Just submitted my first plugin woohoo!

Adobe XD UXP Plugin API
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Man it feels so good to press that Submit button at last!!! Pardon me for all the exclamations, I might be a little delirious because I stayed up all night Photoshopping and doing final tweaks to code instead of sleeping, but I just want to express my happiness and thankfulness to this community!! Your help has been so essential to getting my idea out of my head and into an .xdx package!!

3 months ago, I hadn’t ever touched Adobe XD before, or used any other prototyping software before really, I just wanted to learn and gain experience. The first time I installed and opened up XD, I was trying to design some screens for an app idea (as we are all wont to do). As I was following along with some noob tutorials, I noticed something that was slightly annoying to me, so of course I googled it which is when I found that people had been complaining about it since 2016! Probably a good guess to say it wouldn’t be getting fixed any time soon. I was kinda sad honestly. Luckily one of the tutorials introduced me to plugins and when I read more into it, I slowly started to envision a solution for my problem and realized that I could, maybe, probably, implement it with my current skills??

It was kind of a big moment, because I’ve started projects before only to give up halfway when I would get stuck on some blocker, or realize that the project was too complex to handle. I’ve gotten a whole group of friends together for an app idea that we were all passionate about, but it fizzled out once we started coding, leaving me feeling guilty that I let so many people down. I had never actually finished anything that I started. These thoughts made me really down on myself and I struggled massively with self-doubt, and still do to this day. But…this plugin idea felt different. More approachable. I could see a finish line more clearly than with the other previous projects. And hey there’s even a nice forum with not too many people where maybe if I had a question someone would actually see and be able to help? :^)

So I started it, and I worked at it, and definitely ran into a fair share of bumps. I am especially grateful to @pklaschka @ashryan and @kerrishotts for answering my questions and providing great resources for help. You guys made me feel welcomed :)) And to anyone who’s asked a question where I was able to use the answer, I’m thankful for as well. With this forum’s help I was able to get through all those bumps and blockers. Today I crossed that finish line and I’m really proud and happy with the end product!! I finally finished a project that I started!!! Or at least, I submitted it and I really hope it gets approved and that I’m not celebrating it prematurely!!! I’m excited for people to see it and really hope that it can help people out even just to fix a minor annoyance. It’s called Artboard Presets and it adds common presets and lets you save custom ones!!! And last but not least I’m excited to start my portfolio with this project! Actually though I’m not sure if this would even look good in a UX portfolio? Serious question, please advise!

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, thanks to anyone who’s actually read all this LOL keep going with whatever you’re doing you can do it too!!!

PS: The preview in Plugin Manager functionality did not seem to be working when I submitted. I got a message that says “Uh oh, looks like we were unable to locate XD”

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Congrats for persevering! There’s nothing quite like finishing a solid product.

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Thank you, I’m hoping to repeat that experience again!

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Congrats :tada::blush:.

You’re welcome. Always happy to help.

While I’m not an expert here (and this opinion might be controversial), I believe one should include the best projects one enjoyed doing and is proud of, no matter what. After all, it is who you are and it is these projects that make you unique (that define you).

In my opinion, a portfolio isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) an advertisement “why I should work for you”, but more a “this is who I am and why I think I’d fit your company”. If an employer/client/whatever can’t respect who you are, talent would get lost if you worked for them.

Now: Some may call me delusional for what I wrote here and that’s ok. It’s just my, admittedly rather privileged (I’m not currently in a struggle money-wise), opinion :slightly_smiling_face:.

I’m sure that even if it gets rejected the first time, that’ll be a problem you (or, in the “worst” case, with a bit of help from the forums, we) will be able to resolve :wink:. In that sense: One again: congrats, happy future plugin development (I can’t wait to try the plugin) and if you have any questions, you know where to ask :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks for your kind words and guidance @pklaschka :slight_smile: I think that kind of portfolio will be something I aim to build! And my plugin is approved and live now if you’d like to check it out!

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@qmulus congratulations! We love to read stories like this and are really happy that you were able to see it through to completion, and ultimately to publishing on the XD Plugin Manager!

I’m going to keep this one installed. I use XD for creating presentations (in fact, I just gave a presentation using XD today). While I tend to grab for XD’s Web preset (1920 x 1080) because it’s easy, I sometimes wonder if that’s the optimal size for my use case. Being able to create a custom preset seems like a great idea. I also like that you included print sizes. It’s very rare I ever print anything, but when it comes up, I find myself searching for info :slight_smile:

And last but not least I’m excited to start my portfolio with this project! Actually though I’m not sure if this would even look good in a UX portfolio? Serious question, please advise!

I’m no expert on UX portfolios, but it seems like this is something that would be worth including. In addition to @pklaschka’s comments about showcasing the things that make you unique, you’d also be showcasing the UX you created for your plugin, the problem you wanted to solve for other UX designers, and technical skill. That seems very compelling to me.

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Thank you, it’s just really cool to be part of this little niche of people who are both technical and also care about design, and be able to contribute back :smiley: I really appreciate the detailed feedback, and I’m so glad you find it useful! Definitely gonna start working on the portfolio now :slight_smile:

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