- Ruth Kogan
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Design is all around us, subtly shaping the way we interact with the modern world. From the layout of an app interface to the visuals on a website, design fuels how we consume, communicate and connect. While traditional graphic design has been rooted in prints or physical forms, modern design is primarily created for screens. For those just stepping into the design landscape or wanting to refine their understanding, it’s essential to grasp the nuances of digital design and how it can expand creative possibilities.
This article walks you through everything about digital design—how it compares to other types of graphic design, its forms, its components and how you can start creating visually captivating, functional works.
What is digital design?
Digital design is the process of creating visual content for digital platforms. Unlike traditional print design, it’s not static—it’s meant for interactive mediums like websites, apps and social media. It goes beyond just creating stand-out visuals; it’s about designing elements that function seamlessly in a digital ecosystem.
Key elements in digital design include typography, color schemes, imagery and user interface elements like buttons and menus. But more than that, great digital design centers on how these elements interact with the user experience, keeping audiences engaged and encouraging action.
12 Types of digital design
01. Web design
Web design is the foundation of creating online experiences. It involves planning and building the layout, structure and visual appearance of websites. The goal of web design is to ensure functionality and aesthetics come together harmoniously to make an engaging experience for the end user.
The process involves creating wireframes, choosing typography, selecting color schemes and placing imagery carefully, all while keeping usability and accessibility in mind. A strong web design boosts user engagement, improves navigation and ensures a site stands out in a competitive online space.
Learn more: How to make a website.
02. App design
App design encompasses the visual and functional elements of applications for both mobile devices and desktops. Designers must consider the unique constraints of smaller screens and touch interfaces to ensure apps are intuitive and visually appealing. This process often involves prototyping user interfaces (UI) and testing user experiences (UX) to optimize how users interact with the app, focusing on seamless navigation while balancing aesthetics and practicality.
An app's icon serves as the face of the brand on app stores and users' home screens. Designing this icon requires distilling the app's purpose and branding into a small, striking visual that is recognizable, scalable, and adheres to platform guidelines. Whether minimal or intricate, the goal is to create an icon that stands out, is instantly identifiable, and entices users to click.
03. UI design
User interface design focuses on the design of user interfaces for digital products, such as websites and mobile apps. UI designers create the look and feel of digital interfaces while also crafting the interactions and animation effects.
04. UX design
User experience (UX) design is a discipline that focuses on the overall experience that a person has when interacting with the design of a product or service. It encompasses a wide range of design considerations, including the information architecture in a product, the design of individual screens/pages and setting up a seamless system of navigation and interactions.
05. Email design
Email design blends creativity with performance-driven thinking. It involves both the layout of an email's visual elements and the messaging hierarchy to maximize engagement.
Good email design ensures readability on all devices, employs captivating visuals and includes clear calls to action. Whether creating a newsletter, promotional email or professional email signatures, the design needs to both inform and entice the user.
06. Banner ad design
Banner ads are visual advertisements that appear on websites or social media platforms. These ads serve to drive user action, such as clicking through to learn more about a product or service.
Designing banner ads means working within strict space constraints while making an impact. The right combination of colors, typography and imagery can make all the difference in their effectiveness.
Learn more: How to make a banner.
07. Ebook design
Ebooks combine content writing with creative layout design, transforming knowledge into visually digestible reading material for screens. This design work often includes structural layout choices, graphical elements and careful typesetting to ensure both aesthetic and functional readability.
A well-designed eBook should be easy to skim yet sufficiently structured to encourage deeper reading. The process involves balancing wide margins, appropriate fonts and graphical visuals that keep the reader visually engaged.
08. 3D design
3D design involves creating three-dimensional visuals for use in various virtual or augmented projects. This could include rendering objects for virtual reality environments, product showcases or architectural mockups.
The tools and skills in 3D modeling include lighting, texturing and animating, which make objects and environments look realistic. Mastery of these programs takes creativity and technical knowledge.
09. Landing page design
Landing page design is an essential part of marketing strategies, centered on creating standalone web pages tailored for specific campaigns or conversions. Unlike general web designs, these pages are built with a single goal in mind—whether it’s driving email sign-ups or boosting product sales.
Landing pages often include captivating visuals, concise messaging and strategically placed call-to-action buttons. Every element is optimized to lead visitors toward the desired outcome, making the design process both technical and creative.
10. Social media design
Social media design extends to all posts, banners and stories aimed at platforms like Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. This type of work allows for creativity but also comes with the expectation of reinforcing a brand's identity.
Creating assets for social media often involves tailoring the design for specific sizes and formats. Social media design aims to engage and entertain users while promoting brand awareness and driving engagement. The designs need to communicate messages quickly, as users typically scroll through social feeds rapidly.
Get started with these Wixel social media templates.
11. Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing involves creating digital formats of traditionally printed materials, like brochures, magazines and annual reports. While the focus is often visual, functionality plays a major role as these documents are intended to be shared and consumed online.
Designers must ensure that layout elements remain interactive and mobile-friendly. This work pulls together typography, imagery and even built-in hyperlinks to produce modern digital documents.
12. Powerpoint design
PowerPoint design helps users streamline presentations by offering pre-designed slides that are both aesthetic and functional. Templates often include cohesive color schemes, typography choices and placeholder elements for text and images.
This type of work ensures branding consistency across a company's presentations while enabling teams to focus on enhancing content rather than worrying about the design details.
Learn more: How to make a slideshow.
Components of effective digital design
Creating effective designs for the web requires an understanding of both design, your brand and potential users. Let's explore some of the most important best practices to help you create engaging, effective designs that resonate with your audience.
Practice user-centered design
Design should always be focused on the user and their needs. Digital designers should conduct user research and usability testing to gain insights into how users interact with their products and use this information to inform their design decisions.
Consistency and continuity
Designers rarely create a product for just one type of device. That's why digital designers should ensure that their designs are consistent and accessible across different platforms and devices. This practice will ensure that elements such as typography, color and imagery are used consistently throughout a product.
Tip: Use the Wixel AI image generator to produce consistent, high-quality imagery that aligns perfectly with your brand across all platforms.
Functional minimalism
Simple, clean designs are more likely to be effective and user-friendly than designs with a lot of unnecessary details. Functional minimalism is a technique that helps digital designers prioritize visual elements and minimize clutter and distractions to the user.
Visual hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is a term used to describe how content sections are structured on a page. A good visual hierarchy makes it easy for users to scan content and find what they want. A few elements contribute to good visual hierarchy—white space, typography and color. White space is used to separate individual sections from each other, while typography and color can guide the user through the page and focus their attention on particular elements.
Start here to learn what is typography.
Mobile-first design approach
With the majority of internet traffic (up to 60%) now coming from mobile devices, it's vital to prioritize mobile design. Mobile-first design is an approach used to optimize the design for small screens first and then move toward larger screens. Keep in mind that within this process, image optimization can be a bit tricky and you may have to manually resize the image to a particular medium or use special image resizer tools.
Accessibility
You should always ensure that designs are accessible to various groups of users, including people with disabilities, such as those who are visually impaired, deaf or have motor impairments. To do this, follow WCAG guidelines when creating a product. This includes, but is not limited to, using clear and concise text, providing alt text for images and designing interfaces that are easy to navigate using a keyboard.
Continual testing and improvement
Digital design is an iterative process. It's nearly impossible to design a perfect product from the first attempt. That's why digital designers should continually test and refine their designs based on the feedback they receive from customers and analytics.
Our AI art generator transforms your ideas into one-of-a-kind artwork—ideal for personal projects, socials or sparking creativity. Just describe your vision and let AI create it.
What does a digital designer do?
The role of a digital designer encompasses a wide range of responsibilities, including from planning visual concepts to developing user interfaces. Depending on the area of specialities and the brands they work with, the actual responsibilities can vary, but the global goal stays the same. Digital designers' main goal is to enhance the user experience by creating visually appealing and user-friendly digital products.
Anyone who chooses to be a digital designer needs to remember that becoming a great designer takes time, dedication and hard work. Still, with persistence, you can achieve your goals and become the one who shapes the future of technology. If this is for you, as you gain experience and refine your skills, you should consider building an online portfolio of your work.This portfolio should showcase your best designs and demonstrate your abilities as a digital designer.
How to get started in digital design
Digital design is an essential aspect of modern life. With the continued growth of technology and more intense competition in the market, it's more critical than ever to invest in creating great product design. That being said—it doesn't always require you to hire a professional.
There are many ways to succeed on your own. To make the most of digital design, you need relevant technical skills, an understanding of design principles and an awareness of the latest design trends. Whether you’re interested in hiring a digital designer, using the help of tools to dive into your own creation process or even becoming a professional designer yourself—the following guidelines can help you integrate digital design and use it to your advantage.
Conceptualize and create visual designs
This includes brainstorming ideas, sketching concepts and creating wireframes, mockups and prototypes of future products. To optimize this conceptual process, use your understanding of human psychology and design principles like color theory, typography and composition.
Produce digital content
This involves writing text copy and creating graphics and animations for various types of products—from websites and mobile apps to social media posts and digital advertising campaigns.
Conduct user research
Conducting user research can help gain insights about user behavior. By understanding how users interact with digital products, you’ll know what improvements should be made to provide a better user experience.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams
You can work closely with professional designers, developers, product managers and marketers to ensure that your designs are aligned with business goals and user needs.
Present designs and collect feedback
Present your designs to stakeholders and team members to receive feedback and make changes to ensure that your designs are in line with your brand identity, meet the needs of users and your own business objectives.
Acquire technical skills
You may need to familiarize yourself with the software digital designers use to create products. We will cover some of the popular and helpful digital design tools below.
Learn the latest trends
Modern website design evolves all the time and digital designers must be aware of the newest techniques and trends in the tech industry. That's why exploring mobile and web design inspiration is an integral part of designers' daily routines.
Gain practical experience creating digital products
You need to have hands-on skills to create a decent digital design. Choose a particular type of digital design and invest your time and effort in mastering the craft. In our guide on how to become a web designer, we’ve explored the specific steps web designers have to take to gain relevant experience in web design.
Digital design FAQ
What skills does a digital designer need?
Digital designers should have a solid foundation in design principles, such as color theory, typography and composition. They should also be proficient in design software, coding languages and user experience (UX) design. Other valuable skills include problem-solving, creativity and the ability to work collaboratively.