August 2018 Release of Adobe XD: Reorder Assets, Asset Extraction, and More

August is in full swing, and with it comes an update to Adobe XD that includes several new features that will make collaborating and staying organized even easier when designing and sharing your prototypes. You’ll now be able to reorder your elements in the asset panel, which allows you to better break down and find your colors, symbols, and character styles. This latest update is also sure to delight your developer, as it’s now possible to hand over a design spec to them and give them the power to download it directly in the resolution and file format of their choosing, right from a web browser. There’s new functionality in dealing with stakeholders, too — it’s now possible to grant and remove access to your prototypes after they’re published to the web.

Keep reading to see our new features in action, and be sure to tune in to Adobe Live, August 20, 21, and 22 (from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m PST) to see top UX designers using these latest features in Adobe XD.

New to XD: Reorder elements in the Asset panel

In the July release of Adobe XD we enhanced the Assets panel to enable renaming colors, character styles, and symbols. With this latest release of Adobe XD we’re taking things one step further, allowing you to reorder elements as you see fit by dragging one or more items in the list to a different location.

This makes a big difference in staying organized. For example, you’ll be able to organize your assets by primary and secondary colors, break down symbols by background image or icon set, and order your character styles by H1 tag hierarchy. “Being able to reorder the elements in the assets panel allows me to be more efficient when designing,” said Leah Sung, a junior visual designer at Poshmark.

“I can move the frequently used assets to the top for quick access and also navigate through the elements easily when they are organized by similarity and function,” she said. Check out the feature in action in the video below.

Once you’ve labeled things just the way you want, you can easily filter your assets across all or one specific asset type. This makes finding content on a complex project with lots of artboards a much more efficient process.

New to XD: Asset extraction in design specs

As a designer you know what you’re looking for in a design, how to meet the requirements of your stakeholders, and how to test the experience with your customers. But what you might not know is the exact file format your developer needs in order to match your design requirements in the final version of the product. With this latest release of Adobe XD, you and your developer will be able to sync up more harmoniously.

When you hand over a design spec to your developer, they in turn will be able to download the assets directly from a web browser in the resolution and file format of their choosing. You see exactly how it works in the video below.

Of course, you’ll still have complete control over which objects are exported in the design by marking your elements for batch export, but your designer-developer workflow will be smoother than ever. “We previously needed to license third-party applications or full design suites for our developers to be able to extract assets or view design specifications,” said Kameron Zach, principal partner at Let’s Build.

“This new feature in Adobe XD allows us to easily distribute project-critical design instruction to our development team with a couple of clicks. We find this especially useful, since most designs and assets we receive for client projects are often evolving, even through development and testing phases. We look forward to using this feature for future projects with our clients.”

Make it easier for stakeholders to follow comments you’ve made specifically for them with the @mention feature in shared prototypes and design specs. Typing @ in a comments field now brings up a drop-down menu of users that you’ve invited to access a private invite design. In the case of public prototypes and design specs, only those users who have commented at least once will appear in the drop-down list. Once a user is @mentioned by name in a comment, they will receive a direct notification via email or in the Creative Cloud desktop app. When that notification is clicked, it takes them directly to the artboard referenced.

New to XD: Browser invite of users to prototypes and design specs

You now have complete control over who has access to your designs by private invite in your web browser, as well as in the app. This means you’ll be able to add or remove stakeholders from a prototype or design spec after your design has been published to the web. Simply click the published link to view the prototype or design spec in a web browser, then add or remove any stakeholder by clicking the Invite or remove button.

For designers who need to involve several people or teams in their work at different stages of prototyping, this can really speed up the process of managing all stakeholders. “Adobe XD is making collaboration even easier. Now I can invite others without leaving the prototype link on the web. No more switching back to XD to accomplish this. Consistent updates and new features like this show me that the Adobe XD team is listening,” said Maxx Morgan, associate creative director at Perficient Digital.

Reading this in the future? Check out all of the major updates to Adobe XD in 2018.

UX community

We’d love to continue the dialogue. Help us shape the future of Adobe XD by submitting feature requests or file bugs. You can follow our handle @AdobeXD for updates, or reach the team on Twitter using the #AdobeXD. You can also talk to us using Facebook, where we share videos and updates as well as answer questions during live sessions.

#MadeWithAdobeXD

While sharing your prototypes on Behance, don’t forget to tag them with #MadeWithAdobeXD and select Adobe XD under “Tools Used” for the opportunity to be featured in the Adobe XD Newsletter.