User Guide Cancel

Work with shared prototypes in XD

Last updated on 20 April 2022

Adobe XD User Guide
Introduction
Design
1. Artboards, guides, and layers
2. Shapes, objects, and path
3. Text and fonts
  1. Work with drawing and text tools
  2. Fonts in Adobe XD
4. Components and states
5. Masking and effects
6. Layout
7. Videos and Lottie animations
Prototype
Share, export, and review
Design systems
Cloud documents
Integrations and plugins
XD for iOS and Android
1. Preview on mobile devices
2. Adobe XD on mobile FAQ
Troubleshooting
1. Known and fixed issues
  1. Known issues
  2. Fixed issues
2. Installation and updates
3. Launch and crash
4. Cloud documents and Creative Cloud Libraries
5. Prototype, publish, and review
6. Import, export, and working with other apps

Learn how to work with shared prototypes in XD.

Adobe XD facilitates easy collaboration between designers and reviewers on shared prototypes. As a reviewer, you can work with the prototypes in the following ways:

Interact with prototypes
Navigate prototypes
Add comments

Let us first get familiar with the prototype link settings and options.

Get familiar with settings and options

In the prototype link, you can check your account settings, adjust zoom settings, check notifications, and invite other stakeholders:

A. Invite B. Zoom settings C. Full screen mode D. Support and feedback E. Notifications F. Account settings

Invite: To invite other stakeholders to the prototype link, click Invite. When you invite a stakeholder, you can set the access-level to Can View or Can Share. You must sign in to your Adobe account to see the Invite button.
Zoom settings: To zoom in and out of the prototype link, use zoom settings. You can select from the pre-defined zoom increments: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 150%, 200%, as needed. Alternatively, use the pinch-to-zoom gesture on the touchpad, or hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key and use the mouse wheel to scroll by smaller increments. The default zoom level at which prototype links open remain the same as before.
Full screen mode: Click the full screen icon to view the prototype in full screen mode. Press Esc to exit the full screen mode.
Support and feedback: At any time, if you want to get help or provide feedback, click the question mark icon.
Notifications: To view all activities/notifications across the prototypes applicable to you, click the bell icon.
Account settings: To see your user account details, click the profile icon.

Interact with prototypes

Shared prototypes are interactive in nature. You can interact with a prototype by using triggers. Use triggers as defined by the designer such as tap, drag, keyboard, gamepad, and voice inputs, that result in actions such as transition, audio, speech, video, and Lottie playback. You can also use the navigation controls at the bottom of the screen.

Things to watch out for

If the loading screen of the prototype link has video that is set to play automatically, the video will always be muted. Click Unmute in the message you get at the bottom of the screen.
[Safari only] By default, auto-play of sound is disabled on Safari. To enable auto-play of sound on XD prototype links, see Enable auto-play of sound on Safari. If you enable auto-play for XD prototype links, you don't have to unmute video in future.

To learn how video works with other interactions, see Understand interactions and video playback behavior.

Unmute video — Click Unmute in the blue banner at the bottom of the screen

Navigate prototypes

At the bottom of prototype, you can click the left and right arrow control buttons to move across the artboards of a prototype. Click Home to go back to the first artboard view.

When you click a comment in browser app, the artboard corresponding to that comment appears on the screen.

To create a more controlled environment for user testing in prototypes with wires, you can hide the pagination and navigation controls in your web prototype.

To do so, select Share > View Setting > Custom > Show Navigation Control when creating links in XD. For more information, see Share prototypes.

If the navigation controls are:

Enabled (default setting): prototype web app shows the Home, Back, and Next buttons.
Disabled: prototype web app navigation controls and the artboard numbers are not visible. You can use the defined hotspots to interact with prototypes and click the Home button to navigate to the home screen. When you open a prototype in a mobile, you can view the onboarding screen, the left/right chevrons are hidden, and the swipe gesture is disabled.

A. Home B. Previous artboard C. Next artboard

If prototype flows have wires, you can choose to show navigation controls when publishing your prototypes.

Grid view

Grid view in prototypes and design specs makes it easier for your stakeholders or developers to quickly navigate to the most relevant artboard.

To switch to grid view, click the link name or the grid icon in the upper right corner of the shared prototype.

A. Grid icon with the link name B. Collapse the comments panel

In the grid view, you can:

View the thumbnail representation of all the screens,
Count of comments on a given artboard,
Search for a particular artboard by its name, and
Click the linked screen icon to view all the linked screens for a given artboard.

A. Number of comments on an artboard B. Click the linked screen icon to view the linked screens C. Linked screens of the artboard First Cards

Add comments

You can review prototypes and share feedback with designers by adding comments on the shared prototypes. The prototype link is always up to date with the latest comments.

Prerequisites

You can comment on public designs and prototypes without signing in at the first instance.

You can sign in using your Adobe ID or choose to comment as a guest. To sign in as a guest, click Sign in as a Guest at the top of the panel. When prompted to provide a name, type a name, and enter the CAPTCHA code.

You can type your comments in the Make a comment section. Use Enter or Shift + Enter keys to create a new line in the comment box and Ctrl/Cmd + Enter keys to Submit the comment added.
Once comments are added, select the option next to the comment thread to Resolve, Edit, and Delete your comments. However, you cannot edit or delete comments added by other users.
Use the All Screen Comments toggle button at the lower-left corner of the comments panel to view all comments added across multiple artboards in a single view. The toggle is turned on by default in a published design specs or prototype link.
Click the to hide annotations or pins, and use the icon to filter the comments based on reviewer names, time, or status of comments.
The blue highlight on the left indicates comments for current artboard. Clicking a comment set that is not for current artboard takes you to that artboard to set the context first.
The number 3 on top of notification icon on upper-right corner of the comments panel indicates unresolved comments across multiple artboards.

A. Invite option B. Zoom settings C. Full screen mode D. Support and Feedback E. Notifications F. User profile G. Menu options for comments H. Filter comments I. Hide annotations J. All Screen Comments toggle button

A. Filter comments by reviewers B. Filter comments by time C. Filter comments by status D. Clear an added filter E. View added filter

You can also play back animations or recordings that are part of any shared prototypes and add your comments as you play them.
Use @mention while adding comments to view the list of other reviewers on a prototype. If you use this option, the other reviewer receives a notification through mail, and from the Creative Cloud desktop app. When the notification is clicked, it directs them to the referenced artboard.

When an artboard is deleted in XD, the web comments for the artboard are no longer available.

For more information, see Review prototypes.

Follow these steps to use a mobile browser in the portrait mode to add comments to shared prototypes on an Android or iOS mobile device:

Open a shared prototype in mobile browser and use the pinch gesture to open the navigation mode.

A comment icon appears along with number of comments on that prototype. This comment icon appears only when the owner enables commenting option on the prototype.
To view the comments panel, tap the comment icon. In this panel, you can add a comment, delete or edit existing comments, or pin a comment.
Tap the pin icon and then tap anywhere on the screen to place the pin marker. To commit the comment and the pin, type the comment and tap the paper plane icon.