The digital marketing world relies heavily on digital design.
Most of us understand term ‘graphic design’, however are not as familiar with ‘digital design’. In this blog post, we’ll be discussing digital design and its value in marketing. Find out how we at MDE use digital design to go the extra mile for our customers!
What is Digital Design, and why is it important?
Any design that is created for digital mediums is considered digital design. Everything created and shown on apps, websites, games, social media, emails, and other online mediums is considered digital design.
We’re talking illustrations, infographics, banners, webpage optimized images, videogame images, and so much more.
Why is it important?
More and more people are using the internet with every new day. As of October 2020, there are 4.66 billion active internet users in the world. Almost all of them face digital designs with each logging on the internet.
This fact is crucial for the marketing industry, and especially for those working in the digital world. Marketers creating great work for their clients use various digital design solutions in their campaigns and projects.
Research shows that internet users’ attention is getting shorter by the day. In the year 2000, it was 12 seconds. Over the next 15 years, it dropped almost half to become only 8.25 seconds. Marketers must use animation and videos to keep user’s attention.
Digital design vs graphic design – what’s the difference?
Even though digital design is a term coined in the 80s, it is still not as popular as graphic design. The differences between the two are too obvious, but people feel like connecting them into one work position.
The main difference between these two is the output. Graphic designers work on projects that are going to be printed and physically accessible. Digital designers, on the other hand, prepare designs that are mainly visible through the computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Graphic and digital design are different by the way the work is done, too. Both prepare their projects on computers, and both use the same or similar tools and apps. The digital designer has more freedom in their art as the internet is their output. Digital designers Experiment with animations, going 3D, adding sounds, and anything they might feel like it’s going to be interesting for the viewers.
A few valuable digital design stats
Digital designers kicked off more seriously in the 90s with the rise of computers. Today, the two separate industries of graphic and digital design are going down different paths. The stats say that even though graphic designer job vacancies grow at a rate of 3% annually, there will still need 20% fewer workers in the print sector.
At the same time, the digital sector withing graphic design is going to create 24% more categories in the future.
The global market size of graphic design is £33.56 billion. Within this number falls the digital design too. Although graphic and digital are not separately calculated, having in mind the predicted growth of digital design, it’s clear that more of the market share belongs, or will soon belong to the digital designers.
How digital design helps businesses grow?
Stronger social media presence
Studies show that social media users struggle to focus. They scroll through their feeds, not paying too much attention to details. The maximum digital attention they have is around 8 seconds. Text content is the least appreciated post form by them, while videos capture the most attention.
Somewhere in between is the graphic content. Designers that will create pieces of graphic content to capture the attention of users did a great job. This attention is the beginning of the lead funnel, which ultimately results in sales.
Brand recognition
The online presence and brand recognition of companies are extremely important issues today. Brand recognition is equally valuable on and off the internet. Creating a recognizable image out of the brand’s name, logo, and general appearance in the eyes of consumers is brand recognition.
With national lockdown in full swing, over 44 million British citizens are surfing the net daily. It’s understandable why digital marketing should be a top priority.
Creating an attractive online brand image will result in high brand recognition. This is why digital designers pay extra attention to the business logo, the company’s website and all the graphic content pushed through marketing campaigns.
When the consumers recognize some of these designs and instantly tie them to a brand, we’re saying that we have made a great brand recognition. These consumers are much likely to be converted into customers. In short, good brand recognition campaign drives sales.
Creating amazing business websites
What’s a serious business without a website? Two million UK businesses still have no website. Here at MyDigitalEgo, we’re skilled in taking care of this part too.
A major part of digital design is web design. The construction of a single web page is a complex process, and without these guys, we’d only see a bunch of words on an empty background. Not much of a site, you’d agree.
With the help of digital design, we get to see animations, banners, backgrounds, infographics, and much more. An empty page bounces off visitors, while visitor retention is one of the main concerns for businesses. Research shows that customers who like a particular brand are more likely to do business with them.
One of the stats showing digital design value says that 57% of customers who don’t like the website’s mobile version overall design, won’t recommend the business to others. Another stat says that 75% of customers made a judgment on the company’s credibility based on their website’s design.
These issues should be addressed seriously by business owners. Hiring an unskilled designer means losing lots of potential clients, which ultimately means losing a lot of money.
The many roles of digital design
Even though people are addressing graphic design without extracting the digital from it, and despite our intent to explain the amazing role of digital design for the business as a separate part, it’s worth knowing that even digital design has its subcategories.
Here are some of the most interesting and most important ones:
Animation design
The animation designer is a mix of graphic expert and video editor. Animations are widely used across the internet because they capture the users’ attention easily. At the same time, they can transfer a valuable and important message that otherwise wouldn’t be read if it was written in words.
Motion graphics
This one’s a subcategory of animations. If we use the animation term as an umbrella for all digital moving objects, the motion graphics are dedicated to the movement of elements made through graphic design. Motion graphics is more into the art of moving images than delivering a message.
Visual design
With decades of internet use behind us, we’ve started taking icons, colours, fonts, and other website elements for granted. However, all these need to be created by someone. The visual designer is responsible for creating these elements and forming a branded look of the website.
Web design
Apart from the common conception of what design is, there’s the web designer. This is a person who uses several tools to create the outlook of a particular website. These guys understand programming languages and use web design tools to create the final look of the pages we see daily.
Interaction design
This one’s very specific. Whenever you click something, and it takes the system more time to perform the action, you’re getting a notification about it. It’s best if this is supported by an animation that will interact with the user, making sure they don’t leave or become confused about what’s happening.
UI and UX design
Although different by name, these two are very similar to what they do. User Interface and User Experience designs are made to please the senses of users when they visit a certain website.
The UI designer is going to create the graphics to make users enjoy what they see. The UX guys will make sure the UI design is well incorporated within the page. They make sure the users see the final product as valuable for them. For example, the uploaded graphic that looks amazing will do nothing if it covers the “buy” button behind it. If we place this graphic on an eCommerce page, then the entire point of having it is lost.
Lots of digital graphic designers are working in more of these subcategories we mentioned. In the future, however, these are likely to grow separately.
Wrapping Up
The digital marketing industry is huge. Many wheels must move in perfect alliance to make everything work smoothly. Digital design is a big part of this marketing organism.
Every business needs an active online presence. To build a stronger brand you need a skilled and experienced digital designer. This is the person who knows how to catch people’s attention.
Here at MDE, we have professional digital designers here for you. From web designers to illustrators, we’ve got them all. Contact us, and see what we can do for your brand.
