TECHNICAL DEBATE TOPIC: ADOBE XD VS FIGMA
The Topic for technical debate is between two super tools : Adobe XD and Figma:
We are supporting the views for Adobe XD. Basically, Adobe XD is a vector-based user experience design tool for web apps and mobile apps, developed and published by Adobe Inc. It is available for macOS and Windows, although there are versions for iOS and Android to help preview the result of work directly on mobile devices.
With Adobe XD, you get one powerful tool for your whole UI/UX design process. Create user flows, wireframes, high-fidelity designs, interactive prototypes, animations, and more — no need to switch between multiple apps or worry about keeping designs in sync.
XD is designed for anyone to design any kind of experience. It’s packed with features like Responsive Resize, Repeat Grid, and Auto-Animate that speed up common tasks so you can spend more time being creative.
Keep everyone in sync from first brainstorm to final handoff. Work on documents simultaneously with fellow designers. Invite stakeholders to review designs and give feedback. And share Design Specs that give developers everything they need to start coding.1
Create and share colors, character styles, and components that can be used across multiple projects.
Unlock the full power of XD with hundreds of plugins plus integrations with Adobe Creative Cloud apps and third-party tools. Edit images in Adobe Photoshop, sync your favorite fonts from Adobe Fonts, and share your designs in other apps like Jira, Slack, and Zeplin.
FIGMA DISADVANTAGES
1) You must be aware of who did the last edit. Even though there is a Version Control Function on Figma, but it would change the entire version. While maybe, you just want to revert one or two small elements.
2) No Internet No Figma
3) When you put your file in The Draft, everyone can Claim your file as the owner. Credentials are not safe.
4) Need A Decent RAM & Graphic Cards To Run Smoothly: it needs 4GB of RAM and an Intel HD 3000 (or similar) Graphic Card. It may sound like an easy setup for a graphic designer’s computer, but if we want to pass it on to a non-design person, it may not be a good experience for them. Imagine that it took forever to open the Figma link.
5) Since it’s browser-based, sometimes you couldn’t see your partner’s design right away. Not because of the connection, but rather, browser caches.
6) It’s quite a heavy application so make sure your device has the resources needed to support it if you’re using it for long hours.
7)As figma is a web tool, it can be very slow at times
8)The user interface is very difficult to adapt to and less informative
9) Every step has to be saved, if not if a role back is done, it will take back to previous saved step
10) Plugins are not supported in figma while xd supports plugins
INTERACTION
XD has a collection of triggers you can use for interactions that Figma does not have, in particular: voice, keys and gamepad. It also has speech playback and state change actions Figma doesn’t have. As such, XD facilitates more types of UI designs such as voice controlled / oriented apps or web game UIs.
On top of that it allows more than one interaction per item, allowing you to achieve prototypes with functionality more similar to their behavior in the browser.
State/swapping
Right now Figma doesn’t really have a state system, but rather a workaround using swapping to create something similar. XD’s state system on the other hand is robust and provides more methods of creating interactions and emulating browser functionality. It is also faster and more convenient to use given states can be saved into components and are then present when you add said component instances.
ANIMATION:
XD allows you to animate between component states as well as artboards/frames and supports interpolation on more properties in the process. Note in particular its ability to interpolate paths, meaning it can morph between one shape and another. These factors make it the strongest in animation right now.
EXPORTING IMAGE:
While Figma has a little more flexibility with pixel density export settings, XD includes quality settings, and for web designers that’s very important. For this reason, and for web designers specifically, XD is the best on image exporting.
WORKING OFFLINE
XD is the only option of the two that allows entirely offline work. If you’re living or traveling in an area with intermittent internet connectivity, XD is going to be the better choice.
INTEROPERATIBILITY
XD has an advantage in being able to facilitate more advanced editing through Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects. While figma doesn’t support any of them
PLUGIN
Figma does have the additional feature that in the Organizations tier private plugins can be created and used
XD has a good chance of being better for you if you’re already deep into working in the Adobe ecosystem. If you’re all in on Adobe software and you want something better for interface design than AI or PS but still in the Creative Cloud family, XD is your solution.
Additionally, XD’s area of stand out strength at the moment is its prototyping, having taken the win in three prototyping subsections: Interactions, States and Animation.
XD also might be a better choice for you if you don’t have access to reliable internet or want to use desktop native / non-web-based software
ENDING
When Adobe XD first came out, it was really no significant competition to Figma at all, acting more as a better option for Creative Cloud based interface designers than was Photoshop or Illustrator. However since then, while Figma may still be ahead at the moment, XD has certainly closed the gap quite a bit.
The competition between Figma and XD goes on, and each program is most certainly pushing the other to keep stepping up its game. We see features that were exclusively in one appear in the other on a fairly regular basis. The pressure they apply on one another to innovate is yielding excellent results for designers.
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