Graphic Design & Illustration · Tools
Adobe XD is winding down: what designers should learn instead
Adobe stopped active development on XD, and the industry moved to Figma. Here is what that means for your existing files, your skills, and what to learn next.
The Nextversity teamGraphic Design & Illustration schoolUpdated August 10, 20265 min read
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The short answer
Adobe stopped active development on XD, and it is no longer sold as a standalone app. Existing files still open, and new work has moved elsewhere.
For anyone deciding what to learn: learn Figma. It is what the industry standardized on, it is what job listings ask for, and it has a free tier you can learn on. Adobe's own XD documentation remains available if you need it for existing files.
What actually happened
Adobe attempted to acquire Figma. The deal did not complete, and XD moved into maintenance rather than active development. Teams that had standardized on XD started migrating, and the tooling ecosystem followed.
The practical upshot is that XD skills still work on XD files and have a shrinking future, while XD-specific knowledge is not transferable to where the work is going.
If you have XD skills already
Good news: most of it transfers. Artboards, symbols, prototyping links, repeat grids, and the general shape of interface work are the same ideas with different names.
What you will need to relearn:
- Auto layout, which is more capable than XD's stacks and takes a week to feel natural.
- Components and variants, which are more powerful and more structured.
- Collaboration, which is the actual point of Figma and changes how you work rather than just which buttons you press.
Give it a week of real project work rather than a tutorial afternoon. There is a starter guide to work through.
If you have XD files
There is no clean native import. Options, in order of how well they usually go:
- Rebuild. Painful and honest. Export the assets, rebuild the structure properly with components and auto layout. Files usually come out better, because you rebuild with hindsight.
- Community conversion plugins. They exist and results vary. Worth trying on one file before committing.
- Export assets and specs, then treat the old file as reference documentation rather than a living source.
For a design system, rebuilding is almost always the right answer. Converted components tend to be structurally wrong in ways that cost more later than the rebuild would have.
Migrating a tool is annoying once. Maintaining a system built on a converted file is annoying every week.
What about Sketch?
Still developed, still used, particularly on established macOS-only teams. It is a good tool. Figma has the larger share of new work and the better collaboration story, which is what most teams optimize for now.
If you are choosing what to learn with no existing constraint, Figma is the low-risk answer.
What this says about tool choice generally
XD was a serious product from the largest company in design software, and it still wound down. That is a useful reminder: skills transfer, tools do not.
The parts of your ability that survive any tool change are the fundamentals: hierarchy, typography, flows, states, accessibility, and the reasoning behind a decision. Those are worth more study time than any feature set.
The tool is worth learning properly because you use it daily. It is not worth an identity.
What to learn next
- Figma fundamentals. Frames, auto layout, components, prototyping. Figma's help center is thorough and free.
- The UX thinking. Flows, research, testing. There is a breakdown of UX versus UI if the split is new to you.
- Design systems. How to build a set of parts a team can work from.
- Accessibility. Increasingly a hiring requirement rather than a bonus.
Where to learn it
The UX/UI design course covers Figma end to end alongside the design thinking. If you are moving from XD, the Adobe XD course is still there for maintaining existing files, and Figma is where new work should go.
One subscription opens the whole Graphic Design & Illustration school, so learning both costs nothing extra.
Learn Figma. Keep the fundamentals. Tools will keep changing and those will not.
Questions people ask
Is Adobe XD discontinued?
Adobe stopped active development and no longer sells it as a standalone app. Existing installations continue to work and Adobe has provided support for existing customers, so check Adobe's own pages for the current position.
Should I still learn Adobe XD?
Only if a specific job requires maintaining existing XD files. For new work, learn Figma, which is what the industry standardized on.
Can I open XD files in Figma?
Not natively. Community plugins and conversion tools exist with mixed results, and complex files usually need rebuilding. Export assets and rebuild the structure with components.
How long does it take to move from XD to Figma?
A few days for the basics, since the concepts are similar. Auto layout and components work differently enough that a week of real project work is a fair estimate to be comfortable.
What about Sketch?
Sketch is still developed and still used, particularly on macOS-only teams. Figma has the larger share of new work and the better collaboration story.