Appeal to Adobe: Don't Discontinue XD

[TJMB]

Dear Adobe,

I don't know if you actually read this, or if this message will be seen by anyone who has a stake in the decision making process around what software you actively develop.

Your decision to discontinue Adobe XD is leaving your customers who work in web design without a tool that we've come to depend upon. While I do appreciate you keeping it around in "Maintenance Mode", you are forcing us (yet again) to look for another tool to use in our workflows. Another tool that we'll need to pay for separately from the CC subscriptions we're already using. Another tool that we'll need to spend time learning and which may not integrate into our existing workflows as well as XD has. Another tool which may or may not be around in another few years.

Yes, change is inevitable and I've faced similar situations many times in the 28 years I've been working in web design and development. I've seen many great tools come and go over the years. In web design specifically, we've had promising front-end design tools like Macaw, Muse, and others come into being only to be discontinued or killed as part of an acquisition. During my career, I've used Adobe software as my primary tools for my graphic design work and have been happy with that choice, and happy to pay for a CC subscription when that model wass adopted. I also teach in a Graphic Design degree program and we still teach Adobe software because it is still considered the industry standard.

However, the decision to discontinue XD feels like a punch in the gut to web designers and honestly it makes me start to reconsider how long I want to continue paying for a CC subscription. This is not the first tool of yours that I've integrated into my workflow only to have it pulled away. The XD situation is hitting me in a way that feels extra painful this time.

I know that I'm not alone. I know also that I don't have the user metrics that you have available, though I would guess that there are still a sufficient number of XD users who would rather see XD continue to be actively developed, refined, and become an even better tool that we can continue to rely on for years to come.

Please, on behalf of those of us in the web design community who rely on XD and have embraced it as part of our workflow, I ask that you commit to providing us with a long-term quality tool. Invest in the web design community at the level you have with Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Those tools have been available for decades and have grown with the needs of the graphic design industry. We in web design haven't had a solid front-end design and prototyping tool that we can fully rely on long-term. Every time we have a new tool with promise it is abandoned or killed before it can reach its full potential. That ride is getting old.

Sure, we could learn Figma, or InVision, or Balsamiq, or any of the other similar wireframing/prototyping tools currenlty on the market. But choosing any of those means investing time and money into another software ecosystem that may not fit into our workflow (which means our workflow needs to change as well). Having a tool like XD as part of our Creative Cloud-based workflow is extremely valuable in many ways.

I doubt this post will make a difference. I doubt it will even be seen by anyone above your low support teir. But, if by chance it does reach the eyes of those who have a part in the decision making at Adobe, I hope that it makes a difference. I hope that you finally give web designers the respect of committing to continually developing a solid, long-term toolset that we can depend on.

If not, well, then I hope you understand how this feels to those of us you're abandoning.

Sincerely,

Tom Burton

Adobe customer since 1994

P.S. Anyone else in the community here who agrees with me, please show your support on this post.

[creative explorer]

@TJMB although I prefer XD over Figma, unfortuantely shortly after Adobe announced its intent to acquire Figma in September 2022, it effectively put Adobe XD into maintenance mode. This meant that the development team working on XD was shifted to other projects within Adobe, presumably including those related to the anticipated integration with Figma. While the acquisition was later called off in December 2023, Adobe has confirmed that they have no plans for further investment in XD development, with the existing product only receiving bug fixes and security updates.

Adobe is so far behind Figma at this stage, there really is no point in trying to catch up. Almost need a miracle or a hail mary!

[TJMB]

Hi @creative explorer and thanks for your reply. I'm aware of all that you mentioned and while my post would have had a better chance of being effective if I'd posted it a couple of years ago, I figured I'd rather "speak my mind" now than remain silent.

Adobe has made a poor decision and shot themselves in the foot. Not the first time, and not the last. Though if they truly cared about providing a solid tool for web, UX, and UI designers they could still salvage XD and make it competitive. 

[ribik]

You're right, Adobe pulled a rug under us. I still use XD to this day because it is a great tool. It does its job very well and its number one feature over the competition is its seamless workflow with other Adobe apps. For webdesign and prototyping, XD is Adobe's only product right now that's on chopping block. What is the new plan? Buy out another company? Why? Just keep developing XD. 

I don't care about Figma. Never did. Perhaps it does come with more bells and whistles, I just never cared about them when the tool I am using is satisfactory enough.  I think Adobe has created a bit of mess with this decision with a huge gap in its product lineup.

I was also extremely mad when Adobe pulled Creative Cloud Sync. That's another product that meant something to me that got pulled, and did my CC subscription become cheaper? No, of course not. In fact it went up a notch. 

[elliotth73927388]

Completely agree with everything you've said Tom. I've spent 5 years becoming highly proficient with XD, and for prototyping and the UX/UI aspect of my work I can't imagine a better tool with the same level of simplicity and lightning fast workflows. It would be a royal pain to have to learn the ins and outs of another program like Figma while still professing to being an expert in web design to clients, and as you mentioned who knows if Figma will even exist in a few years. I remember when Sketch seemed to be taking off and was a rival for web design, I don't know anyone who uses it now... 

But yes you've nailed everything on the head and I sincerely hope Adobe decides to continue developing XD. I'm not even sure what it is prioritising at the moment, but I am getting countless pop ups and seeing lots of ads for Adobe Express... between that and AI features maybe. 

[mellisah67950927]

I agree. Adobe CC is already very expensive, especially if you do not earn US Dollars. Now I have to pay extra to use Figma - which is already a product in Adobe. We purchase subscriptions based on the tools and programs we need, it is unfair that companies decide at a whim that they are going to pull software that so many of us rely on. What will happen to all my xd files? 

I cannot and do not support this. Adobe, at the least, should include Figma within the CC subscription.