For more than two decades, Adobe has been synonymous with creativity. From Photoshop and Illustrator to InDesign, After Effects, and Premiere Pro, Adobe has built an ecosystem that continues to define the creative industry. At Top Shelf Design, Adobe Creative Cloud is at the center of our daily workflow, and we rely on its applications to create everything from branding and print collateral to digital marketing campaigns and motion graphics.
However, when it comes to modern UX/UI design and website prototyping, the conversation has changed.
The End of an Era for Adobe XD and Dreamweaver
Adobe once had ambitious plans for web design. Dreamweaver dominated the early days of website development, while Adobe XD was introduced as the company’s answer to modern interface design and prototyping.
Today, both products have largely stepped aside.
Dreamweaver remains available but has seen very little meaningful development in recent years, while Adobe XD entered maintenance mode, with Adobe confirming that no major new features are planned. Existing users continue to receive support, but the product is no longer being actively advanced.
For many design teams, this marked the end of Adobe’s direct competition in the UX/UI space.
Why Figma Won
While Adobe was refining XD, Figma fundamentally changed how design teams collaborate.
Unlike traditional desktop software, Figma was built for the browser first. Designers, developers, project managers, marketers, and clients can all work inside the same file simultaneously. Real-time collaboration, shared component libraries, version history, developer handoff, and cross-platform accessibility quickly made Figma the preferred platform for product and web design.
The advantages are difficult to ignore:
- Real-time collaboration without sending files back and forth.
- Cloud-based projects that work on virtually any operating system.
- Powerful design systems and reusable components.
- Excellent developer handoff tools.
- Easy sharing with clients for reviews and feedback.
As organizations increasingly embraced remote work and distributed teams, these collaborative features became essential rather than optional. Figma’s rapid adoption reflected a broader shift toward cloud-native design workflows.
Adobe Tried to Buy Figma
In 2022, Adobe announced plans to acquire Figma in a deal valued at approximately $20 billion. The move was widely viewed as an attempt to strengthen Adobe’s position in collaborative product design.
After more than a year of regulatory review, Adobe and Figma mutually agreed to terminate the acquisition because there was no clear path to regulatory approval in Europe and the United Kingdom. Both companies continue to operate independently today.
Where We See the Industry Going
At Top Shelf Design, we’ve watched the design landscape evolve rapidly over the last several years.
Today, Figma has become the industry standard for:
- Website wireframes
- UX/UI design
- Interactive prototypes
- Design systems
- Product design
- Collaborative design reviews
The pace of innovation within Figma continues to accelerate, with expanded developer tools, AI-assisted workflows, and increasingly powerful collaborative features. For agencies, startups, nonprofits, and enterprise organizations alike, Figma has become the platform that keeps designers and developers working together efficiently.
Adobe Still Leads Creative Design
While Adobe’s web design tools have lost momentum, that doesn’t diminish the incredible value of the rest of Creative Cloud.
At Top Shelf Design, Adobe remains indispensable.
Our designers use:
- Photoshop for image editing and compositing
- Illustrator for logos and vector graphics
- InDesign for annual reports, publications, and marketing collateral
- After Effects for motion graphics
- Premiere Pro for video production
- Acrobat for document workflows
- Lightroom for photography
These applications remain the gold standard across the creative industry and continue to evolve with impressive AI-powered features that help creatives work faster without sacrificing quality.
Our Workflow Today
Rather than choosing Adobe or Figma, we believe the strongest creative workflows combine the best of both.
A typical website project at Top Shelf Design often looks like this:
- Brand assets created in Adobe Illustrator.
- Photography enhanced in Photoshop and Lightroom.
- Marketing materials produced in InDesign.
- UX and website interfaces designed collaboratively in Figma.
- Development completed using modern web technologies and content management systems like WordPress.
Each platform excels at what it was designed to do.
Looking Ahead
Technology changes quickly, and creative professionals must evolve alongside it.
Adobe helped define digital design for an entire generation of creatives, and its influence remains unmatched across branding, photography, publishing, video, and illustration. At the same time, Figma has redefined what modern web and product design collaboration should look like.
As a design agency, our responsibility isn’t to stay loyal to software—it’s to choose the tools that help our clients achieve the best results.
That means embracing Figma for collaborative UX/UI design while continuing to rely on Adobe Creative Cloud for the world-class creative tools that power nearly every other aspect of our work.
The future of web design isn’t Adobe versus Figma.
It’s using the right tool for the right job.
