Never stop exploring

This week I began teaching myself Adobe XD. I started with a design challenge I found on behance.net. It has quickly become my new go to site for learning and inspiration. Highly recommended, if you haven’t checked it out yet.

In the past 8 or so months I have learned how to use 3 new software packages related to user interface design (UI). I started with Sketch, then moved to Figma, and now jumping into XD. Learning any new software can be a daunting task. New layouts, new terms, new hotkeys, the list goes on and on. For me, it’s exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. “Oh! This software can do A or B automatically? Why can’t the previous one I worked in do the same?” These are some of my internal conversations I was having while jumping into XD. 

One of the main reasons why I wanted to check out this particular Adobe software was for it’s animation capabilities. While I have only scratched the surface of what XD can do, the learning process has been extremely swift after adding the Sketch and Figma notches to my design tool belt. I would compare it to driving a different car for the first time. For the most part everything is where it should be, except for that one new feature with buttons and icons you have never seen before. You still can drive the car, and maybe you don’t even bother looking at those new features for months, but in the back of your mind, there’s that itch to learn more. 

This week I learned that in XD, different states can be added to components within each component. This allows the software to auto animate hover states without having to program it to do so. That right there blew my mind. This brings us back to my initial thoughts, “Why can’t my current favorite software do this too?” And really does it have to?

I recently had a conversation with a friend who works at one of these software companies, and we got to discussing what I thought the pros and cons of the software was. I tried to help him understand my experiences using each one, and what I wished for most. At the end of the day, as long as I can get the results I am looking for, I don’t personally have a favorite. What I do like is that each company has a somewhat clear focus on a main feature that they have pushed ahead of the others that helps the entire design community grow. This sentiment fits well with my learning of UX/UI. Divergent and convergent explorations of the software we use not only helps the designer, but exponentially also helps the users we are designing for. Never stop exploring.