Speedup your development with Adobe XD

If you have been developing mobile applications for any length of time, you have experienced the headache of creating all the necessary assets in the proper sizes for iOS and Android. If you get the sizes wrong, I assure you, you will experience memory issues in Android. That doesn’t take into account the many revisions that will cross your desk as your developing. Is it any wonder that developers throw their hands up exclaiming that they are coders only and not UI developers? There is a problem with this approach. I have found myself a hostage to a third-party design team that convinced my client to incorporate non-standard controls into the application which introduced considerable risk.

As a mobile developer, you cannot afford to be on the sidelines during the design phase. More importantly, it is crucial that you understand Apple and Android design standards in order to build UI compliant applications. The challenge I have faced is finding the appropriate tool that allows me to design, create and collaborate.  That is where Adobe XD comes in. I was astounded at how simple the user interface was and actually thought it wasn’t robust enough. Using external templates provided by the community, you can prototype any application whether it be mobile or web. The next amazing thing is the export feature that allows one to create native assets in their proper formats and dimensions. Finally, using the prototyping features that allow for rudimentary animations and navigation, I was able to publish to a web portal hosted by adobe allowing others to interact and make comments.

For further tutorials and examples see:

• Adobe: https://helpx.adobe.com/xd/how-to/what-is-xd.html?playlist=/ccx/v1/collection/product/xd/segment/designer/explevel/beginner/applaunch/ccl-get-started-1/collection.ccx.js
• Collaborative Example: https://xd.adobe.com/view/42af115a-0149-40a5-a0f5-b6741153887d/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZJUvzQrA4