This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Working with UI Kits
In Adobe XD you have access to a series of UI (user interface) kits for Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows, Google Material (Android), and wireframes. UI kits and wireframes can save time when you’re designing for different device interfaces and platforms. They are XD files that include common design elements such as icons, keyboard layouts, navigation bars, inputs, buttons, and more. You can use a UI kit as a starting point or copy and paste elements into your own design. These resources can help you create a design that matches a specific design language (like iOS).
Downloading the UI kit
In this section, you’ll download and unzip a UI kit from the developer.apple.com website. You’ll then open an XD file from the downloaded files and copy a few elements into your design.
Choose File > Get UI Kits > Apple iOS (macOS) or, on Windows, click the menu icon (
) in the upper-left corner of the application window and choose Get UI Kits > Apple iOS.The UI kits listed in the menu you see are links to the websites that they can be downloaded from. By choosing Apple iOS, the developer.apple.com website is opened in your default browser to a page (developer.apple.com/design/resources/) where you can download a UI kit specifically for Adobe XD.
On the web page that opens in your default browser, click Download For Adobe XD. A DMG file is downloaded to your computer.
Find the DMG file that was downloaded and double-click it. After you accept an agreement, you can view the contents in a window. Double-click the iOS 13 Adobe XD folder to view its contents.
Save the UI Elements + Design Templates + Guides folder to the Lessons folder on your hard drive so you can easily find the contents.
On macOS, in the same window that you double-clicked the iOS 13 Adobe XD folder, double-click the file “Download San Francisco.webloc” to go to a web page in your browser. On that page, click the button to download the SF Pro fonts.
After the DMG for the fonts is downloaded, locate it and double-click it to view the contents. Follow the installation instructions to install the fonts.
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Opening and copying from the UI Kit
With the UI kit downloaded and the San Francisco Pro fonts installed (macOS only), now you’ll open one of the downloaded files and copy content into your Travel_Design.xd document.
Back in Adobe XD, on macOS, choose File > Open From Your Computer (macOS). Navigate to the Lessons > UI Elements + Design Templates + Guides folder. Open the UIElements+DesignTemplates+Guides-iPhone.xd file in that folder.
On Windows, click the menu icon (
) in the upper-left corner of the application window and choose Open From Your Computer (Windows). Open the UI_kit_content.xd document in XD, located in the Lessons > Lesson04 folder. Press Command+A (macOS) or Ctrl+A (Windows) to select all of the content in the document, copy it, and paste it into the Memory artboard of the Travel_Design.xd file that is still open.Press Command+0 (macOS) or Ctrl+0 (Windows) to see all of the content.
The content in the UI kit is very well organized, and content is grouped together to make selections easier. You will find, however, that it can be challenging to select individual objects since there are a lot of groups nested within groups.
With the UIElements+DesignTemplates+Guides-iPhone.xd document open (macOS), in the Layers panel (Command+Y [macOS]), type status bars into the search field (
) at the top of the Layers panel to filter the list of content that appears in the panel (circled in the figure). Click the name “Status Bars” (with the folder icon to the left) to select that content in the document.Press Command+3 (macOS) or Ctrl+3 (Windows) to zoom in to the status bars.
Click the X to the right of the search field (
) (circled in the figure) at the top of the Layers panel to clear the filtering. You should now see all of the content for the UI ELEMENTS - BARS artboard listed in the Layers panel.Click the folder icon (
) (circled in the following figure) to the left of the Status Bars object in the Layers panel to see the contents of the group.You need to select and copy a dark version of the status bar and a light version.
Click the “Status Bar” name to the right of each folder icon until you see the top, black text status bar selected (see the figure).
Click the folder icon for the selected Status Bar to show the content (circled in the following figure).
Click the name “Status Bar” to the left of the remaining folder icons until you see the top, white text status bar selected (see the figure).
Click the folder icon for the selected status bar to show the content.
Press the Command key (macOS) or Ctrl key (Windows), and in the Layers panel, click the black status bar and then click the white status bar to select both (see the figure for which to select). Right-click either of them and choose Copy to copy them.
Choose File > Close (macOS) to close the file and return to the Travel_Design.xd document.
Back in the Travel_Design.xd document, press Command+V (macOS) or Ctrl+V (Windows) to paste the status bars in the center of the document window. Drag the pasted content above the Memory artboard for now.
When you drag the pasted content, you may wind up deselecting it instead. In Adobe XD, you cannot just drag from within the bounds of the group; you need to drag from the content in the group. You may want to zoom in to make it easier to drag.
Press Command+S (macOS) or Ctrl+S (Windows) to save the file. If you plan on jumping to the next lesson, you can leave the Travel_Design.xd file open. Otherwise, for each open document, choose File > Close (macOS) or click the X in the upper-right corner (Windows).
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