Hello, hello, can you hear me?
Wow, this is amazing
Hum. Wow. Yeah, this is one of those moments that I'm just a regular guy like you guys designer
with a developer
mindset sometimes
I've seen so many different things and having the opportunity to talk to so many of you is amazing
So thank you very much. Hopefully this is
A good experiment. So this is a new talk that I have and
it's very personal and
it has a lot of learnings that I have as
Part of my experience not only at Adobe but in the past
we're building XD for the last three years now and
Sometimes we show it to people and they think oh we don't need developers anymore. No, no
No, this is just to help you validate your work before you get to a developer. So I feel there's a lot of
Efforts that we have to make to teach iterate design and what it really is
so this is my attempt to do that to talk about iterate design and
the lessons learned and the mindset that you have to have in order to go through the process and
This is about me a little bit he mentioned all of that, but the only thing I want to mention here is
I just released lynda.com trainings on XD So if you want to learn about the tool you can go there
I shared everything I know about the tool and about that picture there
I went to Epicurrence amazing conference and I had this
Lighting workshop and I learned how to do that. So I I was looking for a place to add the picture so
Good
Alright, so we're gonna divide this talk in two parts
the first one is what this what this thing is and then later the
How to have the right mindset to go through the process so to get started I'll talk about what it is not right?
so this is true to a lot of agencies a lot of
Companies doing design for a long time digital design for a long time. And even Adobe used to still does a lot of that
I'm calling that traditional process and it starts with planning. Right so probably the product team or strategists and
Everyone involved with kind of a little bit of research
But there's a lot of assumptions there before you get started, right?
Then you jump to you finish all this you do information architecture and all that then you jump into design and say designer
This is a wireframe go make it pretty right. And then the designer spends a lot of time
Photoshop file
Photoshop file underscore final Photoshop file underscore we'll finally
You know
you know that the drill then he goes to a developer and the developer has to go through all the pieces and create all the
assets export the assets
It's it's the way it was done for a long long time and a lot of companies are still doing this and then a ship
In Adobe used to do a lot of that
We used to release software at every 18 months then nine months in XD ships every month
So imagine if you if you'll see like this example
plan is product design is designed development is like engineering and then ship is
Marketing you imagine waiting all that psycho until something's out
right, and that was the way we used to do things and there's a new way of um,
it's not that new it's pre old and it's
Very based in design thinking and design sprints is just an attempt to make it more effective. I think shorter in my opinion
but in summary
Design thinking and this new process this new iterative process starts with a challenge starts with the small assumption
Hypothesis that you have then you start empathizing with users
so you go there and you interview people as an anthropologist and then you watch them work and you
Sometimes I experience the same the same challenges in tools that they're using
Then after you do all that then you start thinking about the problem as the fine phase evolves as a group you id8
So instead of separating the the roles like used to be now
Throughout this whole process you can have engineers we can have
Designers you can have researchers all together product people all together
Going through this phase in an adobe we do that so when I joined Adobe three years ago
To work on this new thing that I didn't even know. It was it was a secret thing that became XD
the team was small and
We're changing their way
I think Adobe operates because
Since then we're validating every step of the way and then we build prototypes after the idat
We build prototypes for every major feature of XD you build prototypes and then we test
So this is a cycle that goes on and on and involves everyone on the team
So this is what iterative design is you build something quickly almost like an MVP
Then you test with users and I think I lost my feedback there, but that's fine
all right in the second part of this talk is
How we do it there, right? And this is a lot of this has a lot of
Lessons learned so I was one of the first product managers for XD
I was there again since the very beginning this was an awful product and we were validating every month and
Improving it every month and I did all the mistakes you can imagine as a product manager. I did I
Had I had all the wrong
Mindsets along the way. So hopefully after this talk you can kind of learn from that and hopefully
To do a good job there as well
I had to suffer to learn but now this is this presentation is an experiment to help you go through that
And I'm also trying to learn from you. So if you have
Suggestions or questions along the way, please ask this is really it has to be interactive right cool
So the first thing that I that we have there and that I try to apply to my life is defining principles
Right. So before you start anything before you start I da ting before I start creating prototypes
It's really important to have a vision a set of principles
XD started with four guys
inside Adobe
And now we have this huge team. It's a huge deal for Adobe and we're putting the user at the center of every decision
We have senior directors vice presidents tweeting and talking with users on Twitter on social media
it's like really really different really really special and I think for the first time the community is really
Building this with us and this is amazing. And because we're going through this process, I think
Chances are this thing will do well and it is doing better and better we have lots of news coming up
But talking about the principles for XD they were the first one was lightweight and approachable since the very beginning has to be fast
simple easy to learn
We're trying to look at the entire UX design challenge
Not only the design portion of it
but also the prototyping the sharing the learning and we're trying to remove friction from everywhere from all these different places in
Transparent meaning that everything we do is pretty much transparent
I'll talk about a thing called user voice that we use
that it's almost like a public backlog that you guys can can help us with and
Open meaning that very soon x2 you have plugins
So since the very beginning we had that in mind
So we'll be able to develop plugins and connect with your very specific workflows any a little bit more
So one thing that I and this is the only time during this talk that I will show the product
This is a like 2 second video super short where I want to prove that it is fast, right? So this is a
file from our friends that boosted boards
And they use XD to design the whole thing the whole website
And it has a desktop version. It has a mobile version of the same website in here
I'm just painting around and zooming in and out and as you can see there's a-there
Vectors they're they're bitmaps text all that. So be zooming in and out painting just to show performance
I'm zooming in they're showing there's an anchor point everything here is a vector, you know zoom out
You see I have more
Artboards there. I'm painting
zooming in and out
and if you zoom out that
fire is specific has 1500 artboards and
It just keeps working
Because we have that as a principal since the very beginning some files
Some some apps don't even open a file like that. Right? So this is core to the principle. That's why it's so important
Thank you. Thank you for that
Awesome and I applied that to my personal life. So this is my family
This is my Twitter account. And my first my pin twit is my my principles for my ear. So
Guy having that sometimes you're lazy like you remember the principles and it is the right thing, right?
So it's really really there to guide you along the way second thing that I learned and we also try to do that
Building a great product is a marathon right? It's not a sprint. We're not trying to be
With everything out there, especially in this iterative design process, right?
We want to build this with you guys who want to release things when they're ready?
when we feel they're ready when they're validated when they're tested when we have all these prototypes running and
Just to prove this point, how old do you think Photoshop is since first version one?
Anyone 18
28 years since version 1 right there was work before that as
an alpha beta product illustrator 30 years
Then we have
Think of losing connection in design 19 years after fax 25 years
in XD
since we launched version 1
7 months
alright, so this is a
Marathon this is not a sprint and
This is a great opportunity for everyone to participate and get there
another thing that I have years like you can iterate as fast as you can to learn as fast as you can it's almost like
You're trying to fail as fast as you can to succeed as fast as possible
It's too expensive to fail too late. Right and that's the whole idea of building a prototype and validating with users
So that's that's important to make sure you iterate even when things are released. You can go back in you can iterate in
Improve this is the first
MOC for XD that tallien the lead designer created so this design became XD
This was over three years ago, I think and this was out there
This is another thing that I was part of
We iterated multiple times almost eight months on how to have layers in XD
So layers in XD, I know if you played with it, but it's different in everything is contextual
So when you sat when you have one element selected inside
An artboard you're not distracted by all the other elements or not other artboards
It's really there to help you to move as fast as possible
And then listen to your customers a lot, but but I mean that in
we
Do that a lot
We listen to our customers a lot and there's research that prove that this is a great way for you to get real connection
So if you if you have a company or an agency or anything trying to connect with customers
There's a study and I have you can find that on my tutor if you want
I will share the slides later, but there's a study that proved that sometimes they had this big study at Princeton
I think when they had people
speaking and some people listening to that story and they mapping the brain activity of
The speaker and the listener and at the best moment of that story. They had very similar brain activity
Meaning they were almost like connected to that brain level
So when if you need to connect tell stories ask for stories, and you're going to learn a lot
Remember I mentioned user voice so this is the thing that I started
Almost like three years ago for XD when we were having all sorts of different
Sources for feedback email and forums and there's like let's use the service called user voice where anyone can suggest a feature request
Anyone can file a bug and for example that feature has already
More than 5,000 votes when you vote there you subscribe to the feature and then it can really influence how XD
Devolves, you can add comments
You can attach files and this is really helping us evolve and move forward and then talk to the customers, right? So in user voice
when we finish a feature
We change the status to feature
Like started to feature completed and everyone who asked for that feature gets an email or sometimes we need more information
We change that too. We need more information and we have more conversations there
So that's really helping us. And as you can see here can import Photoshop files. You can import sketch files in XD today
we also
Go to customer so that's why I was so excited to talk to so many of you in one place
Because we travel the world and we talk to customers everywhere. This is a design thinking workshop that we did
Just playing with XD to show some of the pieces there and that was a so like, New York
This is as in Europe talking to customers again really listening trying to build that connection that I mentioned before
This is us at Adobe MAX our big conference. And when we go to these meetings, it's not just the product people there
Engineers go designers go researchers go like everyone that's part of the team gets involved, which is super cool
Anyway, we try to make it very personal as well. And that's why I think it's really changing the way we interact with people
So if you want to be part of this, please please join this and it's gonna be awesome
Another lesson learned that I had There having more people doesn't mean things will move faster, right?
This is when we started XD three years ago things were super fast. We're like limbo. We're about to change things
But now that we have a lot of people if you count the names they're in the about screen
You see there's a lot of people different countries
Everyone working on this thing
It that we need to have more process
We need to have more testing like a new code that makes two into master can break everything else
so there's a lot of tests a lot of things protecting and
that's why I think if you really
Having a great time as a small team enjoy it because if you grow that's gonna tend to be more it's not bad
But there's a lot more process. So I miss the old days of XTU where things were easier. It was fun
And this is another mindset that's super important. Right as you go through this iterative design process
Everything you do is temporary
In the past. I remember when I was running my agency or teaching people
I was like or learning from people. I was like, this is final. This is my best presentation
This is my best design. I was like big so perfect and that doesn't work with it
You're gonna you're not gonna last a month two months if you keep that mindset
So make sure you understand that things change all the time. So everything you do is temporary. Everything is a
hypothesis, another thing that we believe and I learned that as well as well like we're not trying to rush we tend to do the
Best work we can we have so much respect for other tools that are out there, right?
They deliver amazing value now. It's our attempt to talk to you guys connect you guys and deliver the best value we can
That's our idea there. And this is I think the most important one if I have a list of our elements there in this talk
And it took me time to get there right? I've been through different companies and I ran a company I was taught and
It's so hard when I joined the dilip is like oh, oh everything it has to be perfect
And this is kind of being vulnerable again, right? I don't wanna
maybe this is a bad idea, but
Being confident is really really important and they don't teach this at school, right?
It's almost like if you have an opportunity, you're going to a meeting you're nervous
Force yourself to be confident, even if you're not
It's gonna be better than if you're afraid and you're protective and like aware and I've learned that the hard way
so now I'm trying to be confident and
It works right like for example here I could be dying. But I'm I'm
Trying to have a good time and I am having a good time. But I made that decision. It's a choice right be confident in
to explain that a little bit you can go back in time and say like everyone when you're you're young and
I'll
Everyone is creative. Everyone does amazing things. I have a daughter three-year-old daughter. She does amazing things and it's there
She's very confident and she does all this things. So as time bah, the time goes by
Society your friends your family they start to say no. This is bad. Don't do that and it's kind of blocking that so
remember this and try to go back to that and
Relax, try to have fun
And this is kind of again. It's a choice right you can
Pretend you're confident even if you're not but it will help more than if you're not
Ah
and
This is the the end of the talk, right? I remember seeing this movie
I think was I don't forgot the title, but is there's a saying saying that
Everything will be okay in the end if it's not, okay, it's not the end yet, right
So keep that in mind try to relax I was so inspired by the talks in the morning era and like all that
With people building things for people. Let's let's do the best we can let's have some strategies. Let's connect
Let's have fun right time goes by so fast
So these are all the the learnings and all my my findings along the way I'm still here
I didn't die and I'm sure you can do it and
The last thing we if you're not continuing the conversation, of course you can go on Twitter but every Monday at 11:00 a.m
Pacific we go live on Facebook and Twitter to talk about
XD we do portfolio reviews and we talk so if you're interested just join
Adobe XD on Facebook or follow us creative column-two on youtube. And yeah. So again guys, this is amazing
Thank you very very much for talking
For for your time and everything will be ok. Nian. Thank you