I have to admit that I am jealous and fearful for the up and coming designers who are currently in design school. I am jealous because the resources of online learning have never been better (Youtube, Skillshare, etc) and fearful because I can see how it can feel like a firehose in the face!

In the past couple of years, I feel my design skills have fallen behind. It is not because of any kind of laziness or lack of interest but more because the fire of competition is blazing faster than I realized. To take on this fire fight I have began to learn Adobe XD and I am highly impressed with how easy Adobe has made it to learn this program.

If you have the Adobe Creative Cloud then download the XD app to your desktop. Go the File Menu at the top bar of your screen > Get UI Kits. A submenu will populate. Download one of the options and what you should find is a fully designed app or website complete with a typography and color brand guide. I feel these resources are EXCELLENT! Not only can you begin to pick through what has been designed but you can also see how the designers set up resources in the components side bar. Taking a few easy lessons on this program will teach you that features like App Bars are grouped together in easy drag & drop components.

I admit that web design is difficult to grasp and one reason is that when I learned design it was taught to me like a one and done deal. And at times it is still treated as such. What do I mean? I mean one design project and done! Don’t have to think about that anymore! The more I observe the break-neck speed at which things change in tech, I hope that designers and business owners alike can prepare for change by developing habits for constant change.

A designer and a business owner has to wrap their mind around the concept that a website is a living document. It is like a garden that needs constant tending to. Embracing the concept of change is vital. I am learning how much I really do not know by diving into these kits and discovering the language and design components needs for a responsive build out.

It is also interesting to see how digital design and navigation through screens changes so dramatically depending on the subject. For example if you look at the UI Kit Paws - built out for a dog walker business — it is interesting to see screens set up for the information on the pet and then more data and screens set up for the pet owner. This isn’t needed for every business obviously.

As I jump into this next level of learning I am excited. The notion of building out a website by myself is daunting and with XD (and other programs like Figma) it seems the collaboration features are more reassuring as well.