Adobe XD launched in 2016 as Adobe’s answer to the growing demand for dedicated UI and UX design tools. It was a departure from the heavyweight Creative Cloud apps, offering a lightweight, focused experience for wireframing, prototyping, and designing user interfaces. Available on both Mac and Windows, it gave designers who were already in the Adobe ecosystem a familiar option.
The tool featured auto-animate for creating transitions between artboards, repeat grids for quickly laying out lists and galleries, and voice prototyping for designing voice-assistant interfaces. Its integration with other Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects was a clear advantage for teams already paying for Creative Cloud.
However, XD struggled to keep pace with Figma’s rapid feature development and its browser-based collaboration model. Adobe attempted to solve this by acquiring Figma in 2022 for $20 billion, though the deal ultimately collapsed under regulatory pressure in late 2023.
In September 2023, Adobe effectively put XD into maintenance mode, ceasing new feature development. The company stopped selling XD as a standalone product and shifted its design tool strategy. Existing users can still access XD, but Adobe has signaled that Figma-style collaboration is the future it wants to pursue.
Despite its sunset, XD played an important role in pushing the design tool market forward. It forced competitors to improve their prototyping capabilities and helped normalize UI design as a distinct discipline within the Adobe ecosystem.
