinions of its users, and you can also send your suggestions for product development.
We are waiting for a product from Adobe that would help make the development of the interface even easier.
The post Adobe’s Project Comet Review: A New Look at UX appeared first on Mutala Times.
