Inspiring

Question

Why I almost gave up on Adobe XD

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
July 4, 2019
4 replies
1405 views

Hi Adobe,

This post is a shout out and emotional feedback on Adobe XD from one of your quite old users.

2 years ago you released a Proof Of Concept, but not the powerful tool. "Mindset Over Competition" - sounds cool, but after two years the app still lacking such basic features, which have been in your other apps for ages! Let me name just some of them:

- Still no layer styles

- Still no nested layers

- No application settings (how it can be true in a professional tool?!)

- No Shortcuts editing (?!?!?!)

- No pixel snapping for a multiselection or groups

- There is no even an unchangeable shortcut to turn it on/off

- No pixel preview mode

- No displaying of coordinates of a point in path editing mode (unless it's an integer)

- No pixel snapping while drawing a path

- Can't open path at any point I want

- Can't add a point on a path if it's not perfectly aligned with the pixel grid

And there are much more on the forums. After the first year, I felt like I've been used as a free beta-tester who was given a piece of wood and graphite instead of a pencil. And I need to provide "feedback". But I'm just staring at other people with the functional mechanical pencils and wondering "Why?!".

You are trying to make the app simple, but at the moment it's just empty. All that direct editing, avoiding menus and panels...We need a professional tool, not an Instagram for designers. And it's really sad to see how slooooooow it evolves. Who needs nested components? Nah, we better put Voice Prototyping in the next release! But in 2019 it's like still using iPhone 3G and pretending that you never saw that technological leap.

There is one good article at Medium with the excellent words: 'The popular design app for Mac is a refined evolution of the “pen-and-paper simulator”'. With XD I feel like I even need to redefine my understanding of pen and paper...

Did I want to offend anyone in Adobe XD team? Not at all. Did I want to attract attention to the current state of things? Definitely yes!

This topic has been closed for replies.

A

Anonymous

I am SO frustrated with XD. Every time I can't figure out how to do something (which is standard practice in Sketch or Axure... or which is a necessary part of a feature I'm using), I swear EVERY TIME: instead of finding a tutorial, I am taken to the Adobe "Feature Request" page. I want to SCREAM.

XD is so severely lacking in features. If it was my choice, there is no way in hell I'd be using this! I have to use it because the team I joined uses it. It's not that I "don't know how to use it." It's that XD is crawling along adding features that all should have been developed before launching the software.

I have never been so frustrated with any software I've ever used. I've been using Adobe for 15+ years and prototyping for 10+ years. This software seems simple and clean, but it is lacking in features and basic functionality. I am so tired of being taken to a feature request page rather than a tutorial page. These features should all exist already.

It's especially painful because it's the principle of the matter. Adobe wanted to compete, so they released a prototyping tool that was nowhere close to ready. They should have taken the 5-10 years to develop it properly, or left it to competitors to keep the market running, but no, the had to prove they could do everything and monopolize every possible design tool out there. Well, they did it wrong. And people are suffering daily because of it. I feel like a slave to this software.

Dan Rodney

Community Expert

The early versions of XD were so basic that I don't think beta was even the right term. Alpha or "proof of concept" are more appropriate. I think Adobe took a different approach to the release of XD. They got it out for people to see super early. They did get feedback, but in some ways it's been bad for the impression of XD because a lot of people saw an incomplete app they could not use (and got turned off by that). XD now has to overcome that impression (when it is ready for people... based on their needs). Most people have not seen a new Adobe app develop from such as beginning state. It takes a while to add features, and it's easy to get impatient. XD has come a long way from the first versions (which were far from useable for pro work), but it still has a ways to go and I look forward to XD getting more features we all need.

To help shape the future of XD, please add feature requests (and upvote existing ones) at https://adobexd.uservoice.com/

— Adobe Certified Expert & Instructor at Noble Desktop | Web Developer, Designer, InDesign Scriptor

C

cyclops1988

Inspiring

above all what you have said, the masking in XD IS NOT IMPRESSIVE.

can't add multiple strokes? hello, sketch can.

Dan Rodney

Community Expert

If you are masking photos, I recommend NOT making a mask. Instead... draw a shape and drop the image (from your Desktop) onto the shape. XD will make the photo into an image fill. This works like a mask, but is not technically as mask. You can still move the photo around in the shape, but it works nicer than an actual mask (and better than Sketch's masking for photos).

And yes, multiple strokes would be nice . I'd also like to see XD be able to add shadows to groups. It's odd that shadows work on elements but not groups.

— Adobe Certified Expert & Instructor at Noble Desktop | Web Developer, Designer, InDesign Scriptor

C

cyclops1988

Inspiring

masking photos, yes, love how it works in XD.

but masking shapes....... it's a very very very sad process, the mask will lose it's attribution and the whole mask group size is not the mask size we prefer, then you have to cut off the parts you mask off to be able to export for specs. much easier in sketch on this one tbh.

and once a shape is broken into a path, then you can't edit the anchor point's roundness, actually it's a good function.

and one more, be nice to have flatten or expand functions too, or make fonts into shape.

hopefully, it will be good in the future.

Harshika Verma

Community Manager

Hi Ilya,

We apologize for the frustration and thank you for sharing the feedback. I would request you to please upvote the following requests:

I would also suggest you stay tuned this page XD Updates | Adobe Blog for all XD updates. Our team is continuously making efforts to implement more advanced features in XD. XD has evolved in all these years and it couldn't be possible without your feedback.

We really appreciate your patience and you're always welcome for all the feedback.

Thanks,

Harshika

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