Table of Contents
Can You Create An App With Adobe XD?
It’s possible to get distracted when it comes to developing for mobile devices. With various unit sizes to consider, as well as different navigation habits for Android and iOS. Adobe XD makes it simple to begin the first mobile design project and assists you in speeding up the process once you’re up and running. Want to create UX UI design professionally? Join us at Blue Sky Graphics online design courses.
To start
Adobe XD offers project presets for popular cell phone and tablet devices to help you get underway. By selecting one of these choices, a new file with a blank artboard set to the correct measurements for the chosen unit will be opened.
It can be daunting to look at a blank canvas and not know where to begin. UI Kits are an excellent way to begin populating this blank canvas with pre-built elements or parts, and platform kits enable you to incorporate iOS and Material Design elements directly into your design.

Platform and other UI kits are available from the File > Get UI Kits menu. Elements can be copied and pasted into your template after copying, or you can store it as a cloud file to connect the assets into your working file.
For an iPhone-based interface, elements such as the clock and signal, the home indicator, or even a device frame to reveal the screen borders for elements such as the notch which be useful.
Depending on the interface, you can want to add other regular iOS features such as navigation and tabs.
Using a grid to align
When an artboard is chosen, a ‘Grid’ will be allowed by the property inspector to ensure that items are correctly aligned within the plan. There are layout (column) and square (graph paper) grid choices open, each serving a different function.
The Layout grid is commonly used with dynamic site templates, while the Square grid is helpful for aligning material to precise increments, such as while dealing in an 8px grid framework. Aligning these grids with the construction system would aid in the seamless transition between architecture and development.
Quickly repeating material
Many smartphone designs employ standard elements such as cards or lists to display details in a consistent manner. When these components are all disconnected, it can be a nightmare to generate and iterate on them, and it does not allow for an effective design operation. Repeat Grids avoid this work, and elements may be duplicated and held in alignment by dragging a handle to generate as many duplicates as needed.
To make a Repeat Grid, pick the feature to be replicated and then press the ‘Repeat Grid’ button at the top of the property inspector. Around the object, a green dotted outline with two handles will emerge, and dragging the handles out will begin duplicating the feature in the direction you extend the grid.
When modifications are made to some feature of the grid, the changes are mirrored in the remaining components. For each aspect, properties such as text and imagery may be overridden. Adding photos in bulk is often as simple as dragging a group of images from a file explorer and dropping them into a shape. XD would use a picture from the category to populate the same shape on each piece.
Interactions are described
Interactions may be introduced after the concept has been completed to improve fidelity. With Adobe XD’s built-in prototyping mode, it’s simple to add rich interactions in the same tool where the prototypes were created.
Using Transitions
The ‘slide over’ impact, which happens as one page slides over as you move further into the data, is a typical interaction style in iOS and other mobile platforms. For starters, clicking on a tile labelled ‘Surfing’ would take you to a page with information about that practise.
It is simple to achieve this result. Pick the item you want to use as a trigger in Demo mode, in this case the ‘Surfing’ tile. The relation is made by dragging the blue arrow to the destination artboard. To establish a right-to-left switch, adjust the operation to ‘Transition’ and the animation to ‘Slide left’ in the property inspector.
When you display the interface, clicking on the ‘Surfing’ card would show the specifics from right to left, similar to how iOS works.
For prototyping in Adobe XD, many triggers are usable, including Tap, Time, Drag, Voice, and support for keyboard or gamepad entry. These prompts may be used to build different forms of experiences on your mobile device, such as built-in voice assistants or sliders.
Dragging things about
To make a draggable picture carousel, use the ‘drag’ trigger on an entity to Auto-Animate between two separate locations.
Reposition the slider on the second artboard to the ideal ‘end-state,’ where the animation should end, after creating a copy of the artboard.
After choosing the gallery on the first artboard, drag the blue arrow to the second artboard, which includes the end state. In the property inspector, adjust the Trigger to ‘Drag,’ and the action will immediately update to ‘Auto-Animate.’ A connection from the gallery on the second artboard back to the first can be created.
When previewing this concept, the prototype can be dragged with the mouse to shift the gallery between the two locations. When the drag hits the halfway mark, let go to finish the animation.
Making Overlays
There are a few normal, repeatable activities on mobile devices that you should definitely include in your prototype. This involves acts such as taking up a keyboard to insert text or accessing a slide-in menu to access the software.
Overlays are a great way to incorporate recycled keyboard and menu components into your prototype. Instead of making several copies of artboards with and without a menu on top, render one per each menu object.
Pick the menu icon you want to use to access the menu in Prototype mode, then move the arrow to the menu artboard. Shift the behaviour in the property inspector to ‘Overlay.’ A green outline box may emerge, which can be pulled into position.
Pick how the menu can animate into view from the motion dropdown. If the menu icon is on the right, ‘Slide Left’ is an outstanding option. Since the near operation is already setup in the overlay action, you should click preview to see the overlay in action.
If you choose a component for the menu icon, extend this interaction to the Key Component, and the interaction will be applied to all instances automatically. If you aren’t using elements, the interaction can be copied and pasted on the other icons you choose to use it on when in demo mode.