Leading the transition to Adobe XD

Macy's made a company-wide decision to switch from Sketch to Adobe XD, received with considerable hesitation from the design team which had just recently adopted Sketch. Never having used XD myself, I was tasked to lead this transition within the UX team. Quickly gaining a deep understanding of its capabilities, I successfully led the transition across our designers with a shared design system, training, and processes to make the transition as smooth as possible.

A connected system

Collaborating across UX, marketing, and engineering, I structured a cloud-based system of assets, components, and published designs for a seamless flow from design to review and handoff.

The basics

At the core are our basic styleguide elements of logo, color, iconography, and typography.

Grid

The grid came in 2 flavors, one with a thin gutter for edge-to-edge experiences and another with a wider gutter for separation between content.

Base UI

The base UI covered the foundational elements of our user interface.

Global

Larger components began at the top level with components used globally through the experience.

Homepage components

Style and UI expanded into template-specifici components, beginning with our newly-styled Homepage.

Category components

Search and Browse components

Product detail components

Recommendation components

Templates

Our components served as building blocks for full page templates. Below are examples built in the design system to give our designers a headstart in any of their designs.

Training Material

I held a training workshop to guide the team through installation and use of the system, and alleviate their overall concerns to transparently answer the pros and cons of Adobe XD versus Sketch.

Outcome

I made myself continually available for support and questions, especially in the early days with the expected disorientation of a new tool. And over time, the initial reluctance shifted more towards acceptance and comfort as the team became more immersed in the tool, the design system, and the new ways of collaboration that Adobe XD made possible.