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Digital designer vs interactive designer

The differences between digital designers and interactive designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a digital designer and an interactive designer. Additionally, an interactive designer has an average salary of $97,929, which is higher than the $72,987 average annual salary of a digital designer.

The top three skills for a digital designer include sketch, digital marketing and graphic design. The most important skills for an interactive designer are sketch, user experience, and UI.

Digital designer vs interactive designer overview

Digital DesignerInteractive Designer
Yearly salary$72,987$97,929
Hourly rate$35.09$47.08
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs61,10948,136
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a digital designer do?

A digital designer is an individual who is responsible for creating digital assets for multimedia and graphic projects that can include mobile applications, video games, and interactive displays. Digital designers must collaborate with project managers, design teams, and content experts to interpret the team's concepts into a design that will deliver an effective user experience. They must be experts in using computer software and applications to create digital designs and convert data to a graphical interface such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Digital designers must also have a bachelor's degree in graphic design or fine arts.

What does an interactive designer do?

An Interactive Designer takes the business product and transforms it into a product that the user interacts with perfectly. They support engineering efforts to develop designs and get the details right.

Digital designer vs interactive designer salary

Digital designers and interactive designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Digital DesignerInteractive Designer
Average salary$72,987$97,929
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $114,000Between $67,000 And $141,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyLyftMeta
Best paying industryAutomotiveTechnology

Differences between digital designer and interactive designer education

There are a few differences between a digital designer and an interactive designer in terms of educational background:

Digital DesignerInteractive Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Digital designer vs interactive designer demographics

Here are the differences between digital designers' and interactive designers' demographics:

Digital DesignerInteractive Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 60.0% Female, 40.0%Male, 66.8% Female, 33.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage13%13%

Differences between digital designer and interactive designer duties and responsibilities

Digital designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage various clients and projects as a sole proprietor, specializing in creative design, animation, and illustration.
  • Use ASP.NET and XML to automate common workflow tasks due to extremely high volume of designs to be create.
  • Manage website redesign including copywriting and updating all website content.
  • Work in SharePoint, Dreamweaver, HTML5, CSS, wireframes, storyboards, and WordPress.
  • Create weekly HTML email campaigns to generate a marketing presence and drive traffic to their social media and web sites.
  • Make clickable prototypes using InVision.
  • Show more

Interactive designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage website properties including design, content and marketing using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
  • Create, implement, and manage web content projects (HTML emails, web sites, digitizing audio/video).
  • Use ASP.NET and XML to automate common workflow tasks due to extremely high volume of designs to be create.
  • Develop a custom object-orient prototyping model in the design of a highly dynamic user interface.
  • Work primarily with JQuery to design/develop full screen overlays and dynamic forms.
  • Develop clean, table-less web sites using valid XHTML and CSS according to standards.
  • Show more

Digital designer vs interactive designer skills

Common digital designer skills
  • Sketch, 12%
  • Digital Marketing, 7%
  • Graphic Design, 7%
  • Digital Design, 6%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 5%
  • UI, 4%
Common interactive designer skills
  • Sketch, 13%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • UI, 6%
  • Interaction Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Visual Design, 4%

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