So you have spent the last couple of weeks getting your website prototype designed perfectly in Adobe XD. Now that the design is complete or nearing completion, you are looking for ways to convert those designs in Adobe XD to WordPress.
The good news is that you can easily convert your Adobe XD website UI designs into a responsive, pixel-perfect, and bug-free WordPress website. The advancement in technology has led to robust solutions that, if applied correctly, can easily convert the designs into live HTML pages. However, it is easier said than done. WordPress is an advanced export that requires a general understanding of this open-source platform as a whole.
If this is your first time converting Adobe XD WordPress templates, this guide will help you understand the basics of conversion and discuss the steps involved in converting an Adobe XD design to WordPress.
Why Convert Adobe XD to WordPress Theme?
People looking to create a simple website, quite affordably, with not much technical knowledge, prefer WordPress over other web development tools. WordPress is open-source that can be shared and used by anyone.
The best part is that there are tons of customizable plugins available that make managing the website quite easy. And the easy drag-drop functionality with integrated website build editors within WordPress makes it even easier to perform customizations in its user-friendly interface.
Overall, WordPress is an impressive tool for content management. In fact, WordPress has a 60.8% market share in the ‘content management system’ (CMS) market. Most importantly, the WordPress Plugin Directory has over 55,000 plugins, which is just impressive. With that said, 34% of all websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress.
So, it is simple to understand why more and more developers prefer converting website design prototypes to WordPress. One of the plus points of WordPress is that you can change the theme without losing the content. This means that if you are not happy with the current Adobe XD design, you can always create a new one.
Importance of Creating a Prototype before the Final Design
You might think that creating a prototype is time-consuming and is unnecessary. Well, it is true that a functional and structured prototype takes a lot of time to develop. But it helps in determining how your website will look when it goes live. A prototype helps in checking the feasibility of the website before you go and invest hours into developing the actual website.
Making changes to a website when it is live is a lot more challenging. So, it is always better to have a prototype ready. You can create a prototype in Adobe XD, make necessary changes to it before finalizing the design, and then easily convert it into WordPress.
Recreate your Adobe XD Prototype Using Elementor
The best practice to convert Adobe XD to website is using Elementor. It prevents you from doing the laborious process of cutting HTML pieces and then pasting them into your WordPress site. With Elementor, what you see is what you get.
Adobe XD to Elementor – Process
As said earlier, your Adobe XD design prototype acts as a reference, which you can use side by side with Elementor. One of the reasons to use Elementor is that many of the details, such as fonts, height, filters, etc., are readily available to be set up in Elementor. Using Elementor is quite simple. The more you use this process, the more experience you gain.
Thus, the more you design, keeping Elementor in mind. We advise you to take into consideration the weight of the images, the boxed grid in Elementor, CTA button widgets, and other entities you plan to use. This will make the WordPress transition smooth. This is because there is no conversion process in Elementor – it seamlessly pastes the design into WordPress.
Reasons to use Elementor for creating prototypes:
- When you are developing in Elementor with respect to Adobe XD, you get the same spatial relations (minimum height, width, etc. ), and you can copy and paste the required amounts.
- Next, you have to do less work in Adobe XD as you can use Elementor’s functionalities like shape dividers and filters, among other things.
- Most designers are familiar with the navigational layers of Elementor as these layers are quite similar to the layers in Adobe XD, Photoshop, Sketch, and other tools.
- Moreover, its web environment is also similar to most design tools, including Adobe XD. Thus, the live version enables you to move things freely. You get the actual web colors as well, making the transition to WordPress seamless.
- One of the biggest benefits of using Elementor in conjunction with Adobe XD for WordPress conversion is that there is increased flexibility to implement changes.
If you are working for a client, both of you can view the staging together and gradually agree upon different phases of the project before nailing down the live website.
Lastly, you can generate highly customized websites with beautiful animations and interactions. Simply put, the design language of the theme will not constrain you. Elementor’s design functionality allows you to save time, saving you from the hassle of preparing many elements for your layout in Adobe XD. Once the design is converted, you can play around and make modifications to your design once it is live.
Because of its user-friendliness, it is easy to recreate your Adobe XD design in no time with Elementor. All you have to do is design it in Adobe XD or any other tool you prefer, then recreate it in Elementor.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Just make sure that when you are designing the prototype in Adobe XD, keep Elementor’s widgets in mind. It will speed up the process of converting your design to WordPress.
Convert Adobe XD to WordPress – The STEPS
The first question that people ask when using Adobe XD is “can you export Adobe XD to WordPress?” And the answer is ‘YES.’ You may now have realized that it is possible to convert your designs in Adobe XD WordPress templates. All you need is to find the right steps. In this section, we have discussed the best practices to convert Adobe XD design to WordPress.
#1 Prepare your materials
First things first, you need to prepare your materials. Start with saving the Adobe XD file. In Adobe, you can use the Save for Web and Devices option. This helps speed up the webpage’s loading time and keep the file size low.
- Go to > File > Save for Web and Devices > and select 2-Up
This will allow you to see your file alongside the original enabling you to determine the differences in download storage and file size. You are advised to use PNG24 as this format preserves the image quality when the image is compressed. It also handles transparency quite well.
Always stick to the middle values when it comes to quality level – say between 40 and 60. Too High-quality levels can make the image heavier, which will hinder your page’s loading time.
On the other hand, for logos and icons, save the files in SVG format. The latest version of Elementor allows you to upload files in SVG format.
- Save your settings > allocate a destination and name of your website-ready images > click Save
You are advised to create folders for your web-ready images so that everything remains in order. Then create a preset. You can use Image Processor Pro to perform this step as a batch action. This will save you more time.
Make sure that you have all the visual assets ready, including the fonts and icons. Once you have created the prototype, recreate it in Elementor.
Go to page settings > name the page > set the page layout to Elementor Canvas
If you wish to preset your fonts and colors:
Go to > menu icon > click on Color Picker > choose the colors > click Apply
Repeat the same for fonts. You can also paste or dial in the new color code from your Adobe file.
#2 Change the design to Elementor
The next step is to add a single column section and rename it. Go to style settings and add the edited image that you resized beforehand. Before saving the file, edit other parameters, such as background overlay, scrolling effects, the attachments, and the position. If the page demands, you can also add buttons, edit the texts, and set them to fit your needs.
#3 Make corrections for responsiveness
The next step is to understand the importance of responsive views and what you can do to adapt your designs to seamlessly fit the screens of all sizes – smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets.
We advise you to adapt your design for responsiveness after each section and column instead of a full page. Tweak the margins and padding at both column and section levels. You will get great results when you make modifications based on segments and not on the complete page all at once. You can translate your single column section across different views. There isn’t any need for using code, nor you have to change anything in your original design.
Now, you might be thinking, why to go to extreme lengths first to prepare the prototype in Adobe XD and then recreate it in Elementor? Why don’t you create the prototype directly in Elementor? Well, you can design your web page completely in Elementor and save the draft in PDF.
Nevertheless, using tools like Adobe XD allows you to make mistakes and errors when trying new design ideas. Adobe XD offers great flexibility when it comes to web designs. You can play around with ideas and foolproof your design. Elementor just adds flexibility to your work. It acts as a safe zone where you can test your designs and see what the results would look like in real-time on various devices.
#4 Repeat the Process
Once you follow the first three steps dedicatedly, the process only gets faster from here on. Just duplicate the sections and columns, save the widgets as global widgets, and save the pages as templates on Elementor. You can use these templates as the base for the rest of your web pages. You don’t have to recreate elements from scratch every time you work on a new page.
This not only saves time but allows you to design the other pages with more effect. Just make sure that you know how to apply margins, padding, blur, and box shadow to get the desired effect for your web page. The best thing is that you can experiment with these templates using different colors, pixels, typography, width, space, and creative ways.
Make sure you review what you have done in responsive mode at every step. If necessary, make corrections to ensure that you get the finest product in the end.
Exporting Adobe XD design to WordPress
If you wish to directly export your Adobe XD designs to WordPress, you can do so with ease. This means that even if the design comprises custom styles and designs with dynamic elements, you can export Adobe XD to a website. Adobe XD is an incredibly powerful tool for creating designs, prototypes, and wireframes for digital products. It boasts all the best-in-class functions and features, allowing collaboration between designers and clients. In this section, we will tell you how to turn your Adobe XD design into a website.
- Lunch Adobe XD program and create your prototype
- Click on the ‘menu’ button and choose ‘Plugins’ options
- Once you do that, tap on ‘Discover’
- You need to search for the Adobe XD plugin that you can use to export the file directly to the web. Install the plugin and open the file you want to export to HTML. Go to the Plugins panel and select ‘Export Artboard’
- Rename your file and create a new folder in which you will save the file in
- Once you finalize the settings, click on ‘Export down’
- This successfully converts the Adobe XD file into an HTML file
Conclusion
It is easy and effective to convert Adobe XD to WordPress theme. You just need to follow the steps mentioned in the article. Elementor acts as a wonderful platform that makes the process a lot easier. If you don’t want to follow this tutorial to convert Adobe XD to WordPress, we can do the export Adobe XD to WordPress it for you.
If you have any queries or concerns regarding what we have discussed here, feel free to ask. We are happy to help.