Understanding Digital Design
¿What is considered good or bad?
Gerardo Garzón Alvarez
26627
Digital Media, M.A
SoSe 2019
Keywords: Coding skills, Computer design, Customer,
Digital design, Digital products, Electronics, Freedom,
Inclusive, Innovation, IoE or IoT, Marketing,
Minimalist, Privacy, Rieter's principles, Simple, Social
media, User experience, UX/UI design, Web design.
We are living the digital era but ¿what means that?
nowadays is normal to speak about the latest app mobile
for measuring the steps that we walk per day, or paying
the bills with our fingerprint and the cellphone, even
looking deep inside of what all this represent the changes
goes to new professionals as computer designers, Web
designers, UX/UI designers, or as is known digital
designers a new branch but at the end the substitute of
graphic design, and I say like that because now is more
environmentally friendly not printing but using screens
and display to show all the information around us, of
course, I am not saying that graphic design is going to
disappear but as I lived as an electronic engineer every
day we are forcing to switch into the digital´s knowledge
or like my best friend an excellent graphic designer since
his first job was forced to change into a web designer
(Colombia's Reality).
however do not get me wrong, all are part of the game of
evolution moreover had happened before in Great Britain
with the industrial revolution by the mid-18th century,
now is a "technological revolution" hitting this new
century, and we are chess's pieces in it becoming the
reason to learn about our roll in the digital era, this opens
the topic for this reflection paper addressing the following
questions:
 ¿What is excellent digital design and what are
good digital products?
 ¿What are the possible evaluation criteria for
both?
 ¿Where do you see potentials and challenges for
yourself?
looking for an answer to these questions is important to
understand the meaning of a digital product with some
examples of them like the most selling ones or the most
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useful on the other hand comprehend the concept of
digital design itself, then we review some evaluations
rules for getting a "good design" (depends of who speaks
about it main one the Rieter's principles) plus the criteria
of a good digital products/designs from concepts founds
on the web from different sources mostly design websites.
and finally, some personal aspects where I take a look
inside myself against the previous topics to evaluate
weaknesses and strengths for becoming a better
professional like an engineer and designer.
DIGITAL DESIGN AND DIGITAL PRODUCTS
first of all, to write about digital design is necessary to
know what is it, this term has been new in a couple of
years where classic design improve to computer design,
as graphic design is evolving into “digital design”, or as
universities sell the idea is a branch of graphic design
where the professionals of this area got skills in coding as
an engineer especially in languages as HTML5, CSS3,
and JavaScript plus knowing the basics as a designer as
well like digital illustration, branding, logo design, and
more with the tools of Photoshop, Illustrator, and many
more of the Adobe’s Suite but as well integrate the design
focus in the users or experience design, summarizing and
giving and exact meaning Digital Design is:
“…the process of mapping out the look and feel of the
content that people view and interact with on a computer,
tablet, or phone screen.... Digital design is an umbrella
term that covers several different roles. Yes, each of these
jobs involves design—and specifically designing what
people see on their screen by way of websites or mobile
apps…”(“Tech 101,” 2019)
In other words, digital design contents mainly, the newest
Web, UX and UI designers, with all the solving problem
of this technological era or summarizing every design
shows in a screen.
So yeah now we know and understand a little bit more the
digital design concept, now ¿what are the products that is
generated from this kind of design? And here is the other
half to get the general idea, the digital goods, the funny
part is that we are involved in all these digital products
but ¿what is a digital product? Surfing on the web there is
two concrete meanings that can explain it in simple
words:
 "A Digital Product is a software-enabled
product or service that offers some form of
utility to a human being."(“WTF is ‘Digital
Product’? - FKTRY - Medium,” 2016)
 “A Digital Product has a mutually beneficial
relationship with its customers. The benefits
being drawn are transparent to both
parties.”(Boyett, 2019)
The new generation will understand but this transition
where you got something not physical, and you just have
to trust in the “guy” behind the screen, website or
AppStore, that you just give your money and wait for a
link to download your product can still confused, so
practically what is called a digital products or goods
“include e-books, music files, software, digital images,
Web site templates, manuals in electronic format, and any
item which can be electronically stored in a file or
multiple files.”(Beal, n.d.)
That explains the basis of everybody going crazy looking
for getting more and more likes on their own YouTube
channels, Instagram post or anything that is shareable
like your knowledge, passions, opinions, talents, to the
world because in this digital era all of this are products that
you can sell and there is someone who will want to buy it,
the next list is from the most popular ones:
1. Audio & Music: Music always is a good digital
product, even now people use more recorded
lectures on the internet.
2. Courses: best for people that do not have access
to a university have this distance option, one of
my favorites Coursera.
3. Documents: Even for creating this paper was
necessary to search for some documentation, not
as a book at the library as a PDF!
4. Ebooks: Just need a topic that you want to share
and create your own, could be the most popular
for easy creation and usability.
5. Fonts: Every design needs a new font, one of the
popular is "Dafont" of course not the favorite but
still is an example of selling fonts.
6. Games: Before you should buy a CD for the
PlayStation now you just download the same
game at your smartphone.
7. Graphic & Digital art: The well-known Freepik,
where you can find a lot of graphic material, is
the best example.
8. IoT/IoE: The boom of app mobiles comes with
the internet of things as well, so you control your
home with one touch
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9. Photography: Even for creating a prototype
sometimes is necessary to buy some good photos
to context the users.
10. Professional Services: Freelance like is called to
everybody who gives an online service nowadays.
11. Software: practically everything code, like
website, app mobiles, templates, engineer
programming, the most rentable.
12. Tickets: Concerts, flights, even the bus tickets
have been sold as electronic ones where you use a
QR code to scan in your cellphone.
13. Video: everyone loves videos for the easy way to
get the information, best example YouTube.
The previous list is a review of to digital blogs (“The 12
most popular digital products you can sell online,” 2018)
and (“The Best Digital Products & Goods,” 2018).
EXCELLENT DESIGN AND GOOD PRODUCTS
“There is definitely good design — beautiful, elegant,
and functional. There is also bad design — ugly, complex,
or unusable. And — unfortunately — there is “I wish you
could make it pop,” which is what people say when they
can’t tell the difference….”(NodeSource, 2015)
Basically what defines a good design comes from too
many years ago where you must make it simple, coherent,
useable, friendly with the users, and is the same for digital
design just that everything is a focus on the user
experience and user interface, you need a clean interface
and you must think about the sizes of the screens that your
digital product will be seen, this is known as responsive
design, and helps to organize information in columns,
rows, slides, whatever you like just to get an easy view
and not get bored or tired to the user, because you know is
different to read a blog in your smartphone than your
laptop.
however is better to have a look to main principles in what
is a good design, and in my opinion, with some basic
knowledge of industrial design the famous Dieter Rams
gave us the steps for making a good design in the 70's, and
remains especially for this years of digital design.
The 10 principles are the next listed:
“
 Good design is innovative: The possibilities
for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted.
Technological development is always offering
new opportunities for innovative design. But
innovative design always develops in tandem
with innovative technology and can never be an
end in itself.
 Good design makes a product useful: A product
is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain
criteria, not only functional, but also
psychological and aesthetic. Good design
emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst
disregarding anything that could possibly
detract from it.
  Good design is aesthetic: The aesthetic quality
of a product is integral to its usefulness because
products we use every day affect our person and
our well-being. But only well-executed objects
can be beautiful.
 Good design makes a product
understandable: It clarifies the product’s
structure. Better still, it can make the product
talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
 Good design is unobtrusive: Products fulfilling
a purpose are like tools. They are neither
decorative objects nor works of art. Their design
should therefore be both neutral and restrained,
to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
 Good design is honest: It does not make a
product more innovative, powerful or valuable
than it really is. It does not attempt to
manipulate the consumer with promises that
cannot be kept.
 Good design is long-lasting: It avoids being
fashionable and therefore never appears
antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts
many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
 Good design is thorough down to the last
detail: Nothing must be arbitrary or left to
chance. Care and accuracy in the design process
show respect towards the user.
 Good design is environmental-friendly: Design
makes an important contribution to the
preservation of the environment. It conserves
resources and minimizes physical and visual
pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
 Good design is as little design as possible: Less,
but better – because it concentrates on the
essential aspects, and the products are not
burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity,
back to simplicity.”
each principle has been retrieved from (“Good design |
About us | Vitsœ,” n.d.).
as you see with this principle, excellent digital designs,
are the most simples, that do not need an extra
explanation to understand it, easy to use and user-friendly
even inclusive as possible you can so everybody will use
this product and is reachable to all kind of ages, genders,
etc.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Jhon Maeda in the 2015 report shows how design and
technology is bounded now days to create all the digital
world that we are living in, where in the slide 20 and 21
explain the idea of user interface as the main key for any
design and this is the principal criteria for an evaluation in
every digital product how the user feels and how is going
to interact with the final product, and all this born thanks
to more people increasing the uses of mobile products.
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“the smartphone revolution brought design’s value into
the foreground. We want to do in our palm, while
walking, what we used to do on a big screen while sitting
down at a desk. The interaction design challenges
presented by that shift are huge.”(Designintech2015.pdf,
n.d.)
And in the 2017 report I got two sentences that in my
opinion are important as a criteria for review the new
digital designs and products and says:
“
 Design isn’t just about beauty; it’s about market
relevance and meaningful results.
 Adopting an inclusive design approach expands a
tech product’s total addressable market”
(Maeda, 2017)
next to all these concepts, of course, is necessary to get an
interdisciplinary work with marketing, usability designer,
making test to see how is the positive or negative impact
of the new product, now is more about user experiences
and user interfaces than anything else.
Using the spectrum given by Paul Devay he explain the
steps to focus in the criteria for evaluting:
“Strategy & Research
Business Strategy and Design Research have
significant overlap, making it a difficult role to define
alongside functional product, sales and marketing
teams.
Product Definition
Defining a product means turning insights from design
and business research into requirements for the
product.
Iteration
Once initial direction for a product has been
established, the feature-set and flows are turned into
preliminary mockups (wireframes). These are then
iterated upon until a defined set of criteria are met,
whether that’s internal testing, user testing, or a
customer feedback loop.
Execution
With the framework of the application established and
the requirements set, final visual design and the
development of a design language further cement
usability and establish the emotional characteristics of
the product.”
Find it on (NodeSource, 2015)
WEAKNESSES AND STRENGTHS
As an Electronic Engineer, I could say that I am on the
right side of the history at this moment, thanks to my
profession I can learn and know about latest technologies
like AR and VR, 3D printers, and my background helps
me to learn new programing codes so I can improve my
coding skills, and my career is really helpfull to change
between new occupations with hardware as software, as a
plus I did a specialization as industrial designer so I got
the basic talents for working with 3D modeling,
illustrator, Photoshop, even know a bit of web design
coding with HTML5, CSS3 and my appetite for
knowledge never ends, I could say that I got all the
package for the new era as a "Digital Engineer/Designer"
the funny part I want to be a teacher and bring that
information to the world in a different so that is one of my
biggest challenges learn the way to teach basing
everything to the new minds of the next generations and
use the digital products as a tool for education in the
correct way the eficient and useful way, but on the other
hand I got other big challenges in this era this moment of
the techonolgy revolution like before there will be a
moment where a lot of people will be changed for robots
like the telephone operators before were changed for
automatic machines, privacy will become a word from the
past when politics find the way to take thata away from
even now you dont have privacy as its expalin in the
comic terms of service by Keller , the big deal is that as
an engineer I love progress but I know that every second
that is running we are going to a closed way were you will
not design a new coolest app for the smartphone, no you
will have to think in a new tool to make people more
human again even now you can see how comunnication is
only on social media chats becasue is easy to be friendly
as an avatar than face to face, so the big challenge will be
to know that progress brings sacrifices and is something
that is my resposability to solve as an engineer and
designer.
REFLECTION AND CONCLUTION
Classical designers begin to evolve into digital designers,
now we talk about AR and VR realities, 3D printing,
Facial and voice recognition, designers must learn about
code as engineers an in the other way engineers are
learning to design by themselves, these will create a big
competition between professionals in the next generations
because the companies want the multitask boy and not
pay for two different roles.
The future generation must learn about the digital system
at early ages than we did, digital carriers are the future
making a lack in engineers as electronics, mechanical,
civil, minig, etc. Because the young generation is merged
in this digital era an is the fascinating and cool kinds of
stuff to do, even now we can notice that young people
prefer to be famous in Instagram or a Youtube channel
than working as a computer scientist.
Endnotes
1) Beal, V. (n.d.). What is Digital Goods? Webopedia Definition.
Retrieved July 31, 2019, from
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/digital_goods.html
2) Boyett, R. (2019, June 13). What is Digital Product in 2019?
Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Medium website:
https://medium.com/ideas-by-idean/what-is-digital-product-in-
2019-62240175bd33
4
3) Designintech2015.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://designintech.report/wp-
content/uploads/2018/11/designintech2015.pdf
4) Good design | About us | Vitsœ. (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2019,
from https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design?
source=post_page---------------------------
5) Maeda, J. (2017). Design In Tech Report 2017. In Tech, 47.
6) NodeSource. (2015, June 2). What is Digital Product Design?
Retrieved July 30, 2019, from Medium website:
https://medium.com/@nodesource/what-is-digital-product-design-
93caad4e4035
7) Tech 101: What is Digital Design? (2019, July 24). Retrieved July
30, 2019, from Skillcrush website:
https://skillcrush.com/2019/07/24/what-is-digital-design/
8) The 12 most popular digital products you can sell online. (2018,
January 16). Retrieved July 29, 2019, from Easy Digital
Downloads website: https://easydigitaldownloads.com/blog/the-
12-most-popular-digital-products-you-can-sell-online/
9) The Best Digital Products & Goods: Ideas for Profitable Online
Sales. (2018, December 5). Retrieved July 30, 2019, from
FastSpring website: https://fastspring.com/blog/popular-digital-
products-sell-online/
10) WTF is ‘Digital Product’? - FKTRY - Medium. (2016, July 5).
Retrieved July 30, 2019, from https://medium.com/fktry/wtf-is-
digital-product-3ae51ae2664f
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