Throughout the development of the project proposal for the final major project I undertook some personal and professional exploring to discover what I would like my focus to be in regards to creative specialism and skill set. The end result was a focus on branding and user interface design. For the branding aspect, software that I am very familiar with such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign is used, however, for user interface design, I need to venture out of my creative comfort zone and expand my skill set beyond this trio. Adobe XD is Adobes answer to software such as Figma and Sketch.
Using Adobe XD allows for muscle memory to be used from the other software I use on a daily basis. Keyboard shortcuts flow through entire Adobe system, allowing for more time to be used learning the intricacies of the software and its specialised functionalities, for example, prototyping, blurring backgrounds and creating scrollable art-boards. Upon first appearances the software is very minimal, with no option as of yet to edit the appearance of the software to a dark mode like its sister software. For some unknown reason, the minimalist appearance of the software personally makes the software feel less powerful, not that it is simply more organised or that Adobe expects that this software will be used in large part in conjunction with Illustrator and Photoshop for the artwork and asset creation. At the time of writing I have experimented the with basics of the software and familiarising myself with the layout, especially the specific tabs for designing and prototyping your project.
It is a welcome discovery that Adobe are keen to update the software with the varying technology available, for example all Apple Watch sizes are available as templates alongside the iPhone and iPad scales. This standardisation with Apple products seems to be mirrored in the user interface design files that are available to download from the Apple Developer site. These files consist of layouts for all the Apple ecosystem products from messenger layouts, notification style layouts and the official Apple typefaces. At first, this generosity caught me off guard. Why would a brand a big as Apple provide design files such as these? Adobe XD and Sketch file versions are openly available for the public. In fact, through my research into this field of design, I have discovered that Apple is not the only technology developer that shares files such as these, helping designers to create pixel perfect creations for their respective operating systems. Brands such as Microsoft also offer these files.
Discovering files such as these allows designers like myself who are expanding their creative skill set a chance to explore how household names organise their files and how they use the same software. Thanks to these files, I will be able to ensure that my designs will suit the respective operating systems, giving the mock-ups and prototype the realism it will require. The only question is which operating system will I choose to prototype my application on?
Comments