Stacks on Stacks

How to incorporate a new feature into my workflow?

Photo by Rob Sheahan on Unsplash

As an Adobe XD fan, I wanted to like their new feature Stacks. XD has so many features that are specifically created to ease a UX designer’s workflow, like Component States and Repeat Grid, that I had expected their new Stacks feature to be similarly revolutionary. I gave it a try last week (here’s my first foray into Stacks), and again this week with a few Behance challenges. Unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations.

Basically, Stacks allows you to rearrange items in a group without having to manually adjust the spacing in the layout. The items are arranged in a grid-like way, where they can swap spaces with each other and snap into place if moved.

I can see how this would be useful — if you have elements that are roughly similar sizes and could potentially be placed in multiple areas on a layout. I found it helpful when reviewing a layout with a team member, and showing them different layouts on the fly, because the elements could be easily swapped.

I think I’ll tend to think of Stacks as an extension of the Repeat Grid feature. Overall, it’s lackluster compared to the other innovative features I know and love in Adobe XD. Stacks isn’t bad — it just isn’t spectacular either.