Handy solutions for publishing designs from XD on a budget

Being a product designer or a UI/UX designer means you having to work with clients either directly or indirectly, providing necessary solutions to their design problems.

If this typically is you, and you create your designs on Adobe XD — not that there are not other capable software in the market (Invision Studio, Sketch, Figma, etc), but you just like free, simple and fast — then you would have absolutely no problem creating great works. However, where problems might set in would be publishing these designs for the client to see and approve, or for developers to work from; XD calls this Publishing Design Specs, which you can learn how to do from here.

Understanding what you would be putting out:

Publishing: XD Interface

When you publish content from within XD, you are going to be doing one of two things:

1. Publish Prototype
2. Publish Design Specs

The first option (1) would analyze and export a form of your UI design that could be interacted with like a user would if the product was ready, and is akin to what you get in the prototype view of the XD software.

On the other hand, option (2) would create a version that could be viewed and analyzed by developers in your office space or remotely. It creates a web-link where developers can get on with seeing your exact measurements, color codes, and a couple of other necessary things.

Design Specs: XD Interface

The Huge Limit

When you are pushing out these kinds of things, you are expected to be making enough profit, but this is not the case for start up design firms or freelancers that are just trying to get their feet off the ground in the product design business. Adobe has a friendly plan that allows for the upload of one Design Spec and one Design Prototype (which could contain as many screens as created for that project; mobile and web) for free, coupled with their free software, XD.

I have … come to find a way around publishing at least 3 more design specs at the same rate of $0.

But product design freelancers and design studios are expected to aspire to publishing a little more than these on a strict budget.

I have run into this problem a couple of times and have come to find a way around publishing at least 3 more design specs at the same rate of $0.

Nonetheless, the product designer should also be able to purchase a more robust publishing plan from XD if this falls within his means.

Publishing More Specs

The Adobe XD platform gives a little bit of clue to getting more out of the free plan from their list of plugin integrations.

Most of these take just a little bit of time to install on the software and could end up being extremely useful to the designer. These 4 options below are guaranteed to get you started on pushing out more design.

Zeplin

A section of the Zeplin Interface

Zeplin is the ultimate collaboration tool between designers and developers. It cuts meetings in half and ensures that designs are implemented perfectly, however complex.

Those are the words of Meng To, Design+Code, which clearly define Zeplin in some of the best words possible. Used by huge companies like UENO, Airbnb, Mailchimp and a couple of others, the plugin proves to be worth it when it comes to serving the above described purpose.

Starting up with Zeplin can happen entirely for free with all of the needed features to push out one detailed design spec to the cloud where members — developers — could access from the cloud.

The plugin also has some interesting features that I could discuss in detail in a later publication.

Sympli

App, web and mobile, this extension serves the purpose extremely well. Unlike Zeplin, Sympli — not to be mistaken for sympli.com, a women clothing outfit — does not come with a native software that connects to the web as well. It works directly from your browser, importing assets and artboards from your XD and generating an accessible link that could be shared to developers and clients alike. It works wonders.

A section of the Sympli Interface

Headed by CEO Tim Keough, DC, the extension proves to be nothing but great. It also comes with a 30-day free trial that could be used to shoot out one prototype/design spec. Interestingly, assets could be exported from the web directly by anyone invited through the link.

Avocode

Full User Interface: Avocode

Easily one of the most detailed plugins out there for this purpose, Avocode sits high up on grounds of functionality and possibility. However, it is not totally free, and could only push out a single prototype as well under the free plan.

It is also interesting to note that it is compatible with:

• Sketch
• Photoshop
• Adobe XD
• Illustrator
• Figma

Making it the obvious choice for giant firms like Google, Microsoft, etc.

Overflow

Overflow is not your traditional prototype/design spec visualizer, but it could be pretty useful.

Originally created for pushing out flow diagrams of a product or UX design prototype, it could serve perfectly as a platform for displaying works to client as easily as possible. However, it comes with a 30-day catch which might also interest you to discover.

Working from the Extra Four

Getting a chance to shoot out 4 extra works to clients and developers alike to visualize and/or work from could prove to be a big boost to your startup outfit or your freelance career.

It diminishes the publishing uncertainty that somehow hangs around product designing in its Neo-stages.

An opportunity to push out an additional four works to the payment space could financially uplift things to a better level for whatever it is you have started up with. Don’t be too addicted. Within months and a few trial and errors, you should be on your way to getting yourself or your outfit one of the publishing plans from XD or its partners illuminated in this article.

Thanking me would be by sharing this article to as many product designers or UI/UX enthusiasts as possible.

Thank you for taking your time to read this article. Be sure to drop a few comments below.