Apple

I’d say the first rule about using a new OS is to not try to do everything like the old one. 80-90% is the same or similar and the rest needs to be learned or discovered. Aside from installing the apps you need for your graphic design work (like Adobe or whatever you use), I’d suggest giving it an honest try rather than installing a bunch of stuff to make it work like Windows. Of course, if you’re needing something modified or need something the native apps can’t provide, the other posters in this thread have listed a bunch of great suggestions.

As another poster mentioned, using Spotlight is a great way to finding things quickly; it’s much faster than Windows search.

Using Help from the File menu can be useful; it does a good job with built in apps and features. There are also a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so it can be useful to learn them for efficiency.

It sounds like you’re using a laptop, so I’d recommend configuring gestures as they work wonderfully with the trackpad (there’s also an option for three-finger drag which is great for moving files and windows). You can also setup hot corners for different functions. If you loose the cursor, there’s a “Shake mouse pointer to locate” option enabled by default that makes the cursor larger temporarily.

Setting up FileVault (disk encryption) and Time Machine (backups) are good ideas too. Rule of thumb for Time Machine is to get double your disk size for your backup drive- use a 2 TB backup drive if your machine has a 1 TB hard drive.

There’s a transfer utility you can use to bring stuff from your Windows machine to the Mac.

You might check out the Affinity suite of graphic design apps. They are well supported on the Mac but of course it depends on what your needs are.