Digital Designer Job Titles

Digital designer roles come in as the new diversity-and-inclusion Barbies, with a job title to match every type of designer out there. In practice, this means that if you love a specific aspect of digital design more than all else, you can choose to specialize in that area. For example, you may love web design but prefer to leave the graphic design to someone else. You can get highly specific with your specialty by focusing on designing motion graphics for marketing, rather than for all purposes. In addition to determining what types of projects you take on at work, your digital design job title will decide your salary and influence which industries you work in. 

What is a Digital Designer?

The simplest way to describe a Digital Designer is as a visual media creator who emphasizes interactivity. These designers are distinguished from other classes of designers by their focus on how people experience their designs. Rather than focusing solely on what their designs communicate visually, Digital Designers spend considerable time perfecting components like information architecture and accessibility. To improve user-friendliness even more, digital design projects often include prototyping and preparatory phases that include demographic research. 

Digital Designers are best known for their digitally generated graphics, animations, and visual effects, but many Digital Designers also create full-scale websites and apps. If one type of project piques their interest more than others, a Digital Designer can specialize in a unique aspect of digital design. Some Digital Designers highlight primarily digital projects, while others work exclusively on preparing interactive print designs for marketing. 

Because digital design is an umbrella term that includes many different design niches, most digital design professionals collaborate with a team. Their team may include fellow Designers, Project Managers, Product Designers, and IT professionals. 

Digital Designer Skills

Like other schools of design, digital design is built on classic design principles that Digital Designers need to know how to implement. Among the many design theory concepts that Digital Designers rely on are composition, color, and typography. While it’s possible to create a digital design without knowledge of applied design theory, utilizing design principles effectively enables professional Digital Designers to create designs that are both interactive and user-friendly. 

To live up to the “digital” half of their name, Digital Designers need to know how to use a variety of technological tools. In addition to popular graphic design tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, they may also deploy video production software such as After Effects. Moreover, Digital Designers use specialized software like Sketch and Figma to create and test prototypes.

Other technical skills commonly used in digital design include: 

• Graphic Design
• Web Design
• UX/UI Design
• Coding
• Project Management
• Digital Marketing
• Motion Graphics Design
• Product Design

Communication is among the most vital skills a Digital Designer can develop, but this doesn’t just mean conveying ideas clearly and respectfully when working with clients and team members. For a Digital Designer, effective communication skills are also about being able to anticipate how people will respond to design features with relative accuracy. To create more user-friendly designs, Digital Designers must become adept at accepting and implementing feedback with humility. 

Additional soft skills needed for effective digital design include:

• Applied Design Theory
• Time Management
• Problem-Solving
• Creativity

Digital Designer Career Path

Digital Designers spend their days creating interactive designs that can include graphics, animations, and visual effects as well as full-scale design projects like websites. This path offers unlimited career personalization thanks to the numerous specializations within it and can also be incredibly flexible. While some Digital Designers work for traditional design studios or as in-house designers for companies, others choose to freelance remotely. In contrast to the regularity of a nine-to-five studio job, Freelance Digital Designers enjoy setting their own schedules, choosing their salaries, and working in their pajamas (if they so desire).

For creatives who don’t want to sacrifice financial stability, choosing a digital design career is a smart choice, as digital design services are growing in demand every year. Consequently, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that digital design will see a 16% increase in job openings from 2022 to 2032, a far cry from graphic design’s mere increase of three percent. The industry also yields a higher paycheck, with Digital Designer salaries averaging $75,000 to $154,000 annually while Graphic Designers earn just $49,000 to $82,000.

Because digital design is skilled labor, it takes more than just education to succeed in this career path. A creative portfolio that demonstrates your skills can do far more for you than almost anything in your digital design job application. Similarly, a track record of professional experience in the digital design industry will qualify you for better jobs. You can learn both technical and soft skills needed for digital design careers by attending a digital design bootcamp or certificate course. Although many digital design jobs require a college degree, it’s possible to start your digital design career without attending college as long as you can show hiring managers that you’re qualified through your experience and portfolio.

UX/UI Designers and Product Designers

User experience (UX) design, user interface (UI) design, and product design all emphasize the creation of products that people interact with. However, each of these jobs highlights different aspects of product design. While Product Designers create both physical and digital products, UX and UI designers tend to focus their efforts on digital interfaces such as websites, apps, software, and even game components. 

Like many other digital design careers, product-oriented design roles can provide a comfortable living in a variety of different industries. An average-paying UX/UI design job can earn you a salary of $89,000 to $139,000 per year in the United States, and product design salaries run between $93,000 and $160,000. The most popular industries for UX/UI and Product Designers include:

• IT fields such as software publishing and web development
• Finance and insurance
• Retail
• Marketing
• Consulting
• Education
• Government and military
• Healthcare
• Media, printing, and publishing
• Telecommunications

When it comes to creating a digital product, UX Designers are the first on the scene and the last to leave. These experience-focused designers plan out the overall design before it’s created and hang around to fix problems when it goes live. Like Interior Designers, UI Designers step into the UX Designer’s creation to beautify and add interactive elements (like clickable buttons) to the design. Both designers work together with the shared goal of creating a platform that will fulfill a meaningful need for users, provide a positive experience, and remain functional throughout. 

While there are many skills needed to secure one of these job titles, the top skills used in UX/UI and product design include:

• User research
• Prototyping with software such as Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD
• Information Architecture
• Applied design theory
• Soft skills such as communication and creative problem-solving

In some cases, UX and UI design tasks will be completed by a single UX/UI Designer with both qualifications. For instance, because they design a wider range of products, Product Designers typically have an expansive knowledge of both UX and UI design. 

Web and App Designers

In contrast to product-oriented digital designers, highly niche Web Designers typically only create one or two types of digital interfaces. In fact, while some web designers create both websites and apps, others may narrow their focus to just one. Though web design has some overlap with web development, it’s important to note that these two fields are distinct professions. Both emphasize web and app creation but with different tools and priorities. Web development tends to focus primarily on using code to build the platform’s functional structure while web design emphasizes the aesthetics and mood that give users a good experience. 

To create their designs, Web Designers combine their knowledge of design theory, graphic design, and UX design with niche technical skills. In addition to making use of content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, a Web Designer may look to software like Git or even add coding languages (the most popular being HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). Though some web designers focus primarily on the visual components of design, introducing digital marketing skills like SEO can ensure that the finished product isn’t immediately buried by search engine algorithms. 

Because websites and apps are versatile products, Web Designers work in many different industries, earning a respectable income. In America, salaries for Web Designers run between $41,000 and $73,000 annually. Meanwhile, you’ll see Web Designers working in industries like: 

• Marketing
• Business
• Computer systems design
• Software publishing
• Retail
• Finance and insurance

Social Media Designers

Social media design includes a mix of skills catered toward generating compelling social media campaigns and helping people develop an authoritative online presence. In addition to creating graphic designs for social media posts, Social Media Designers may design entire social media pages and applications using a harmonious color palette and aesthetic. Because social media design is a subcategory of digital design, Social Media Designers also pay careful attention to accessibility and online performance. 

Skills needed to become a Social Media Designer include:

• Design specialty skills like graphic design and design theory
• Social media analytics
• Coding
• Digital marketing
• Communication and other soft skills

Although social media campaigns are most commonly associated with platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, Social Media Designers also work on a variety of other social platforms. These may include popular sites like YouTube, Pinterest, Dribble, and Tumblr. 

Because social media is so widely influential in today’s world, Social Media Designers are well-paid (earning $68,000 to $90,000 every year). For the same reason, Social Media Designers also work in numerous industries, with the most common being:

• Marketing
• Entertainment
• Fashion
• Retail
• Real Estate
• Food
• Tourism

Motion Graphics Designers and Animators

Motion Graphics Designers and Animators produce dynamic graphics that move, and while both roles have distinct characteristics that set them apart, they tend to work in the same industries. Today, the most common industries hiring motion graphics and animation professionals include: 

• Film and TV
• Marketing
• Web design
• Video games

These professions aren’t always connected to digital design, but they overlap whenever a project involves interactivity. For instance, Motion Graphics Designers and Animators may need to consider accessibility when creating animations for video games, apps, and websites. On these projects, they’ll likely work side by side with a variety of other design professionals, including Digital Designers. 

Nicknamed “MoGraph professionals” for short, Motion Graphics Designers use specialized software to combine visual effects, sounds, and graphics into simple animations. The finished product can then be added to video content, websites, video games, and more. In general, Motion Graphics Designers can expect a salary averaging between $49,000 and $82,000. 

To create animations, Motion Graphics Designers use skills like:

• Design software such as Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Animate, and Cinema 4D
• Storyboarding
• Storytelling, writing and editing
• Design theory
• Soft skills including communication and time management

While Motion Graphics Designers focus on producing stunning visual effects, Animators use many of the same skills to generate advanced animations of characters and environments for narrative projects. Because Animators are often asked to create highly complex animations (such as CGI for films), they’re paid more than Motion Graphics Designers. On average, Animators earn $74,000 to $83,000 each year. 

Game Designers

Game Design may only fit into one industry (gaming, if you didn’t already guess), but in that industry, they’re well paid. In an average year, Game Designers earn a salary of $96,000 to $131,000, with the potential for higher earnings given the right qualifications. 

Because game development companies come in many different shapes and sizes, game design jobs can look very different from one job to the next. While some studios have the resources to fund more workers, smaller studios may require Game Designers to take charge of more responsibilities. These responsibilities may include: 

• Building game levels and environments
• Design gameplay systems (like addictive game loops) and mechanics (character movement)
• Writing narratives, character back-stories, and dialogue
• Create interactive user menus
• Test and improve games to make them more playable

Like many design jobs, game design is a team effort built on the shoulders of many types of designers. As a result, Game Designers may share a project with UX/UI Designers, Multimedia Artists, Motion Graphics Designers, and even Web Designers. Additionally, Game Designers need to be comfortable working with IT professionals such as Game Developers. To fit into this ecosystem while also fulfilling their job responsibilities, Game Designers rely on many skills, including: 

• Game-oriented UX/UI design
• Drawing
• Three-dimensional modeling
• Coding
• Game level/environment design skills
• Team communication
• Storytelling and writing
• Game engine software

Why Become a Digital Designer?

There are plenty of careers out there that can make you rich fast, and while digital design does pay a comfortable salary, it has something even more valuable to offer: joy. Digital Designers rank above most other careers when it comes to job satisfaction, and this isn’t surprising when you consider what mental health research has to say about design. Regardless of how talented you are, engaging in creative activities is beneficial for illnesses like depression and anxiety. Rather than chaining yourself to a life of dull office work, choosing a job that allows you to give expression to your artistic side can keep you in good spirits for the duration of your career.

Digital design careers are incredibly customizable. Within the field, there are many potential specializations and work formats. Rather than molding yourself to fit your career, you’ll have the opportunity to mold your career path to fit you. 

Compared to other artistic fields, digital design is both high-paying and growing rapidly. To put this into perspective, American Digital Designers earn an average income of $75,000 to $154,000 per year, while Graphic Designers earn only $49,000 to $82,000. As graphic design jobs see a yearly increase of roughly three percent between 2022 and 2032, digital design positions will grow by 16%.

Learn the Skills to Become a Digital Designer at Noble Desktop

Want to learn design in a supportive environment? Noble Desktop offers highly-rated design classes covering a range of digital design topics for students at all levels. In addition to shorter classes, you’ll find a variety of career certificates that provide comprehensive training, complete with one-on-one mentorship and professional experience opportunities. Start your journey now by signing up for training live online or participating in face-to-face classes at the school’s NYC campus. 

With the hands-on training you’ll get in the Digital Design Certificate, preparing for a digital design career isn’t hard. Even if you start with no experience, you can learn the UI design and graphic design skills you need to launch your career in a matter of weeks. Instead of sitting through dull lectures, this program will teach you practical skills through activities and projects. In addition to mastering tools like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Figma, you’ll gain the expertise necessary to apply design principles for truly stunning results. 

Learn the skills to make websites and apps that are truly user-friendly in UX & UI Design Certificate. Working with a team, you’ll create your own interactive digital interfaces from start to finish, resulting in work you can proudly display in your portfolio. Rather than focusing only on aesthetics, you’ll learn how to research your target users and prototype to improve accessibility. This course also includes a job preparation segment designed to help you workshop your resume and create the perfect portfolio website. 

If websites are your jam, you can make it into a career by joining Noble Desktop’s Web Design Certificate program. Work toward an impressive portfolio with hands-on assignments that will help you learn a combination of design, coding, and software skills. Quicker than you know, you’ll acquire a versatile skill set that includes UI design theory, Figma, WordPress, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Before you’re through, you’ll also have the chance to build a high-quality portfolio website with help from your expert mentor.